I normally don’t like to write posts to criticise establishments but I’m rattled so here goes….

Bad encounter #1

I wanted to buy some bulky items at Ikea and have it home delivered. However I was not very sure of the procedure. I thought that for home deliveries I had to pay for the items first then inform home delivery that I wanted those items delivered. I did not know that I had to pick up the items first, pay for it, then go to home deliveries and asked for those items to be delivered. While I was pondering about what to do, I approched a bored looking Ikea staff to ask. He gave me a scornful look and said “Most people who are here come here all the time so they know what to do already.”  before he proceeded to help me pick up my items.

My thoughts: Well, Mr bored looking gentleman. I don’t come here all the time because I don’t buy furniture everyday and besides its your job to assist me. You must be either underpaid or a not very happy employee to behave in this manner.

Bad encounter #2

So I paid for the items and took them to home delivery to arrange for a delivery time. I stressed that I wanted them delivered at 6.00pm on the date we requested because no one was home before that. On the date in question, the delivery man rang at 12.00pm and said, I am in your area, can I come now?

My thoughts: Not very nice of them to change timing last minute but they were just trying their luck since they were “in the area” so thats forgiveable.

Bad encounter #3 

Eventually they came at 1.00pm, not in a nice Ikea truck I had envisioned but in an old open top red and brown lorry. One of the items was chipped so the delivery guy said we had to call customer service to arrange for a replacement. Calling customer service is a pain. The phone would ring endlessly till it gets cut off. After I finally got through we fixed a date but was not allowed to fix a time for delivery. “Wait for home delivery to call you” I was told.

When home delivery rang me they told me, “Your delivery is slotted for 4-5pm on this date.” I tried to change the time to a later time because no one was home then but was told “Cannot. We’re full.” I tried to change to another date and was told “Cannot. I don’t know. You have to speak to customer service” then the line was passed to customer service and it rang till it went dead.

I called up customer service again and got another date but when I tried to arrange the time I was told “Cannot. You have to wait for home delivery to call you one day before the delivery date.” I asked if they could put a note there to inform delivery of my preferred time since I would not be home at certain times. “Cannot, you have to wait for home delivery to call you.” I then asked them what would happen if they called and they can’t give me a time which is convenient on that fixed date? “Well, then your delivery will be postponed.” they said.

My thoughts: Everyone from the staff at the store to the delivery call center and even the customer service person was not very helpful and sounded rude. I know they had certain procedures to follow but they were not willing to discuss anything beyond that. I was met with a “cannot” answer with no other solutions being offered. They were allowed to change the timing of delivery at their last minute whim but we the customer are only allowed to fix a time convenient to us one day before delivery and if that time was not suitable we had to go through the hassle of calling the customer service staff and repeat the procedure all over again! The staff must be very unhappy to work there or underpaid. Shopping at Ikea has been a rather unpleasant experience for me. I’ll try to limit my shopping there in the future thats for sure.

 


Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...