Ikea Customer Service-A Nightmare

Much as I couldn't stop raving about Ikea's amazing collection and fabulous designs, I must admit that their customer service sucks.

After being mooney-eyed about their furniture, I bought a whole bunch of stuff. We opted for home delivery service. The goods arrived on the promised date. However, the delivery guys were so careless that they ended up scratching the walls while taking the mattress into the bedroom. To make matters worse, they forgot one package. They were not even willing to check the number of items they need to deliver. We had to go through the list and remind them of the missing package. And this was only the beginning of our troubles.

We called the Ikea customer care number and the IVR put us on hold for almost 20 minutes. As soon as  you dial in, an automated response tells you that all the agents are busy and that the wait time is 15-20 minutes. If this was a one off case, I wouldn't mind. But this happens every single time I try calling them. If you know that at any given time, more customers than you can handle need assistance, as  a business it is only natural for you to fulfill your duty of providing additional agents to provide support.

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, we finally spoke to a rep who said that they would be conducting a ware house wide search and would deliver the item in 7 days. I wouldn't have complained if this was the case. But 7 days passed and nothing happened. I called them again. This time they told me that an agent would call me the next day at 10 am. If they don't I should contact a particular extension. As expected no one called the next day. I tried the extension and it went to the voicemail box . I left a message requesting for a call back. Again, nothing happened. I tried the next day-no result.

Now, I thought of trying their online chat. This turned out to be worse than the telephone experience. The chat just wouldn't connect. I kept getting the message that all agents are busy and I need to try later. After a couple of hours (I'm not kidding!) of trying, I finally got through only to be told that they apologize for the delay and they they would arrange for a call back as soon as possible. What do you think happened? Nothing.

And here I am with no place to sit despite shelling out $300 for a sofa as I'm unable to assemble it without the missing part. I have no idea when my misery will end!

UPDATE: Many phone calls, twitter & FB posts and consumer complaints later, the item finally arrived!

Furniture, furniture and some more

Much as setting up a house is challenging and hectic, it sure is a very enjoyable and exciting process. Having moved to a new country with nothing except our clothes, we have this task of making our newly rented apartment into our home.

What better place to begin furniture shopping other than Ikea? Now, I'd heard about Ikea, looked at their online catalogue but when I visited their store, boy, was I blown away? The sheer size of the store was something I couldn't get over. It was as if I stepped into furniture heaven. We went on a weekend and there is no need for me to tell you how crowded it was. 

Braving the crowds, we ventured from one section to the other. I was greedily eying ever piece of furniture and secretly wishing I could own some of them. As soon as I'd oogled enough at one object and moved to the next aisle, my heart would swoon once again. The designs, the arrangement and combinations with other pieces to form a complete set were beyond perfect. 

Armed with a pencil and blank shopping list provided at the entrance, we moved strolled through each section, noting the name, model number and price of the items we liked. The list kept growing. We finally managed to zero in on a coffee table, dining table and chairs, a sofa and a night stand. I thought we were done. And then we came to the first floor. An even bigger collection of household stuff. Curtains, cutlery, crockery, bathroom essentials, garden supplies-you name it and they have it. I was very impressed with the low prices too.

However, as we had to take a bus and a train to reach home, we could only buy so much. My kitchen looks so much better with those brown bowls and matching plates that I picked up there. 

I know for sure where I'm going to spend this weekend!

P.S: This is not a sponsored post :)