Thursday, October 16, 2008

More of the same and then this...

I find it interesting and disappointing all at the same time that I continue to get story after story of similar encounters with Ikea. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given what I know.

And then there are those who choose to defend them. That is fine but sometimes I feel compelled to comment on comments that I receive. Below is one such comment that I felt needed a reply:

honestly i am an ikea employee, and i would never order from online, not because it's ikea but because ordering furniture online seems pretty weird, anyways the reality is ikea is cheap, and you get what you pay for, you could always pay triple for the similar piece of furniture somewhere else, but you don't. so live with your choices in life, just deal with it. if you wanted ikea to have tons of smiling faces helping you in store or over the phone prices would sky rocket and then you wouldn't shop there, i have learned by working there and shopping there that if you want to be an ikea customer you need to learn to be patient. our motto is if the customer gives a little, and we give a little together we can save a lot. but customers believe that they need all the attention all the time, and in this world that comes with a price. it's like shopping at Target and Nordstrom, at Target you can't find anyone to help you but stuff is cheap, at Nordstrom you have to beat coworkers off with a stick, and the price reflects it. anyways good luck shopping and it's hard being no. 1, it's lonely at the top.......


First let me say that I appreciate this comment and agree that one needs to go into buying cheap furniture with their eyes wide open knowing that you get what you pay for. I know we did when we went and bought this table. But the minute one pays, no matter how little, for something one rightly expects that A) all of the parts are there, B) that it goes together as expected, and 3) that it lasts more than a few months. If you read through this blog and most of the subsequent comments you will find that often one, two or all three of these were not the case. Yet as the quoted writer suggests we are supposed to some how accept this because we didn't pay what some believe to be enough for that kind of quality?

I would suggest that for many what they have paid may very well be a small fortune and that they deserve something that will last beyond a few months, have all of it's parts and go together as suggested in the instructions. They do not expect it to grow into the family heirloom antique otherwise they should definitely be shopping somewhere else. Most just want and deserve something that they can get by with.

I find the comment about the customer giving a little and then them giving kind of troubling. Didn't the customer give them hard earned money for their defective product? Aren't they, at least in my case, those who gave nothing? I would have had plenty of patience and give had they shown me even a modicum of it. They shut me down from the get go and forced my hand.

It seems like such a waste of energy now. Cie la vie I guess.

Happy furniture hunting.