Ikea Kitchens

Customer service from Ikea has been sporadic to say the least.

My sister had major problems with delivery one bed settee. It seemed that no one was prepared or able to take her complaint on board and deal with it. AFAIK her delivery was delayed by months.

We bought some Varde units and will soon be buying some more for our new kitchen. Our nearest store is Bristol, which is 2.5 hours away. Their stock availability of the ones we wanted during the sale was hit and miss but they refused to hold them for us, or even take payment over the phone and have us pick them up when they were in. Their stance was that we would have to go up and hope they had them in stock on the day.

I eventually got to speak to a CS member who understood our situation and got a supervisor in the store to hold some for 24 hours for us. When we arrived we actually found the units with our name on! There was no one around so we loaded them on the trolly then spotted a likely looking Ikea gent. Out of courtesy we introduced ourselves and told him what we came for and thanked the store for holding them for us. He then located his boss who was the helpful supervisor, so we thanked him in person. IMO it was good for him to know that we had come to collect them and that his efforts weren't wasted but very much appreciated!

I say, if you've a long way to go, make sure you can get or order and pay for all the units you need. If they don't have them all in stock then at least make sure you're not in for a number of trips. This at least commits them to supplying them to you at minimum inconvenience, even if they don't have them all in stock.

If an issue does arise, be prepared for a fight to get it resolved. From my sister's experience they seem unable to deal with complaints efficiently. But that's not to say that you will have cause to complain in the first place.

As for the fitting, we have never had a kitchen fitted by a supplier. However this service will almost certainly be subcontracted to a third party. Hence the service they provide will depend on who they get to do it. Many of these fitters are self employed sole traders or Ltd cos. These guys can make or break the whole experience.

Hence you may consider finding a tradesman you know and can trust to do a good job. You'll almost certainly save money. Different sized units should not cause a problem with fitting them provided they are all compatible with one another. The instructions with the Ikea stuff do seem very clear. As someone who could do this for you I would still have a good read of the instructions, especially as I know they are different to normal units.

My husband has assembled and fitted about 70 Ikea kitchen units, mainly stuff for our Guide Hall, but also some at home (although not for a kitchen in our case). Once you have done a couple you will find it very easy. The assembly is simple and the units sturdy and good value. The only problem could be with any pipes that run along walls as the units go right back to the wall. We used the plinth space to run pipes in and then brought them straight up through the base of the unit.
Are you also buying their worktops? This is probably best as the units are a little deeper than some and a standard 600mm deep worktop is too shallow. The Ikea ones are a little deeper.
For our Guide Hall we bought their sinks to keep the cost down, but if buying for myself I would get a Franke sink. The Ikea taps are fine. We opted for Bosch appliances as I think they are better but reasonably priced.
The units we bought were all available in-store. Most were in stock, but we did have to make a couple of trips to get everything. Units can be installed without doors if all the doors are not in stock. Our store is only 5 miles away, so extra trips were not a problem.
If you do get someone to fit it you need to wait till you have all the bits. We didn't have any problems and found the store staff (Glasgow) helpful.

We bought kitchen units from Ikea about 12 months ago (only just finished fitting them but that is another story!)

We had quite a few problems with the delivery company not showing up when they said they would.

The units are fairly sturdy, although be careful with the standard legs if you go for the plinth base - the legs we were given were plastic and just slotted into a block on the base, they would drop out when you tried to lift it into place and could break if you tried to pivot the base up onto them - definitely pick the base units up and carry into the final position.

A final word of warning, the backs of the floor standing units are flush to the wall on the model we had - no room to hide pipework, cables etc. A chippy friend of mine refuses to fit them because of this! I ended up putting a batton behind them to space them from the wall where I had some water supply pipes running and fixed the units to the batton rather than direct to the wall. This put them even further out from the wall meaning you'd definitely need a custom width worktop!

good luck

Good evening: We have installed Ikea units in all of our renovation projects (and in fact have been working on one until 5:30) and particularly like the quality of the drawers. Their oak worktops are also excellent value for money but I wouldn't advise the use of their appliances as cheaper and better quality items are available elsewhere . We always pick up our order as the cost to deliver down here is over the top. Ikea is expanding their online service...looking forward to that as will cut down on the time spent in the store!
My OH, Corgi Guy, doesn't recommend their sinks or taps...prefers to purchase these at a plumbers' merchant...he also doesn't have any issues with siting gas and water supplies.

As said by others....you would be better off using a local, independent tradesperson recommended to you by someone you trust.

Good luck and enjoy your new kitchen.

Canucklehead

another ikea kitchen fan here. did mine 2 yrs ago, 15` x 10` kitchen with units along 2 of the walls, all very straight forward. One thing I really like is the 80cm wide 3-drawer units.

Great stuff, great prices.