IKEA - compensation?!?

KKmatters

Hi

I wondered if someone had past experience of IKEA and their compensation offers and if so could advise - what to expect or ask?

We ordered and paid for a complete kitchen on 6/9/14 - delivery arranged for 24/9 - kitchen installers started work on 22nd to prepare floor etc pre-fit.

However, on 19th September we received a call stating 2 doors were out of stock and would be delivered on 9th October this was despite two assurances pre ordering that we would get a compete delivery on 24th Sept and our fitters had been scheduled factoring in this date.

On 24th delivery arrived - the delivery drivers advised plinths were missing and they could be in the warehouse but it would take a day to realise!!!! We were advised to call if we hadn't heard anythign within 48 hours which we did... IKEA had no awareness of the missing items but advised they were in stock and we could collect that day, which we did. Also a door on the delivery was damaged door and a replacement was arranged and received on 10th October.

However the original 'out of stock' doors are turning into your worst nightmare they arrived on 9th October, both were damaged - replacement ones ordered but couldn't be delivered until 24th - it was requested by the customer services team that this was sent via courier due to previous problems but in fact arrived via parcelforce and one door yet again damaged... a further replacement was requested with delivery on 31st October the delivery failed to arrive - contacted IKEA who said it would be delivered on 3rd Nov (today) - it did and ... it was damaged, this time in two places!!! A further replacement has been ordered but cannot be sent to us until 14th November and IKEA will arrange separate collection of the damage door! I pointed out that to-date we have four damaged doors in our possession and no-one has yet collected any of them!!

So far due to their failings we have incurred telephone charges as the majority of calls are taking 20 mins to answer with the longest call lasting 1 hour 20 mins!! A trip to IKEA (32 mile round trip) to collect missing items, 4.5 days annual leave taken from work to wait for parcels plus a pending trip to IKEA to return faulty doors as they have failed to collect and yet another day off to wait for the door on 15th!

I would like to add that when the replacment delivery for the 2 damaged doors was arranged and we were told 24th October was the next available date we expressed as they were in stock could we collect? The answer was 'no' we offered to collect from a local store again we were told this wasn't possible - asking to speak to a senior staff member we hit a brick wall as the Team Leader wouldn't come to the phone but told the adviser we were speaking with to tell us to check the small print on the order as they make no promise on delivery times!!

I wrote to IKEA on 2 occasions listing the catalogue of errors all of which were ignored/over looked .. I managed to obtain an email address and have had excellent response from the customer service adviser dealing with our case but the subject of compensation can't be discussed until after we have received the last door in good condition.... so pre-empting the chat about our out of pocket expenses wondered if anyone had any advice or past experience and could advise what would be deemed as a reasonable expectation or is there anything I should factor into the conversation when it happens?

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Thank you

wealdroam

Read MSE's Failed Delivery article.

You will need to quantify your losses.

SuperHan

I haven't read all of your post, but I had a similar situation where Ikea were due to deliver my sofa, confirmed the date, and then cancelled the evening before.

I was offered £20 from the standard call, which I declined.

I sent an e-mail to the CEO e-mail address (which unfortunately I don't still have!) and got a call from a member of the escalation team.

In the end I got £50 refunded to my card and £50 in Ikea vouchers and two meal vouchers. I think the sofa was around £700 initially, and I got essentially £100 compensation.

KKmatters

wealdroam wrote: »

Read MSE's Failed Delivery article.

You will need to quantify your losses.

Thank you for the link - definitely worth incorporating into my 'next complaint letter'

KKmatters

Thank you SuperHan, I'll remember to decline if they offer the voucher. I have read the £20 voucher is a standard offer but considering the amount of time off work, cost of calls etc., I do think it's worth more than £20..... the kitchen purchase in total was just over £2400 (without appliances) so you can imagine I'm not happy that 6 weeks after delivery we're still waiting for a door which is not guaranteed to be perfect!!

I'll make enquiries regarding the CEO email address if I get no joy from the Customer Adviser assignmed to the case - but at the moment they wont' discuss until the door is re-delivered which means a follow up call on 15th when they apologise and make a gesture!

I'm sure my partner would love the restaurant voucher - meatball mania!

Will update as/when I have success/failure!

ElefantEd

I bought a kitchen island from IKEA a while back. The top turned out to be very rough, not oiled and smooth as you'd expect. I phoned IKEA and they quite rapidly agreed to refund £40 (the whole thing was about £200 from memory) as compensation, which seemed fair enough. I had to buy some suitable worktop finish and spend an hour or so to make it look nice, in the end all was well. The offer seemed reasonable and proportionate to the inconvenience and cost. As the alternative was carting it back to IKEA (about 50 miles) I wasn't very keen on that, something I emphasised in my phone conversation.

KKmatters

ElefantEd wrote: »

I bought a kitchen island from IKEA a while back. The top turned out to be very rough, not oiled and smooth as you'd expect. I phoned IKEA and they quite rapidly agreed to refund £40 (the whole thing was about £200 from memory) as compensation, which seemed fair enough. I had to buy some suitable worktop finish and spend an hour or so to make it look nice, in the end all was well. The offer seemed reasonable and proportionate to the inconvenience and cost. As the alternative was carting it back to IKEA (about 50 miles) I wasn't very keen on that, something I emphasised in my phone conversation.

We had the same problem with worktops too, we purchased some sandolin recommended by the fitters - like you I thought they came 'pre-done'... £40 against £200 does seem a fair amount of compensation - so basically 1/5th of the cost... will bear that in mind too... I do know that I won't be happy with £20 as the calls/fuel alone have cost that and to think i've used 4.5 days out of my annual leave entitlement waiting for sub-stand goods to arrive makes me ... am keeping fingers crossed now they factor this in to their response!

SuperHan

Remember, if you're likely to shop there again, you'll get much more if you accept a voucher in way of compensation. They offered me less of a refund, then I asked if they could do better in vouchers as we would be returning, and they then offered the £50 refund £50 vouchers, which worked great for me!

KKmatters

SuperHan wrote: »

Remember, if you're likely to shop there again, you'll get much more if you accept a voucher in way of compensation. They offered me less of a refund, then I asked if they could do better in vouchers as we would be returning, and they then offered the £50 refund £50 vouchers, which worked great for me!

Brilliant tip - thank you although nothing I want at the moment I suppose I could find something :j

KKmatters

I would just like to update this thread...

I have today received the final door - in perfect condition... so 5 faulty doors later I can complete the kitchen ... for which I'm happy!

However, I have received a phone call from IKEA offering £75 in compensation which they advised me is their cash limit!!!

So after refusing their offer I receive another offer including the cash above plus £100 in vouchers... total compensation £175... It doesn't cover the fact I lost 4.5 days annual leave or had to wait nearly 9 weeks to complete the kitchen but has restored my faith a little in the store plus a lesson learnt that if the item isn't available in store only from depot to insist on their delivery rather than Parcelforce!

I hope anyone reading this is assured that eventually you will get your items and if you were lucky enough like me a customer adviser who from the 3rd faulty door stayed with me all the way - phoning and emailing to make sure I was kept up-to-date and left a happy(ier) customer.

SuperHan

Good news, thanks for coming back to update.

And I'm glad the tip of negotiating with vouchers came in handy in the end!