Venting....about IKEA

SuLi

O.G.
Nov 1, 2005
8,566
41
Warning....really long rant.

I just have to vent over really poor customer service that I received recently from Ikea. I was "tasked" with ordering ten guest chairs from Ikea for work. These particular chairs cost about $129 a piece, and unfortunately, were not available online. So, under the assumption that Ikea is so "well-known" (and don't they have a catalog from which you can place phone orders?) and by extension, should have a relatively good customer service system in place, I thought it would have been an easy order. But I was very wrong.

I called the 800 number on the website, and got bounced around so much that I hung up. Then, I decided to call one of the three local stores in the DC area. I finally got someone, explained the situation, only to be told that I could not place a phone order for delivery and had to do it in store. At that point, I had wasted about 45 minutes of my time, so my patience was starting to wear a little thin. I asked her, short of me wasting time in traffic (DC traffic is impossible) and going from one store to another, if she could check the inventory of the three stores to make sure that one had at least ten chairs. She replied that it was no problem at all to check.

Another few minutes passed...she finally came back on and told me that only one store in my area had the chairs - College Park, MD - and that they had thirteen. Great, I thought...I'll go place the order during the weekend. Before I could complete that thought, she told me that I could only order five from that store since they need to keep eight as an overhead. So, although they have the chairs, they can't sell them to me. She then said that she could check another store for me outside the three in my area (2 in MD, 1 in VA).

At that point, I lost it. I reconfirmed with her that in order to get those specific chairs, I would have to go to the store to place the order, to which she replied yes. So, based on that, I guess she expected me to drive (if there is even a store that is driveable beyond the three) to another store to place an in-store order. Does that not make sense to anyone??? I got really snarky with her at the end of the conversation....I just couldn't help myself. I deal with vendors everyday, and it generally takes A LOT to rile me up. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. I wasn't trying to order a singular $10 chair...I was trying to place an order that was close to $1500 when all was said and done - a significant expenditure for my non-profit organization.

Has anyone else had a frustrating time with Ikea?
 
Wow. What a pain in the butt! I'm sorry to hear about your troubles! We have an Ikea here in the Twin Cities and besides the place being very packed all of the time, I've never had any problems with them. Wait, I take that back. I only had one problem with them when they had something on display and no one could figure out why it was there, if they had any or not, and then what to do with my want for one. Ugh.
 
Noriko said:
That sucks! Is IKEA the place that doesn't assemble? We dont have one here.

That's the place! They do have some rather interesting things... but I must say I don't shop there often. I'd rather just have someone deliver me a desk, assembling takes too much time out of my day ;)
 
Stupid Ikea. I would like to know what they are going to do with these 8 chairs they need to keep as overhead. What difference does it make if they sell them to you or someone else? I just doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Are those chairs just meant to sit around and collect dust as they need to keep them as "overhead" and never be sold to anybody? It must be nice to make so much money that a $1500 sale doesn't mean enough to you to actually go out of the way to help a customer.
 
CoachKatie said:
That's the place! They do have some rather interesting things... but I must say I don't shop there often. I'd rather just have someone deliver me a desk, assembling takes too much time out of my day ;)

wow that sucks! I would hate to have to assemble furniture, seems hard. Or maybe I'm just lazy and dont want to take the time to learn :lol:
 
I totally understand. A couple of years ago, we made a day trip to our nearest IKEA (3 hours away). We wanted a couple of chairs, but they were up high on the shelves and it would have taken someone in a forklift to get them down for us. We were told we would have to wait until the store closed (I'm thinking at 10:00 that evening) before someone could get them down for us. The thoughts of waiting there until 10:00, and then having to drive 3 hours to get home, was ridiculous. We finally *****ed so much, they got them down for us. They've got some cute stuff, and it's very reasonably priced, but their service isn't the best.
 
i bought a poang chair from ikea last year...the wood was cracked (2nd piece of furniture that i bought from ikea that had cracked wood) so i went back to return it. they asked me to wait while they went to go get the chair from their warehouse. i waited for almost an hour for them to get the stupid chair. almost an hour! it would have been faster if i went there and got it myself because i knew where it was already.