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...

sorry, Batters, didn't see yours!

Yup DS is a mini-me in the fullest sense of the word. Always makes me laugh when old friends of DH's come to visit who haven't seen our son since he was a baby. I very much enjoy their open mouthed amazement as DS stomps into the kitchen leaving a trail of rubbish behind him and starts making arsey remarks at everyone. They just can't believe how alike the two of them are in both looks and general behaviour!.

Bells, re your husband using that intercom: truly inspired - customers fight back using the enemy's weapons - wish I'd witnessed it!

Keepingmum lol, too!

I wonder how many of these incidents have been caught on in store cameras? surely there's a TV programme waiting to be made.

After five years of marriage I have just commenced going to Argos again (but NEVER with DS). They caused such trouble with our wedding presents - two telephones - neither worked. Massive trouble getting refund because it was someone else's credit card etc. Two garden chairs - was unable to get another two to finish the set. And so on.

Whenever I order from Next online they ask me to select a delivery day and then deliver on a totally different day. Same happens to my neighbour too. Hence we're forever taking in each other's deliveries. Not too bad really but why ask for a date if they ignore it everytime?

As for Ikea I normally take DS when its quiet and we check things out and then return with DH to help carry things/confirm what I want - but for a quick track through the store. We too went for DS's first outing at a week of age. It was late Weds afternoon in February and snowing and the quietest I've ever known it. Thankfully. I still struggled to make it round.

Ahhh, Currys. My DH feels exactly the same as yours Bells - the only difference being he works for the company! He is an engineer - if you should ever venture into one of their large stores again, spare a thought for the poor man behind the counter of the instore repair centre! He would totally agree with you about the shop floor staff, they haven't a clue, and are forever 'borrowing' his tools, which are never to be seen again!

Why
Can't
Ikea
Do
Online
Ordering
???????????

message withdrawn

bells - that's probably because they know Comet is even worse

Went to buy cooker with then boyfriend, salesman said 'How can I help you sir?'. Er Thank you but I'M buying it. Countless days off work waiting for oven to be delivered after numerous 'heated' phonecalls. Door to oven didn't work when delivered, had to wait another day for man to come and fix it. He turned up (without the part) and so on and so on.

Oh and they always try to sell you some rip-off breakdown cover at the same time, plus, know someone who works for them and they are really sh*y to their p/t female staff.

Haven't read all of this but here are our experiences of IKEA. Granted not long after the Edinburgh branch opened and people were still going mad about it.

The first thing was a fight in the car park when someone with no children in the car stole our parent and child space (DS1 just a small baby then). Had a screaming match with the woman (must have been hormones) then reported her car reg no when we got in the store, don't know if anything was done or not. Then at the end of our trip we though we would treat ourselves to some meatballs in the cafe and were angered by all the people saving seats for those who were getting the food. When we had got our food there were no tables free and lots of people sitting smiling waiting. My DH then spied a free table and made his way with the food only to see a woman with no food running for the table. He shouted at her that if she didn't have her food yet she should wait and allow us to have the table and she said no everyone else was getting a table first. She grabbed a chair and DH put the food down on the table, she then grabbed onto the table and the table collapsed spilling meatballs, juice etc everywhere!!! Thankfully the IKEA staff brought us some more but I don't think we have been in the cafe since!

Dear MandyD,

Thank you for your recent enquiry. Unfortunately, Ikea are unable to launch an online ordering service due to technical difficulties relating to the website.

We are currently looking at ways in which to create an ?express? checkout for those with virtual yellow bags only as well as a holding area where customers with 6 virtual trolley loads can decant their purchases into 200 virtual yellow bags.

We are also experiencing difficulties with recreating the Full Serve Handout experience. We are currently researching ways in which to replicate the ?heated debate with member of staff after waiting for 2 hours and finding your 2 wardrobes have changed into 1 wardrobe, half a kitchen cupboard and a desk? scenario but are finding the current ?chat? technology insufficient for our needs.

We have made some steps towards our goal of recreating the whole Ikea experience online:

• Our new online ordering website will offer virtual car parking where you can drive the car of your choice round and round a car park and then end up parking in the ?pick up area only? part of the site.
• If you have children in pushchairs, we will include a wait whilst you hang about for the single lift that is being used by lazy people who could in fact use the stairs.
• The Returns section of the site will be served by a special 1kb-per-second server connection.
• Instead of simply using an online catalogue, we have opted for a combination of catalogue and online warehouse. You can browse the catalogue with your notepad and pencil and then proceed to the warehouse to select your items. We will ensure that at least one of your items is not in stock and that one item is not in the location you thought it was in.
• When you arrive at the checkout, you will find 2 brightly coloured boxes, some plastic salad servers, a bag of tealights and 4 packets of cheap napkins have mysteriously been added to your shopping.

