Help? Poor service from task rabbit for Ikea

fairy2 · 20 April 2018 at 12:15AM

I have read with interest the various threads on this forum for how good and cheap task rabbit is and how the user (ie me) would say what they were prepared to pay and people offer to do the work. We bought 4 Ikea wardrobes with sliding doors and task rabbit are the recommended installers. We were told how much we would pay by task rabbit and paid nearly £300 for the work which on line said would take 2 men 13 hours but actually took 2 men about 4/5 hours. Anyway we left then to it, they installed, we had a quick look at the wardobes as the guys were at the front door by this stage and left. On closer inspection the back of the wardrobes are not connected to the internal shelves in all places, the doors are not all level etc. We have been trying to contact task rabbit every since to get ths rectified (3 days). There is only an emergency line and no one has called back yet despite leaving about 6 messages and no other way to talk to anyone. Does anyone know how to contact them or suggest what else to do? Ikea are not interested. The whole service offered by task rabbit has been pretty disastrous.

Doozergirl · 20 April 2018 at 12:22AM

Are the back of the shelves supposed to be connected to the back of the wardrobe? I've bought and built a lot of Ikea wardrobes and the wardrobe backs are flimsy hardboard, not structural (hence the wardrobes start to wobble from side to side after time) and there is no instruction for the backs to connect to shelves. Has something changed?

Are you measuring your 4/5 hours in the same way as their 13? £300 is cheap for two men working for a VAT registered company for effectively one day's work each unless you're saying they were out the door in 2.5 hours. Even then, it's a price for the job, not the time.

fairy2 · 20 April 2018 at 12:36AM

Hi. Thanks for the reply. Well in some places they are connected and not in others. You may be right as I have never bought Ikea wardrobes before but I cannto see how you can use a shelf if there is a 2-3 inch gap/gaping at the back of it as things are going to fall down the gap??. There were definitely not like this in the made up wardrobes in Ikea showroom. The front is also a run of sliding doors that are not level so the doors don't quite shut together which cannot be right.

In respect of your other point know the quote is for the job but the point is task rabbot said it would take 2 men 13.5 hours each (I know this sounds ridiculous) and they quoted for job on the size of the job and time. In reality the task took less then half of that time which does not seem right particulatly when the job is not well done. I am not after any money back etc I just want the work done properly. It is proving difficult as task rabbit themselves seem impossible to communicate with and have not responded for the last 3 days.

fairy2 · 20 April 2018 at 12:37AM

Doozergirl wrote: »

Are the back of the shelves supposed to be connected to the back of the wardrobe? I've bought and built a lot of Ikea wardrobes and the wardrobe backs are flimsy hardboard, not structural (hence the wardrobes start to wobble from side to side after time) and there is no instruction for the backs to connect to shelves. Has something changed?

Are you measuring your 4/5 hours in the same way as their 13? £300 is cheap for two men working for a VAT registered company for effectively one day's work each unless you're saying they were out the door in 2.5 hours. Even then, it's a price for the job, not the time.

Just out of interest what are the shelves supposed to connect to then at the back if not the backwall? Thanks.

Doozergirl · 20 April 2018 at 12:45AM

fairy2 wrote: »

Just out of interest what are the shelves supposed to connect to then at the back if not the backwall? Thanks.

Nothing at the back. The sides only, on the little plastic pins with tiny screws that go into the chipboard. It's Ikea. It's what, £50-80 for a carcass?

Did they leave the manual? Have a look at it. It will show how it should be done. The door hinge packets also show how to alter the door hinges too, but those are probably in the bin now.

The Ikea website does have instructions for all their products.

fairy2 · 20 April 2018 at 12:57AM

Doozergirl wrote: »

Nothing at the back. The sides only, on the little plastic pins with tiny screws that go into the chipboard. It's Ikea. It's what, £50-80 for a carcass?

Did they leave the manual? Have a look at it. It will probably show how to alter the door hinges too to straighten them.

Not sure have not seen any manual but the row of 4 wardrobes plus shelves and rails cost about £1300 and while I don't expect it to last forever I would expect it to hang together on day 1. Anyway the point of my pooisting is I am not totally happy with the installation and I want to speak to task rabbit about this who are impossible to reach, not check out a manual to redo for a job I paid professionals to install properly.

Doozergirl · 20 April 2018 at 12:58AM

Just reading about Task Rabbit. It looks like a gig economy thing. They don't employ people, they're like Uber or Deliveroo. It's an electronic platform to connect users with each other. They takena commission. Don't you need to go back to the handymen directly?

You didn't pay professionals. You paid jobbing handymen with probably no qualifications, I suspect.

fairy2 · 20 April 2018 at 1:09AM

Doozergirl wrote: »

Just reading about Task Rabbit. It looks like a gig economy thing. They don't employ people, they're like Uber or Deliveroo. It's an electronic platform to connect users with each other. They takena commission. Don't you need to go back to the handymen directly?

You didn't pay professionals. You paid jobbing handymen with probably no qualifications, I suspect.

I think you are right. Sadly these are the people Ikea recommend (may have something to do with Ikea having bought the company out). You cannot go back to the handymen. Everything is done via taskrabbit so totally reliant on them.

tacpot12 · 20 April 2018 at 6:55AM

When did you pay for the service? Prior to the men coming, or did you pay the men on the day?

Furts · 20 April 2018 at 10:00AM

fairy2 wrote: »

I think you are right. Sadly these are the people Ikea recommend (may have something to do with Ikea having bought the company out). You cannot go back to the handymen. Everything is done via taskrabbit so totally reliant on them.

There is something odd, or does not add up, from the beginning. 2 men at 13 hours equals 26 man hours. So if a bit of travelling was added in, or a contingency, this represents 4 man days - 26 hours is beyond three days so you will get my drift here. Then do a simple analysis. Ikea items are designed for quick manufacture, quick assembly and all through this process it is based on unskilled or semi skilled labour. So your men who are fast, experienced, professionals were going to take one man day each to assemble an Ikea wardrobe? Which of course is an absurd concept.

Then flip this round. Knowing the work was meant to take four days did alarm bells not ring when after half a day the men were leaving your home? This is a clear warning to go and inspect the work, scrutinise everything and take matters to task then.

It now comes down to who your contract was with and how you paid. By all means go after satisfaction and redress - I would. But also put this down as a lesson in life, perhaps? Next time round perhaps ask a few simple, searching questions first?

Herongull · 20 April 2018 at 11:20PM

I've never used Task Rabbit because it seems very expensive, which is not surprising as the company takes a significant cut for matching the people to the job.

It is far better to find a regular handyman that you have confidence in that you can keep going back to for different jobs. There is no middleman and all the money goes to the handyman who has an incentive to do a good job to keep getting business from you.

With Task Rabbit, I suspect the onus was very much on you to inspect the job very carefully at the end and only approve payment once you were happy that it was done correctly. Presumably you confirmed the satisfactory completion of the job on the day and therefore you may not have any comeback. Task Rabbit will have released the payment to the person and therefore won't want to get involved.

It may be that the only thing you can do is pay a real handyman to fix the wardrobes.

Help? Poor service from task rabbit for Ikea

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