Help! IKEA has let me down

[jellybean30]

I ordered a kitchen from IKEA recently and they took payment for all but the sink, and said they'd take payment for the sink this week once it's back in stock. Now they're saying they don't know when the sink will be back in stock. It's the Havsen 62x48 ceramic sink.

I feel very stuck as we've purchased the kitchen and it's ready to be installed. The builders are waiting. We can't get a sink elsewhere because it's a specific size, and even if we did find the right size, we can't get it because the worktop from IKEA is only compatible with the IKEA sink.

This is stressing me out so much. The kitchen planner allocated to me is utterly useless and doesn't reply half the time. She keeps telling me the Greenwich store has it in stock but I don't have a car and can't get there easily.

Is there any recourse for me? Anyone with insight into IKEA's stocking problems? Long shot but help! Thank you.

To be fair, there are exceptions & products can be brought from one store to another. Well at least they could in the store I worked in. That being said, there was no process in place. It was a case of finding a member of staff who could drive over & pick it up!

Usually stock would be available centrally & it would be ordered for you but brexit/covid/the container shipping incident have caused lots of issues with stock.

Thank you for the delivery info. I'm 13.5 miles away, not sure if that qualifies for delivery...? It's all still in London though. I'll try ringing tomorrow anyway, for info on delivery zone and stock if nothing else.

When you call through, you can ask for a physical stock check. The call centre can call to stores & check actual stock. Systems should be 100% accurate but unfortunately not always the case ;-(

The weirdest part is that two weeks ago they said stock would be available this week. And then the estimated delivery date was just removed altogether, the kitchen planner said.

To those who have worked for IKEA, what's up with their kitchen planners not replying to emails? And not giving you another contact to speak to when they're away?

I don’t understand why you can’t get a different sink? If the worktop is being templated I assume it’s composite stone and would work with a variety of sinks as it’ll be cut specifically.

I had a similar issue last year and only got it resolved by emailing the CEO. They took over and got it sorted quickly.

There is a programme for employees which shows stock for the next 4 weeks. It can on occasion show a delivery but then be removed as it estimates when stock is due. Ask them to check with their logistics department regarding deliveries as logistics will have more info on if a date has been confirmed for your sink.

My understanding was that employees are allocated appointments with customers & time for after call work which included checking plans, finalising payment & following up on correspondence. A lot of the employees in the store I worked in were part time so it was hard to catch them.

If you e-Mail the CEO there is a dedicated team who resolve the complaint. The team basically project manage your complaint until a solution is reached. Worth doing 🙂

The email I used was: [email protected]

I looked at the sink you’re getting and the tap is mounted directly on the worktop. This is a terrible idea for wooden worktops and for composite stone it’s fiddly. If I were you I’d get a sink with a tap hole, much better for cleaning and keeping the worktop dry.

Hi Jellybean, I’m going to the IKEA at Wembley tomorrow eve if that helps you in anyway ?
I can definitely check stock and if necessary get one for you - delivered I hope! Feel
Free to message me if that helps at all

I'm in London (but unable to offer to help you with vehicle, strong person(s) etc., sorry).

But here I keep seeing ads for the new app Shift, so you might want to try that? I agree that MK could be an easier trip up from Edmonton, my best friend used to live there and when it's not rush hour, it can be a good trip up and much better than across/into London.

That weight is just under the recommended 1-man* max when carrying boxes or similar close to the chest - at arms length it is less so it really requires two people to lift it. So unless you+/or friends with car or van are particularly strong and used to manual handling of heavyish awkward items, IMO a 2man+van arrangement is definitely what you need.

(*There are lower recommended limits for women.)

I've also been wrangling with Ikea today so I feel your pain (but don't have a whole custom kitchen resting on the outcome so your situation is 100 times worse).

Order from the Greenwich store and pay for delivery.

I’d order it quickly before it’s out of stock there too, seems a big drama over an easy to fix problem. Lots of companies are having delivery issues at the moment, have you not seen the news?

