Not to sound like a Tyler Durden wannabe, but I’ve never set foot in an IKEA. What’s the appeal? I rarely hear anything but complaints about them.
“What do you mean, the front half isn’t in stock?”
Vinyl Turnip: it’s cheap, and you can kit out your whole home there, albeit mostly with crap; a lot of renters need stuff like that, though - no point spending money on good stuff when you’re moving around still. And some of their stuff isn’t even terrible; I can think of worse places to get plates and other kitchen bits. And the plants are okay as well, I suppose - certainly cheaper than from garden centres, at least here in the UK.
I’m still going to burn them to the ground for what they did, though.
[Fry] They sure know how to put almost everything you need in a box. [Fry]
Thing is, cazzle, Ikea’s return policy is more onerous than other retailers, and they NEVER have “bought it at WalMart, returned it at KMart” problems, or “crappy supplier” problems, because practically everything they sell is a unique Ikea brand product. You can have a product new - unopened in the box, one that they sell every day, and they tell you they can’t even give you store credit because you can’t prove you bought the (entirely unique to Ikea) product at Ikea?
It also doesn’t help that Ikea is a destination retailer, where people regularly travel long distances to get their unique product, and don’t go every couple of weeks. It’s not that easy to schedule another long drive to return a small item, when you finally have need to go back to the store, they can tell you to piss off because you lost the receipt or went over the time limit.
They may have a reason to do it, but I guarantee it pisses off a lot of customers, who know how other retailers treat returns.
I bought two identical chairs from them at the same time.
They were made of some sort of layered playwood sides with some struts inbetween to connect both sides.
After about 2 years one of the steel bolts just snapped in half leaving me in a crumbled heap on the floor.
About 3 months later the other chair did the exact same thing.
And I am about 170 pounds.
Slight hijack: Two or three years back I bought a nice leather office chair from Office Depot or Max (I forget which) for about $200. Haven’t had the least little problem with it. Very comfy, too.
I mean, come on, an office chair from Ikea? Office Max and Depot specialize in office products. I never even thought about Ikea.
If you say those product names, tens times in a row, into a mirror, at midnight, a viking will come out of the mirror and kill you.
Thanks, Zebra. I just choked on my biscuits and gravy. 
Ok now I can start work.
The reason for the receipts is so they don’t have to honor their warranties as often. That’s all it is. And in all likelihood it was brought on by too many warranty claims. Rather than retool or recall, they’re focused entirely on bottom line, and at the warehouse price level, they probably feel just fine doing so.
They probably figure repeat customers are a small enough percentage of their business that they can lose a few. Especially the kind who don’t keep every scrap of paper in their lives, or lean back in their chairs. Most of the rest IKEA will probably do right by, and come off a good outfit.
No, they didn’t get any meatballs that time.
Same here.
Ikea is good for some things, I’d say 1/3 of our furniture is from there (bookshelves, dressers, kitchen chairs, son’s bed), their linens are nice and I love some of their kitchen gear (we use the plastic plates and tumblers we picked up for 2 dollars a package all the time, and the cheese greater is wonderful) but not everything is equal.
You just have to be a savvy shopper, as with any store. Play around with the display models, sit in the chairs, check the joins. Unless they just put out a new floor model you can get an idea of how well it will stand up, or maybe I’ve just been lucky in what I’ve chosen to buy.
Besides, most scandinavian businesses insist on reciepts. They don’t where you are?
It has been legal to sell those in Texas for almost two weeks: *Reliable Consultants Inc. and PHE Inc. v. Earle*, (5thCir., 12 Feb. 2008, No. 06-51067, Fulbruge, J.A.). I wonder when IKEA’s Houston store will start stocking them.
My office furniture is all Scandinavian. Last night I weighed 199. This morning I weigh 201. It is sunny outside, so rather than going in to work today, I’m staying home and going cross-country skiing. I’m telling myself that it is a health and safety issue – I don’t want to get injured by breaking a chair.
Not in the good ol’ U.S. of A.
Which might also explain this:
Thing is, Cheescake, cazzle is from Australia, where receipts are much more commonly required for returns, or at least were when i lived there.
In fact, one of the consumer quirks that i found most amazing when i moved to the US was the liberal, even cavalier attitude that Americans (both retailers and consumers) take to returns. Many retailers will take back just about anything without making a fuss, receipt or not. And this has, in turn, produced a subsection of consumers who spend half their lives returning shit, even after they’ve used it and found it perfectly acceptable. Hell, some people buy thing with the specific intention of returning them.
I’ve been at return counters in places like Target where it’s clear that people are returning items that have seen considerable use, and that have nothing wrong with them except the wear and tear of daily use. I’ve heard people admit that they do exactly that.
I think a fair return policy is a good thing, and that stores should not try to get out of their obligations by asking too much of their customers in this area. But i also think that, particularly for large or more expensive household items, it’s not asking too much to request that consumers keep the receipt. Even if you buy a lot of crap, keeping the receipts for such thing shouldn’t take up more than a single folder in your filing cabinet.
I actually snickered at that.
I have my entire bedroom set from Ikea. Both daughters have a handful of Ikea products in their rooms (Desks, tables chairs, beds). I’m pushing 300 and I have yet to break anything from Ikea with my fat ass. Maybe you aren’t using the chair right. I have always been told not to rock back in office chairs or to use them as step stools.
I’m sorry your chair broke and it took more effort than you think is right to replace it, but I’ve never had a problem with any piece of IKEA furniture. In addition, the book cases I bought more than 20 years ago and have dismantled and moved numerous times have never sagged, unlike any other knock-together book cases. I don’t think the laminate has chipped on anything, the solid stuff is in great shape, and the issue is really that I can now afford better furniture so as I need new items I tend to upgrade from IKEA. I can’t speak to their return/exchange policies, but of the ~30 pieces of furniture I’ve bought there (including chairs), I’ve never had to return anything.
When I first moved in with my girlfriend we purchased our entire home worth of furnishings from Ikea since it was cheap and was maybe five minutes away from where we were moving. In order for this to be accomplished we had to go to Ikea approximately 5 times a week for two weeks. Today, you couldn’t march me back in there at gunpoint.
If I need anything Scandanavian besides black metal CDs these days, I go to Dania which seems similar but much nicer.