is there a worse shopping experience than IKEA?

[bossykate]

went to ikea today. well, it was marginally better than the absolute hell it is at weekends. there was a woman going up and down the queues asking if anyone would like to participate in a customer service survey - in two weeks time! clever - when the irritation has faded. we bought two full service (ha!) items - no idea why they are called "full service" as they still come flat packed and you have to assemble them yourself. only difference appeared to be the 40min wait while they got them out from stock. this is after you have paid.

so why keep going back? well i'm not aware of a competitor who offers the same choice and quality for such reasonable prices. sigh.

IMO - the answer is NO! what do others think?

feel much better now...

Argos! I went yesterday to buy some bathroom scales and it was truly, truly hideous.

I have been in Argos when there were all of five customers, went straight to the till, paid and then waited 25 minutes for my one item to arrive. Obviously they thought they would all go for a tea break while there was nobody in there. Homebase - same here nobody knows anything, toys r us aaagghhh!!!! Lucky if you can find anyone who works in there. At the minute it is Tesco Online home delivery service which is driving me bonkers. Despite several complaints the Home Shopping Manager at my local store is still to ring me back, I don't think he even exists. I'm going to have to start paying that bit more and shopping with Sainsburys at this rate either that or trail round Asda with a trolley, dp and ds and end up getting really frazzled. Mind you with Christmas coming I think I'll pay the bit extra at Sainsburys.

I'm interested to hear that Batters as I am with Sainsbury's and was thinking of switching to Tesco for exactly the same reason. Best one was a packet of 12 crumpets delivered at 9pm on the use by date. Waitrose has greatly expanded their delivery area (through Ocado) and now cover most of London I think. Wonder whether anyone here uses their online service?

Don't get me started on Tescos home delivery! At 9:30pm I had items delivered on their sell by date and this was for a delivery booked between 4pm and 6pm! I've had refunds not given when returning items via the driver (once 8 bottles of vintage champagne did not get refunded - I'd ordered cheap special offer Cava)... no, no I'll stop there.

Ocado does most of inner London, Bells - maybe the arrival of the Canary Wharf branch might help you. We use their workplace delivery service and they are just the tops (think it is sent from Finchley Road to dh's work). Personal service, rarely out of stock of fave items - and same day response to e-mailed queries.
We too are counting the days til Waitrose hit downtown SE London after giving up on Tesco and Sainsburys. The latter charged us twice for goods that they never actually delivered and it took three phone calls to their home delivery service to get the money (over £200) refunded. No wonder Jules was spotted in Waitrose...

SoupDragon, snap exactly the same has happened to me. Plus missing items that I've paid for on the last count 4 pints of milk and a ready meal. It drives me wild that they think I want stuff that has to be eated on the day of delivery. I've also had damaged stuff that's dumped itself all over the inside of the carrier bag.

It's supposed to be less stressful but it's worse than going shopping.

Oh and Ikea, my friends ordered some office equipment, paid for it and were told to return in 2 hours to pick it up!!!

Was it Soupdragon who was complaining about the Co-op? We must frequent the same ones because the staff are truly dreadful. And there is never any bread or milk when I pop in on the way home from work - why do they always run out of the basics?

The Rose and Crown on Blackheath who apparantly only serve males. I NEVER get served there. I'm not short, I have money, no tattoos...what is their problem? They have even been known to serve men behind me first. And believe me, I'm not backwards about makin a fuss, but still they do it!

I've had problems with Tesco, too. Several items, yoghurts, coleslaw to be eaten that day; missing items and (stranger still), unordered items, to date, sausages, coffee and faggots! I must admit customer services were helpful and I had my money refunded and they told me to keep the mysterious extras!

sainsburys are not supposed to deliver items that are eat/use by the delivery date or if they do they are supposed to state "only short dated item available" on the notes accompanying the delivery. so if they have done it to you - phone and complain!

have tried ocado - they're not yet delivering in my area.

however, i'm usually happy with sainsburys internet shopping. they cock it up occasionally, but i'm a long, long way from going back to trailing around the store!

Jodee - as you live where I used to live, yes it probably is the same one! Having said that, it's just the same where I've moved to so it must be their employment policy.

I've had some great substitutions from Tescos including sweet and sour chicken instead of shepherds pie. My favourite (apart from the champagne/Cava fiasco - a £50 difference in cost) was where they substituted some bread rolls for a more expensive packet of rolls and sent me the ones I'd ordered in the first place - truly bizarre.

