Does Ikea's ineptitude know no bounds?

mustafachapati

MAJOR RANT ALERT :mad:

Are you looking for a new kitchen? Just a quick questionaire for you:

Do you have the patience of a saint?

Do you like being made to jump through hoops to get what you need?
Do you not give a damn about decent customer service?
Don't you not mind being lied to?
Do you enjoy having your sanity tested to the max?

If you answered yes to these questions, I thoroughly recommend Ikea.

Seriously, ever since taking delivery of our Ikea kitchen 2 weeks ago, their incompetence has taken our breath away.

There were a couple of vital panels missing and nobody could tell us where they were and when we would get them. We were repeatedly told that someone would call us back to help us but no one ever did (we gave them about 5 opportunities).

Eventually, I had to have an afternoon off work and go to the Warrington branch in person to collect the items (which were showing in stock), because the kitchen fitters desperately needed them. They told me that not only were they NOT in stock, but they wouldn't be getting any more! They spent 2 hours on the phone trying to locate some, and it transpired that the only way I could get them was to drive to the Leeds branch and collect myself. Don't worry, they said, everything had been smoothed out, just show them the reference number. Oh, and I ordered and paid for a tap whilst there but it wasn't in stock (what kind of retailer takes your money off you and THEN tells you it doesn't have the item in stock? More on this later.

I arrived in Leeds (a 100 mile round trip) on Friday night only to be told they knew nothing about the suituation and the ref no. wasn't on their system. Eventually after another 2 hours I finally had the panels. To my horror, when I got back, I found they were the wrong ones. The original order had been inputted incorrectly and they had the correct ones at Warrington after all. Off I went on saturday to pick them up. They gave me the wrong ones again (wrong colour this time), fortunately this time I opened the boxes before leaving the depot and was able to swap them for the correct ones, but yet ANOTHER 2 hours wasted. If we cared about our carbon footprint it would at this point be about the size of Scandinavia, and that's before I've factored in the methane cloud that's come from the crap they've told me.

We are still waiting for the tap which should have been sent on monday. We have made 3 calls today and yet again NOBODY has called back as promised. Every time we call them we have to explain the situation again from scratch because there's no record of the previous queries. At one point we were even told the tap had been sent on Feb 20, which is amazing since we ordered it on the 24th!

If our queries had been dealt with in an efficient and professional manner and the items sent quickly I certainly wouldn't be complaining about 3 missing items from what was a large order. But I get the distinct impression that they are prepared to tell us anything just to get us off the phone. We have been lied to, led on wild goose chases, and fobbed off to the point that we are at the end of our tethers.

Please, for the sake of your sanity and if you like good customer service, AVOID IKEA KITCHENS. Even they have admitted to me that their systems are antiquated and there is poor liason and communication between branches and different stores. Enough said.

Jon, ex Ikea fan.

welda

I bought an ikea kitchen 3 year ago, no problems at all, I did fit myself though!!

I feel your frustration, hope you get it all sorted real soon!

cddc

Ikea are good value if you get everything correctly, but god forbid if anything goes wrong. This will normally mean a visit to the incorrectly named "customer services". Whole days can disappear in there......

Now check anything I buy before checkouts. Will do anything to avoid having to come back and sort it out.

markdavey

Things go wrong, parts don't turn up. Unfortunately that seems to be life nowadays.

I had an Ikea Kitchen installed last year and, yes, there were a few bits missing but what I found really EASY is that when my fitter suggested a change to the plan as he was installing, all I needed to do was take the bits back that I didn't want and exchange them for the bits I needed. Admittedly, I am only 10 miles from Ikea Milton Keynes but try doing that with some of the other well known kitchen companies.

Given their kitchen prices, I would definitely use again...

mustafachapati

Just to update this, Ikea didn't call back yet again, so I called them and was told I would be sent the tap and would receive it on wednesday next week - too late. So went to Warrington again today to pick one up. I finally got my tap, but lo and behold, as I was looking at the holy grail Ringskar tap in its box I was told that most likely it wouldn't fit on a non ikea sink (I've bought a Franke one)! Wouldn't you think that they'd tell you that at the ordering stage? After all is was on the original order and an Ikea sink wasn't. So if this damn thing doesn't fit after many hours on the phone to Ikea trying to get it plus two 50 mile round trips there is going to be a bloodbath! The products are good and are hard to beat for the price but the customer service is mindboggingly poor and fails on all levels. It makes you want to strangle anybody in blue & yellow.

BlueC

We bought our kitchen from ikea - all the units, not the worktops as they're crap - and it was spot on. Delivered on time and cost peanuts compared to buying it elsewhere. Fitted it myself and very happy here.

Sounds like you were unlucky, but things do go wrong occassionaly. We had to exchange/refund a few things that we'd got wrong or they'd sent the wrong items and they dealt with it without any problems at all.

Avoriaz

mustafachapati wrote: »

J.. The products are good and are hard to beat for the price but the customer service is mindboggingly poor and fails on all levels. It makes you want to strangle anybody in blue & yellow.

Perhaps the low prices mean that the profit margins are not enough to finance decent customer service.

Work out what you have saved by buying from IKEA compared to similar quality elsewhere and then decide whether the saving justifies the aggro, wasted time and petrol money etc.

It probably doesn't.

1jim

When we bought an idea sofa some yrs ago it only came with 3legs! Customer services were useless, it took a letter to the chief exec to get it sorted...... And really quickly, literally the day the letter was received we got a phone call, the next day someone was out fitting a new leg, my reccomendation these days is to give customer care one go then straight to the top, life's to short to waste it with jokers like these, oh I should say that I got a couple of hundred quid as a sorry from ikea too

VfM4meplse

Ikea have never made a secret of the fact that they keep prices competitive by minimising the number of staff. That can only ever lead to problems if you value good customer service.

I personally don't like the style of the kitchens, and wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

ETA: OP - I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with your username??!

mustafachapati

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Ikea have never made a secret of the fact that they keep prices competitive by minimising the number of staff. That can only ever lead to problems if you value good customer service.

I personally don't like the style of the kitchens, and wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

ETA: OP - I'm not sure what point you're trying to make with your username??!

What makes you think I'm trying to make a point? I just like the sound of it.

ic

I too fitted a kitchen delivered from Ikea, and had no "problems". The oven was delayed and came a fortnight after the rest of the kitchen, but I was kept up to date on the status of that, and I had ordered my kitchen off the back of their 21st birthday 21% off everything celebration, so it was no surprise some stuff was sold out. One panel was delivered damaged, but was replaced quickly. I guess with the scale of Ikea, there will those that fall through the cracks and then suffer the consequences. Put everything in writing to their head office, highlight everything that has gone wrong. With any luck they'll see their mistakes, and the cost of all this on you and hopefully compensate you somehow - perhaps refund part of the order. If you don't tell them, they can't know to fix it for the next person.