I've used West Elm's design services and purchased in-store. I've had good experiences. The employees always check in with me and offer to help me with products. They've been very generous with my purchases, staying true to their word (e.g. receiving design services for a couch, arranging to go in a few days later only to find it wasn't on sale anymore, but they still honored the discount). While I think the overall knowledge of employees and designers will increase with time and company training (it's a typical growing pain of new stores), I'm impressed with their ability to help me out with small things: I once asked where their display fig tree was from and they gave a glowing recommendation to Plant World.