We wanted a quality kitchen, without having to sell a kidney. "Hey, why not get an ikea kitchen" I said.
So we visited the megastore, looked at the cabinets and benchtops, took home all the info. I measured up and spent many hours browsing the catalogue to find the perfect solution.
After weeks (no, months) of thought and mind changing, I was set.
All I had to do was order it. Of course you can't order over the phone or online. You have to visit Ikea in person.
Ok, no problem. I'll take Greg with me and we'll get it done in an hour or so.
Here's the thing. The staff are probably nice people when they are not at work, but while they are on the clock, they are trained to be as unhelpful and surly as possible. At the kitchen section, I spoke to a staff member who seemed irritated that I had interrupted her busy schedule of standing around and bitching with the other kitchen staff member. Well, sorreeeeeee!
The kitchen section staff don't help you choose a kitchen by the way, they are there purely as data input people. Don't ask for help, you will be disappointed.
I told her what I wanted, she typed it in. She checked availablility. Oh yeah, that's another thing. If what you want is not in stock, you can't order it, noooooo You have to come back in and get it at a later date. A tad inconvenient when you are ordering a swag of gear and want it delivered.
Anyway.... The Ikea chick printed me a list of 66 items that I required (this included hinges, knobs and such). Now for the fun part....
Grab a trolley and go and find all the items in the self serve area. No, better grab another 2 trolleys - and they are big trolleys!
We spent around 2 - 3 hours finding everything we needed and getting through the checkout. Then we also picked up another 2 trolleys of stuff from the 'full service' desk.
Now that we have everything (we hope), it's time to arrange delivery. Take all 5 trolleys to the delivery counter and they take all the stuff and put it in a different room awaiting delivery.
All up, we spent 4 hours, 15 minutes in Ikea. It was dark when we emerged, tired, broke and hungry.
Ok, so this may be my most negative rant so far on the blog, but I am still happy to have the kitchen I have chosen. I just wanted you all to be aware of the drama associated with buying a kitchen from Ikea.
There may be a further entry about assembling the blasted thing yet.
4 comments:
Have you thought of a relaxing Swedish massage to calm you nerves?
oooh I have heard a very similar Ikea Kitchen Experience not too long ago!
In theory the ikea way does sound very appealing...
And the catelogue pictures are really great...
I just can't wait to see some pictures of the finished product!
Good luck putting it all together with one of their famous alan keys:)
Oh Del, we can so relate! We just love Ikea, but they can be so madenning to deal with. We had a more minor, but still irritating experience with them when we were trying to buy two computer box cabinets/stands/thingys in a certain style and colour. They only had one in stock, so we bought it with the promise of being able to return in three weeks (when the next delivery of stock was due) to buy another. We turned up three weeks later and found they were sold out again, but were once again told that more were coming in. Three weeks later, the same story. It is so infuriating that you can't order them in especialy or place them on hold. Anyway, we decded to ring three weeks later and they gave us the same sorry story: "we're expecting more in three weeks". Arrggh! We never did get it, and last time we were in Ikea we noticed it is now a discontinued item. And so our poor computer box has just remained sitting on the floor.
Did you get a quote from a local kitchen company (keeping the money local) I have my own company and find that the ikeas, bunnings and so on are really no cheaper than me!! And the quality is a lot better not to mention if you have any problems you simply give me a call and I'll fix it!! Never mind all the best����
Col from COSH CABINETS
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