IKEA - the next episode

Two days later, another phone call from IKEA - this back board (I could not hide the smile that crossed my face, but then the person on the phone could not see it anyway) was to be delivered on September 2, around noon.- Phantastic news! And you managed to put it into the same delivery as the other things? - Which other things? - I tried to explain. In the last week I had become an expert on filing and pulling out different receipts from different days, giving customer service not only the cashier's number, but also the receipt number, I was really proud of myself. - I will check and call you back. - My smile faded, but sure enough he called me back in order to reassure me that everything would be delivered by noon, two pieces. - Hang on, we have different things being delivered. - Well, then you have to call... and the guy hung up, obviously irritated with the complicated task. - Since I had nothing better to do I did call the other number: Hey and good afternoon, welcome to IKEA customer service. In short, what is it that you want. Either say .... I knew the keyword and said it. Pause. Then the familiar female voice: I am sorry, I did not understand you. - I repeated the word only to get the same reply. By now I felt like a victim of 'Candid Camera' and kept shouting: CUSTOMER COMPLAINT!!!! - I am sorry I seem to have difficulty understanding you (who would have guessed!), let me transfer you to the next available representative. Your average waiting time is now more than 5 minutes. -

Finally, a real person on the other end of the line. Hurrah! He again told me that I should trust IKEA, if I had been told that everything would arrive on the same day, so it would. - I gave up, but could not refrain from telling him that the automated announcer did not understand anything one says. His reply: I know, she only understands Swedish right now!

Epilogue: the following day, around noon, the door bell rang - YES, IKEA with all the missing wardrobes, a sideboard and a day bed. - By any chance, do you have a back board, too? - No, sorry - and if they called you about that only yesterday, it is highly unlikely that it will be delivered today - SCREAM! -

But then, two hours later, the door bell rang again and .... IKEA with another packet. - I am here to exchange the broken body of your wardrobe with a new one. - I spent about 10 minutes explaining to him that we were only missing ONE PART of the package, not the whole one. - No problem, let's just open the package and take the back board out. (I wonder who got the incomplete package?)

By the way, that reminds me, I have to call IKEA once more, the side board was broken and they haven't contacted me yet...

More phone calls

I am sure you have shopped at IKEA's before, maybe even requested their delivery service, or set up a date to have the huge pieces of furniture assembled. We have done that before and so we were quite confident about our trips to IKEA and the orders.

And to be honest, we had quite a few pieces, since we desperately needed wardrobes as there are no walk-ins here in Germany. The first delivery was scheduled for August 24, right after our return from Croatia. Andrea did not get hers during our first trip to IKEA, it was out of stock, but two days later we got it AND the friendly person from customer's service managed to have it delivered on the same day as our wardrobe. Well, that's at least what we thought.

So on August 24 there was a knock on the door and I greeted the person joyfully and lead him into Andrea's room. "The little wardrobe will stand here, the big one..." "Lady, we have only got one wardrobe - maybe the other one will come later in the morning with a different crew."

In order not to make that story too long, here is what happened: While the men were assembling our wardrobe, which took them about 3 hours, I was on the phone with IKEA for about 2 1/2 hours, trying go find out what had happened to Andrea's wardrobe. All of a sudden, I knew what was wrong: the address! I had not checked on the correct address when I got the delivery slip, and the item was sent to a completely different customer. To make matters worse, my phone number was wrong, too. - If I could call the delivery persons?- No, no way? - If IKEA could please call them? - No, no way.- If I could get this wardrobe maybe delivered with Stefan's, which was supposed to come on September 2?- Maybe.

Well, IKEA and I spent a lot of time talking with one another, customer service representatives explaining the matter to each other, then again to me, trying to find a solution - and then the next thing happened: the back part of one of the pieces of our wardrobe was missing.

Now this threw customer service completely off balance. They would not accept that it was just one part of a package that was missing, but insisted that it was the whole thing that was not there. I tried to be patient and by the evening, everything seemed to be settled. Somebody would call me the next day and arrange for a new delivery date, and MAYBE everything could be sent in one delivery.

The next day: no phone call from IKEA, so I called them in the afternoon, only to find out that there was nothing in our file with regard to the endless phone calls from the previous day. But somebody would call me back soon and.... ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Two hours later - a phone call to tell me that everything would be in our apartment by September 2. Everything - does that mean two wardrobes and this back board? - Hang on, why are you talking about a back board? - I tried not to scream!