To think that IKEA should deliver?

[RichTeas]

Everyone else delivers. You can order practically anything online. So why does IKEA make us trudge out to one of their inconveniently located stores, wander the warehouse then try and fit oversized flatpacks in our city car? Does this company not realise it's 2012.

They seem to do normal online shopping with delivery (like Argos or Tesco direct), if you like in the south of England - if you are in Scotland, they have a "special", very Awkward to use pick and deliver service where by you email them what you want to buy, and they then tell you how much they will charge you to deliver (typical about £90 to my house!), only deliver to my area once a week, and they charge you a tenner to get someone to pick it off the shelf!

They seem to think Scotland is on another planet or something.

Usually we just drive - it's about an hour and a half away, £35petrol there and back - and you get to have Meatballs and Jam while you are at it.

*live in, obviously!

Ikea don't deliver because it's not the Swedish way. To Swedes the idea of getting something delivered is as freaky weird as putting chocolate sauce on your fish and chips. They would never get someone else to do something which they can do themselves. Giving an unrequested helping hand, eg getting a pram up the stairs, is considered rude.

Our "local" one deliver for £30, which is fine since I'm already paying £700 for a whole lounge and dining room set, but then after delivering the 40 serrated packages and breaking an already built cabinet in your house you start to assemble .... All goes swimmingly until half way through you realise what you are building is actually not what you ordered, you call them and they tell you they don't actually make the thing you ordered anymore so sent you something not al all similar.
You sigh and pack it all back up only for the collection team to not bother turning up, you sigh and eventually drive to the store (an hour away) with the 40 packages only to be told they can't refund because they've been opened..
You argue and cry eventually they call a manager who takes one look at the hysterical pregnant lady muttering about "trading standards" and "long distance sales act" and she finally refunds everything and his delightful process only took 4 weeks!

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

Oh and the food is grim "Meatballs.. With gravy and jam?"

No, because that is NOT gravy and that is NOT jam, it's off white sauce and Cranberry sauce.

Ah, onehand, that would be the Wembley store? The Milton Keynes one is more civilised in that you can take your trolley right to your car, assuming you can find the store in the first place!

Kitchen not the only furniture from there, we are great fans of Poang chairs as is our cat.

I don't understand the love for those awful meatballs. Ugh.

I'm all about the mini Dimes, the marabou chocs, the slabs of choc and the frozen flatbreads with fennel seeds. They are yum.

If you are in the North London area, google Van Girls. They are a delivery company that do regular Ikea trips, pick up what you want and deliver it to you.

"They have basically successfully made going to Ikea an "experience""

Oh it certainly is... and not one I like to repeat very often...

Last time I was brave stupid enough to go, there were kids running wild and fighting while bouncing all over the furniture , gay couples having the most dramatic domestics in almost every section, a mother and her middle aged son having a full blown barney about how she refused to spend her inheritance furnishing his house, and the most unhelpful assistants I have ever encountered, they could be seen trying to hide from any approaching customer.

I went to get curtains.. I came away with candles, plates, a sofa throw, and no bloody curtains. oh, and a very cheap hotdog!

Yellow, I was just being ironic. Sorry if it came out the wrong way.

Yikes. Sorry, thought you were being sarcy.

Titsalina that sounds like an awful experience!

I love IKEA but we can't go any more. It's very sad. DH thinks he's very handy, very DIY-y but the poor man is not, and I hate to disillusion him. So we just stay away

KenLeeee love the fucktonne of furniture. Never heard that word before. Is that an official IKEA measurement? Like 10 ImpulseKilos equal 1 Lovely-but-UselessThing and 100 UselessThings equal one fucktonne?

I brought a Billy bookcase about two months ago. I couldn't assemble it correctly so I lost my temper.It is now in bits in the garden. I am TERRIBLE AT D.I.Y.

Mmmmm, dime cakes sound nice.

I've had the terrible having to leave all your stuff while you fetch the car at Wembley experience too, it was the only one I ever used for years, was pleasantly surprised on my first trip to the Southampton one that you didn't have to do that.

I ordered some bed linen last year for delivery, I think it cost a bit more than I would have expected, but the sheets were exceptionally cheap, so overall it was fine.

No, because that is NOT gravy and that is NOT jam, it's off white sauce and Cranberry sauce

It's Ligenberry iirc akcherly

I like the fucktonne quantity description too. We had that much delivered yesterday, at vast expense because we are out of the store's catchment, but at least I wasn't at work so it didn't cost me a day's leave (it would have if I'd ordered online and had no choice of delivery day).

I bloody LOVE assembling Ikea furniture. I would do it as a job if I could. I reckon if you were good at following Lego instructions as a child, then Ikea assembly is a doddle.

I'm taking an advanced course in "Assembling Ikea Furniture Alone With Toddler Who Thinks He Is Bob The Builder": (Module 2: patience, patience, and yes he will strip the screw heads if you don't watch him like a hawk whilst supporting the partly-built furniture with your head and one leg)

The thing I like best about Ikea is how irate the staff get when people don't follow the system! there was a lady practically having a coronary last time I was there because a couple were walking backwards round the designated route..

DH and I go to ikea a few times during the school holidays, stick the kids in the crèche, have a cooked breakfast, potter around, buy some much needed crap, then hotdogs, get kids and go home. 2 hours well spent IMHO, you can't do that shopping online.

I'm sure there are people that make a living from assembling other people's IKEA flatpack. That used to be my (unofficial) additional responsibility at work, I miss that place.

Search for the ikea name of whatever product you want on ebay - some people like me pick up 20 x packs of kids cutlery or whatever, and sell it for an extortionate mark up (and most of the time it's still cheap at double the price )

It's a metric fucktonne, isn't?

Spare a thought for the people of Cornwall, the nearest Ikea is Bristol,

but one woman is doing a booming business, She drives to Ikea once a week, loads up with washing up brushes, tea lights,bedding and other bits and bobs,

she adds a bit on, sells out, at the markets and car boot sales,

she also will take orders for larger items, she's a single mum, she doing really well out of it.

Ikea keep buying land in and around Plymouth, but keep getting refused planning, as Plymouth see it as a threat.

Ikea don't deliver because it's not the Swedish way. To Swedes the idea of getting something delivered is as freaky weird as putting chocolate sauce on your fish and chips. They would never get someone else to do something which they can do themselves. Giving an unrequested helping hand, eg getting a pram up the stairs, is considered rude. so true!

also the swedes nearly all drive volvo estate cars and you can fit most things in there.

I have never heard one person complaining about IKEA in Sweden, it is just very very swedish, i think the brits don't have the organisational skills to be "good" at going to IKEA so therefore moan about it -but still go for the cheap cusions-

Also a 3 hour drive is nothing in Sweden, my OH's parents live 10 hours away and we often drive up there.

Warrington ikea have combined the 'ikea' experience with the 'argos' experience. We ordered and paid for our sofa cover then had to drive round to another warehouse, hand in our ticket and wait twenty minutes for it to appear.