Ikea is Dead to Me
June 9th, 2008 by ariana
Saturday, the first day of this ungodly 100+ degree heat wave we’ve been having here we decided that we would make the ikea trip that we’ve been putting off for at least a month now.
I should have taken it as a sign of things to come when I spent all morning searching in vain for the receipt for the defective mikael filing cabinet. Not deterred, I convinced Jeff that we needed to go to Ikea Elizabeth, about an hour drive from our house rather than Ikea Paramus, a 20 minute drive because they had the perfect patio umbrella and outdoor canvas canopy thingy for our pergola in stock.
Supposedly.
In addition to these two things, I still had to return a set of curtains (that I did have the receipt for) and also wanted to pick up two more of the adorable malaro white chairs for our patio set:
And bonus, they are having a summer sale, so some of these things may even be marked down!
After arriving at lunch time and waiting in line for 30 minutes for food, we wended our way through the top floor show room like obedient lab rats and finally arrived at the marketplace in search of the outdoor items.. which were actually displayed in the middle of the self service area.
You wouldn’t think that would be a big enough place to display them, but ha, it is! Because guess what? They don’t have ANYTHING left.
Now, I know what you ikea savvy shoppers are thinking, why would I expect the items to still be there after the summer sale has already been in progress for two weeks?
Because I checked the item availability on Ikea’s website for the umbrella 5 minutes before we left, that’s why! It said “in stock” yes.. which I oh so naively took to mean that they had the product in stock.
I called over a woman from that product area to ask her to double check, figuring maybe they JUST sold out and there was one lying around somewhere. “Oh no, we sold out of that like a month ago” she says. I think my blood pressure just about doubled at that point.
So they didn’t have the umbrella which was the main reason for our trip there, but they would have the outdoor canopy thingy right? Nope, they don’t have that either. Sold out.
And the Malaro chairs? Sold out too.
GRRRRRRRARRGHH!!!!
Lest you don’t believe me, here is a stock report from Ikea’s site for the elusive Karlso umbrella that I generated JUST NOW (see thet date and time?)
I like the part where it says “we always err on the side of caution to avoid disappointment”.
The moral of the story is that Ikea’s website “stock” check is a big bunch of crap. I asked an “associate” how the hell one was supposed to avoid wasting the major part of their Saturday and at least $15 worth of gas for nothing.. she said to call and ask for that department and speak to someone in person. Ok fine, but why the hell don’t they say that on the website? Why even offer an absurdly inaccurate stock check at all?
After picking up a few items we could have gotten at our local paramus Ikea Jeff waited in line to checkout while I stomped off to get some frozen yogurt to dull my pain…
The frozen yogurt machine was broken.
Big suprise.
How frustrating! We have had our issues with the IKEA online stock check thing too, but luckily for us it worked in favor. Some nursery items we thought were out of stock were actually there. I hear you though, it’s really aggravating.
Chantal, I’m so glad you had the opposite problem! It does further proves my point that the stock check doesn’t mean anything though doesn’t it?
A. Online stock checking never works. Especially not for seasonal items.
B. We went to check out the summer stock at Ikea New Haven Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The place was nearly cleaned out by then, as expected, but we did manage to find the set we wanted. There were only a couple boxes left in the entire place. So, yah, now it’s two weeks after that..
:( Better luck next time. Try lowering your expectations, you’ll be better off.. that way when you DO find what you’re looking for, it’ll be thrilling.
Ally, you reminded me of my other rant… why the hell do they sell out of all their summer stuff before summer even officially begins? That’s some poor planning IMO!
I hear you about expectations. Fortunately I have none anymore ;)
Im just jealous you even have an ikea! Working for a big corporation like Home Depot for the last few years…I have learned online ALWAYS SUCKS! And if you think its frustrating as a customer try being an associate who has to listen to upset customers all day long about a big stupid company that you cant controll. Inventory is stupid, ordering is stupid, online is stupid. BLEH! Ok Im done ranting…can I go to ikea now?
Ok, so if keeping track of your stock online is so damn hard, why profess to do it at all? I am not talking about keeping track of a stray door here or there that is supposed to be in the store but isn’t.. when inventory is really low on an item of course it can be off by a bit. But they sold out of these umbrellas a month ago, so it’s not like we’re talking “off by a hair” here, we’re talking no reflection of reality whatsoever!
Oh my, my complaints are petty compared to what some of these people have been through!
Oh my…not a good day. I’m always overwhelmed by Ikea anyway. Half-way through I start to have a panic attack and need to make a bee-line for the exit.
Hey, this problem is not just an USA problem either, the EXACT same thing happened to me in Australia. I check the stock levels on the website, it said yes the items I wanted were in stock, I take the tram to Ikea (It’s just 1 tram from my house, I carry what I buy on a moving trolley I bought at Ikea) and bam they are not there, total waste of my day, and to make it worse the staff insist that the website is always right and I couldn’t have possibly checked that morning as they have been out of stock of those items for 3 weeks!!!! Woah 3 weeks without updating their stock availability. I called up to make a complaint and they told me head office in Sweden is in charge of the stock availability updating so its not Ikea Richmond’s fault (this is a very popular excuse in Australia, the blame game) Anyway I have learnt my lesson to call first, the website is all lies to get you into the store to buy something else!
[…] and photographed last night when Jeff accidentally broke the glass on one of the Ikea Ribba frames (Ikea and me are like oil and water lately.) So that area will need to wait to be photographed until we make it to Ikea this weekend. (fun fun […]
Hello, Did you ever find your market umbrella – I have the Karlso 260 x 260 cm white umbrella, but no stand. It’s never been out of the box. I imagine it would cost about in the range of 30-50 bucks to ship, but if you’re interested, i’ll send it to you for shipping. Just to get it out of my garage.
I have a similar story with Ikea… i fumed for weeks.
Mary