I admit it, I didn't plan to blog about this today as it's more of a rant that parenting advice of anything 'parenting related' however I feel as a parent and customer that somethings need to be said for a store that has children's play areas dotted about and make you think they are child friendly when in essence if you buy one of their kitchens your kids will be without proper home cooked fresh food for so long you will wonder what you did wrong to get such a severe punishment.
IKEA the famous blue and yellow place often renowned for offering home interiors at affordable prices.
However although the above maybe true, their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.
We like thousands of families out there wanted a shiny new affordable kitchen and whilst dreaming of new kitchens we saw the advert for party-proof kitchens. So we thought if the kitchens are party proof they must be kiddie proof. So off we went to look around Ikea and order a kitchen for delivery from our local store. Reason for this is it's usually quicker in terms of delivery.
So we chose a Faktum Valla Walnut Kitchen with a Domsjo sink and shiny silver plinths. Quite modern but classy all the same.
We got excited-very excited! However all came crashing down when items started to appear out of stock...but only after paying for it and having a delivery date.
So the customer rep that called me was friendly and said once the items were back in stock (worktops and a cabinet) the items would be sent out asap. Great stuff I thought. Bit upset that I was only told one item was missing and then 3 ended up not being on the truck due to stock availability.
So I was told I would get a call when stock was back in-I didn't get a call for a few days so I did a quick check online and to my horror the cabinet was back in stock as were the worktops but no one had called me.
So I arranged a taxi to go to Warrington (cost me over £60.00!) and got no explanation and were fobbed off with a lot of fluff. I came away with a cabinet but no refund for the cabinet which should have been delivered as that was something a different department does. As one of the doors delivered was damaged on delivery I needed to exchange it-online it was showing as in stock. In reality it wasn't in stock and apparently had been DISCONTINUED!!!
What on earth. I was mortified. I purchased the kitchen on the 22.03.2012 and on the 30.03.2012 I was being told it was a discontinued model. So after various conversations, emails, webchats it was all sorted (about 3 weeks later). Ikea Warrington had been polite enough to organise my missing items to be delivered from another store as indeed these items were being discontinued. Now the kitchen sales person never mentioned this even though I told him I was hoping to add another unit to my kitchen.
After around 20 emails, 9 webchats, over 10 phone calls my items arrived this morning. But no I cannot celebrate because:
I've been sent two worktops instead of one!
I've been sent 4 large end panels instead of three
I'm missing 3 small wall panels
After 50 minutes on a webchat Ikea have kindly arranged to have the three missing panels sent out to me Saturday.
However..I am still awaiting a refund of £85.00. When will it happen? Your guess is as good as mine.
So my advice to anyone with a young family who is looking at purchasing an Ikea kitchen is please don't bother. I was kitchen-less for so long and Munchy hated the restricted access to the kitchen. It has been a nightmare in regards to reduced kitchen facilities to cook a decent meal.
My anniversary meal never took place (Happy 6th Anniversary to me) as I had nowhere to safely prepare it.
The headache, worry and anger I have felt over the last few weeks should never have taken place if Ikea valued me as a customer. Clearly they are a company that sells millions of units and I am simply a number.
So if you have the patience of a saint, and your family don't mind waiting between 4-8 weeks to sort out the simple things that shouldn't really go wrong then by all means buy an Ikea kitchen. But if you value your sanity don't bother. Pay a bit more and go elsewhere.
My kitchen might look funky y'all, but it was a headache and cost a lot of blood sweat and tears to get to where I am today.
Well I best sign off as I have the recycling to sort out. Munchy has only taken a 30 minute nap (what's that about) and I have about 10 jars to rinse and put out for the recycling men. How did I end up with so many jars and no kitchen to cook in? There from my spice jar. I have upgraded to the kilner style jars (a bargain from Asda-£3.00 for 3 550ml jars) so my cabinet looks uniformed. No I am not a freak of nature, I just like pretty, tidy rows of things in my cabinets. I am failing to organise the food cabinets though. Packets were never designed in my opinion with cabinets in mind. Whose with me?
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