What I don't understand is that if I order 500g of say mushrooms they substitute it with a 250g pack, why don't they send 2 250g packs? Also I used to leave notes but they never read them so I've given up. Shopped with Sainsburys tonight so we'll see what turns up. Neither Waitrose nor Asda deliver in my area which is a pain. What I need is an internet shopper who goes round all the stores to get my favourites and then delivers it to me in one go. Heaven.

Megg, the clever thing about the notes you make for your delivery is that THEY DON'T SHOW UP ON THE PICKERS HANDSETS/PRINT OUTS!!

No, I don't understand either. There is, apparently "a fault" and they "drop off the edge" or something. Couldn't believe it when I complained...

Was going to use tesco online for the majority of my Xmas shop, not now, i'm a real stickler for good use by dates so I'll be battling with the back of the shelves w/c 23/12! I thought the pickers were supposed to select the best!

I hate IKEA too! DH loves it and could spend all day walking around at snails pace while all I want to do is find a helper (do they even exist), get pointed in the right direction and buy what we went for! They do not do online ordering, we wanted a sofa, knew exactly what the stock number was and the fabric choice and everything but when DH called to order it he was told that even though it was a home delivery item he had to trawl to the store to give them his credit card in person. I bet when he turned up they were not even polite to him. The only good thing about IKEA is their plastic bowls and plates - 6 for £1.00, everybody I know has them for the kids.

About Sainsbury's - well I have only used them once and was very impressed - am expecting the second delivery tomorrow morning.

But perhaps you should not get me started on deliveries of big goods as I have loads of horror stories - most of them involving me losing my temper to some 'customer service' person and then spending a whole day waiting for a driver to not turn up!! Curry's where is my freezer?

I've just had some C**p service shopping on line with Argos.
I thought I'd be clever and do most of the ds's christmas shopping on line.It worked well for their birthday, I used ELC,Tesco's,& Orchard Toys.
However, this time I also wanted some things from Argos. They had an offer on, buy one MB game and get the other 1/2 price, which was great, until they e mailed me saying, they did not have one of the games I wanted, so I missed out there.
They had given me a delivery date for the rest of the order, for today(my day off). The courier turned up with only one of the items, he informed me that the rest, MIGHT come tomorrow.Which of couse is no good, since no one will be in.
I rang their customer services and was told that, the delivery time is 8am-6pm, and various parts of the order MIGHT turn up at different times of the day !!!
Well how disorganised can you get!!!I was under the impression that when they gave you a delivery date, that it would turn up on that day, and that when it did, it would all be together.
Am I just daft or is that the most simple and convenient way to do it??
P.S. The rest didn't arrive today.

Oh no Jac34, I've just ordered a video recorder and a sofa from them! I suggested they might like to deliver the 2 together since we live in the sticks but no, they can't since they come from different suppliers. Their extra cost and problem then, or, more likely, their supplier's cost as I doubt Argos have central warehousing for online orders and therefore despatching from suppliers direct will save them money. So that theory would explain why they can't deliver together. Hmm, await my 2 items with trepidation now. They called on Sunday and I was quite impressed since I ordered online on Sat night. They gave me a delivery date and I told them there are 2 lots of 30 mins when I won't be here that day as dropping and picking up ds. If your experience is anything to go by that's when they'll try to deliver then...Blimey, I'm even boring myself here, will stop now

That reminds me, I must get those coloured plastic tumblers, apart from walking through the whole of Ikea, does anywhere else stock them?

Tesco substituted dh's nicorette gum with a packet of crisps once!

My fil has been banned from entering IKEA ever again after throwing a spectacular monty which involved smashing an IKEA salad bowl (that he had already paid for) on the floor in front of the manager to show how frustrated he was. This was all triggered by the appalling service they had received over a sofa or something and ended with him being manhandled out of the store by about three hefty security guards (he is an Oxford academic in his 50's and not at all threatening looking). My dh insists that the ban is actually on the whole family thus excluding him from any future shopping trips there.

Last time we went to Curry's, my DH took over the intercom system and made a series of announcements regarding our inability to find a member of staff to help us. They got progressively more snotty. The last one was that we were leaving to go and find a Comet. The staff reacted to the whole thing with complete indifference.

Last time we went to Curry's, my DH took over the intercom system and made a series of announcements regarding our inability to find a member of staff to help us. They got progressively more snotty. The last one was that we were leaving to go and find a Comet. The staff reacted to the whole thing with complete indifference.

bells2, now we know where your DS gets his talent for public announcements from!