IKEA kitchen planner frustration

[bluedomino]

We have nearly completed our extension and need a new kitchen. I know what I want and have a plan in my mind which I think will work for us.

I have been trying for some time to use the IKEA kitchen planner with very little success. Firstly it won't work on our regular computer, so I tried on my very old netbook on XP and it worked but incredibly slowly. So I borrowed my fathers new laptop and tried on that, but again it is unbelievably slow. It has taken all day to select and place the units in place and both times its crashed without, once when I tried to change the worktop and the second when I tried to save the design. I have done Computer Aided Design so navigating wasn't the problem, the planner is just unfit for purpose.

What is going on? Don't they want my business?

We live 2 hours from the nearest store, so we tried to phone to make an appointment, first phone call put on hold in a 40 mins queue, then a 20 mins queue which was actually 60 mins before we gave up and then another 45 mins queue and again gave up after 60 mins.

We have emailed them several times but have not received any replies.

I am loathed to spend money on fuel and childcare to drive up there only to find they are too busy to help us.

So can anyone offer any ideas or secret phone numbers that actually have a person on the other end please?

you can download (and print ) a PDF with the cabinet combinations and prices from their website and draw a plan (1:20) with a pencil and ruler - just as easy ! much faster too and guaranteed not to crash !!!
1:20 ... 60cm = 3cm on a ruler
1:20 ... 100cm = 5cm on a ruler etc etc etc !
have fun !!! :-)

why didn't you say that you plan kitchens Oneplan? don't be shy.

Tabithasgran

I planned my kitchen with the ikea website last year and admittedly it was slow but not as slow as you are experiencing. When placing the first unit (usually good to start in the corner) change the worktop and drawer front on that one and it will do it automatically for any units you put in afterwards. If you do the whole kitchen and then change a worktop etc you have to change each cabinet individually, well you did last year. I am not sure if this is still true as they have changed their kitchens this year.

Usually with an Ikea (mine is just a mere 3 mile from me) it opens at 9.30 for "browsing" in the week and the tills open at 10. If you went for 9.30 most people queuing outside are heading for a cheap breakfast and the free coffee using their family card, that means the staff on the kitchen section are usually free to deal with any questions and can help you out.

Go for opening time on a Saturday or again Sunday has browsing (and those people having breakfasts)

I do agree with Oneplan though, I planned mine using the scale drawings with pencil and paper but I did this before the extension was complete, as the electrician needed to know where to put sockets, cooker point etc. He used my scale drawings to measure where to put sockets etc.

At my local IKEA, if you dont book an appointment, they wont go through a design for you (I.e. in order to check the plan and to get to a quote stage). I have problems with the planner but get it to work well and quickly on my laptop (I think there may be some security packages which block it from launching properly - I cant get it to work on my work laptop). Unfortunately if you want your plan checking, there isnt much way around making an appointment (and not sure whether its a national policy or just my local store but they dont have appointments on a Saturday or Sunday thats helpful!)

if you download morizilla fox browser it works much better