There's this company that moves single items. I've seen their adverts on the train, but I've no idea how good they are.

shift.online/en-gb/

Thank you everyone and @Hogwarts4Christmas and @BackAwayFatty for the CEO idea. I feel bad for wasting his time like this but desperate times! Have emailed him.

I'll try to sort this with IKEA today but if not sorted by the afternoon, will accept that kind MNer's offer of picking it up from Greenwich for me.

If anyone else has had success with the CEO or a special HQ phone number, please do let me know!

Thanks all, you've all been so helpful.

@wohmum out of stock in Wembley but thank you so much for the offer

There are supply issues with lots of companies and sinks at the moment (and lots of other things)
I have 2 clients (I'm an architect) whose kitchens (different suppliers) turned up without the sinks recently and it's been a nightmare to resolve so not just an IKEA thing.
One job we ordered from 3 separate companies (consecutively) and paid and we only found out it wasn't being delivered each time when it didn't turn up. It's caused massive delays.
It's part of the global supply chain issues.
I would bite the bullet and just go and get one no matter how inconvenient as I suspect it could be easy to end up with nothing.

Supply chain issues are causing me real headaches at the moment.

@wonkylegs that sounds like a nightmare! Yes you're right. Better to have a sink whatever the inconvenience than not!

Don't know about IKEA specifically, but shipping is total chaos right now. We think things are coming and they get delayed at the last minute. Theres congestion at ports, things getting diverted, no hauliers...i would definitely buy the one from the other store if at all possible while you have the chance, or you will probably just have to wait it out. And definitely ask them to compensate you for the trouble.

@jellybean30

I could do that. Sigh. Should I do that? Surely they'll get it back in stock before long? Does anyone have experience or insider intel on IKEA's supply issues?

They don't know when anything is coming in anymore than you.

Friend works there has said its been a nightmare cos they can't tell customers anything.

I believe the problem is that IKEA has a load of containers stuff in ports and cannot get them out due to driver shortages.

From experience ports are a nightmare to get stuff out of - i worked at an importers for a while and the woman in imports had to wait until she got a call to say the goods had been released by customs and this would be a random length of time after the goods arrived at port. Then she had to arrange a driver to get and this would depend on when they had drivers available and could take a few days even at the best of times. She couldn't actually say when the goods would be in the warehouse until they were physically loaded onto the trailer and on their way.

I think its not a question of 'could I go to Greenwich' v 'should i'. Its a question of how long can i afford to wait for this sink.

My experience of ikea over the last two years has been if you really need/want and item, you go get it the second its available because they are likely to sell out abd tgen there's no guarantee of when the next shipment will come in.

We wanted a particular set of garden furniture last year. I waited 3 months for the first item to come in, ended up taking 3 different trips to 2 different stores to get everything i wanted which took 2 months in total.

My advice is either return the kitchen or bite the bullet and go out of your way to get that sink.

It's annoying as all hell but the point of Ikea is it's cheap cheap cheap. You've saved 000s against using a more "standard" supplier. This is one of the reasons people don't use Ikea for kitchens, it can be a PITA when stuff goes wrong!

Best of luck OP!

We've recently had a kitchen fitted by IKEA. It's been an adventure. I plan to do some sort of wash-up about it all. The store, the staff and the kitchen fitters (contracted via IKEA) were excellent.

The new centralised system for kitchens? was freaking awful, this and the supply chain issues were the hardest thing to deal with. My DH has spent over 60 hours on the phone trying to sort it all out.

Our good quality kitchen from IKEA cost £5,300 (including an oven and combi micro) same design from Wickes without appliances was over £12,000.

IKEA score well in Which? Rankings.

We've put up with the heartache because we couldn't afford their competitors.

Go and get the sink, however far you have to go. It sounds fit critical.

Good luck.

Update: a lovely MNer has picked up the sink from the Greenwich store, and it's being couriered to us tomorrow. Hooray!

I emailed their CEO, I tweeted, I called so many different departments yesterday, but got nowhere. Ikea really is the worst.

Yay glad you have a sink on its way now