If you have any further questions or suggestions on how we may fully replicate Ikea online, please do not hesitate to call me.

Sven Faartybum
Online Development Manager

Oooh, Demented, like the sound of your dh. I do that too. I say, well I have my food and you don't so I was clearly here before you, which means I am entitled to a seat before you! I once sat down in the V&A cafe at the only spare seat (with a tray full of rapidly cooling food and coffee) when someone said, 'there's someone sitting there', and I said, "Oh, dear, I must have squashed them, then" and carried on eating.

rofl, soupdragon!

soupdragon

aloha, soupdragon
glad to see that cynicism is alive & kicking (hopefully that man from Ikea) someone under the table

Soupdragon, thanks for the reply, that was so funny

I was talking about this thread with DP last night (he's never been to Ikea, little lamb...) and we agreed that as they already have a website, and do home deliveries, then to add on online ordering and delivery services would soon recoup its start-up costs. To prevent abuses of the system (ie. delivery requests for "2 brightly coloured boxes, some plastic salad servers, a bag of tealights and 4 packets of cheap napkins"...) they could initially make deliveries available for, say, orders over £50. Or they could do a complete mail order service?

Wow, I've got carried away with this one, does anyone have Ikea's email address to hand? I think I'll jolly well ask them when they will set up online services!!

Oh Rolf,I think we should tell ikea to read this thread.Soupdragon I laughed so much at your Sven Faartibum letter especially the virtual parking lol.

hey soupdragon, just found a perfect page for you, with links to
complaints about Ikea

Bundle, that page is superb!

glad to be of help
one of my mates spend 5 hours in a single day in Ikea (either in it or driving to/from it as the wrong stuff was handed over twice )...the only way I can get through it is to arrive as it's opening, tether dd to a trolley and just happen to be going past the canteen at 11.45 when there's no one in it and the meatballs are still fresh. you still do end up with 3 mystery packs of brightly coloured paper napkins and an enormous number of tealights..maybe they're compulsory

I must say, when I've complained to Ikea they've been fine. I've had money refunded for an office chair plus they gave me a new chair and the old one, I've also had my delivery fee refunded from Exel for rude and useless delivery men and Ikea have sent me 2 free meal vouchers for an overlong wait in full serve (I laid it on thick about my poor wee breastfed baby left starving at home with my mum)

I have spent the best part of 3 weeks trying to get an order from Tesco online warehouses. The goods only came to £26. They have taken almost £40, not delivered them, delivered them to the wrong address, said they couldn't find our address, and then only refunded me £14.99. When first myself, then dh then myself again, called to find out why we hadn't been fully refunded they tried to say it was service charges! Needless to say we both went ballistic at this point, and finally after listening to the "customer services manager" get all huffy , we got a supervisor who managed to see that this was a complete fiasco and refunded us in full. Honestly I am so angry about this I have been in a filthy mood all day! Needless to say I have told them that i don't want anything from them any more, and have said i am thinking of stopping my online grocery shop, which is usually about £100 a week.

And to top it all, we drive for 25 minutes to get to the nearest Asda down the A3, spend £100 there, thank the packer for helping, to find she put our loaves of bread in 3 different bags at the bottom, and loaded the heaviest things she could find on top of them. So i have 3 loaves of bread that can't be used unless you like squashed broken bits instead of sandwiches, and I can't drive all the way back there for £1.60 because the petrol would be twice that. Argh!

lou33, for exactly that reason, I NEVER let anyone in supermarkets do my packing for me, even when ds is screaming the place down and 200 pairs of eyes are looking daggers at me!

Have to say I have used Tesco Direct many times and they have been fab, parcels delivered double quick.

I was going to put in a good word for IKEA here (loved that letter, Soupdragon!) but then I remembered - last time I went with just ds I thought to myself that everything was going smoothly, got to the checkout and out the door, only to discover that there are metal barriers which prevent you from taking your trolley to your car. I had just bought some very large rattan baskets, plus loads of other stuff so my hands were laden, I had no way of holding onto ds (don't use reins anymore) so had to edge very slowly across the carpark, yelling at ds to stay by my side and trying not to drop said bulky items - grrrrr!

Presume none of you would want to do this then?.

Poor kid

Makes me think of Wayne & Waynetta Slob and Spudulika....