Ikea

I think IKEA is awesome. But i am really writing this because of the huge long and retarded review of ikea featured here about the return of RTA furniture. Seriously, if you take the screws out of the box and screw them into the boards, you have just USED that item you bought. It's true and you know it.When you buy a car and drive it off the lot, it's then considered used. really,

So i get it you aren't completely satisfied, It's ok to be un-satisfied. Now you have to stay unsatisfied. Try selling it on ebay, you can even lie and say NEW, NOT USED. and watch the unlucky shlub who buys it give you bad feed back, then you and someone else will be really unsatisified.

A Really satisifed Review-er. IKEA ROCKS, BUY SOME.

Posted 11/08/09 | Report Abuse

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My hubby and I have been shopping at IKEA forever. I agree with various posts I've seen mentioning that quality is not that great and prices not that cheap. However, we have found a number of situations - kids rooms, furnishing an office, new kitchen in a rental where the products offered were a good fit. While IKEA is not perfect, we always appreciated the fact that the return policy was lenient and making a mistake in judgement on our part was easy enough to correct.

That is until recently. IKEA (at least Covina, CA) doesn't allow returns on RTA furniture if it is assembled it and it didn't work out. We bought a console and shelf unit that we were going to use as a TV unit in an office and after we put it together we realized it wasn't a good fit for the room. So my hubby carefully disassembled the unit, reboxed all the pieces carefully, and off to the store we went with receipt in hand. The CRS person immediately asked us if we assembled the unit and if so it could not be returned. Furthermore she said that this was clearly stated on the receipt.

The return policy that is posted on the IKEA site and all over the store (accompanied with a friendly, huggy red heart with arms reaching out to hug customers, ) is :
"If you are not completely satisfied with your purchase, simply return the unused item in its original packaging within 90 days unless noted below. A receipt is required for all returns and exchanges." ("The noted below" does not mention RTA furniture.)

The receipt itself indicates that an unused item in its original packaging + a receipt is required to return an item.

During the discussion with the CRS manager(I asked for the manager not getting satisfied with the response from the first person) I told her that it looks to me that basically returns are not allowed for RTAs because we can only take the boxes home and return them without opening (the point being...?) The manager indicated we could open the box to look at the color and see how it matches the room but not assemble the item - assembling a piece of furniture makes it used. Huh? IKEA should then just provide color samples to take home like Home Depot or Lowes and save everyone a lot of hassle in carting boxes back and forth. The manager also indicated that other stores don't allow returns on furniture. Perhaps she doesn't shop at Costco, Lowes, TJ MAXX, etc, etc.

So here I am struggling with words in the policy such as "completely satisfied" and "unused" . I am not completely satisfied. I do not know how to find complete satisfaction with a flat pack box until I see the pieces assembled in their intended location. What other means do I or any IKEA customer have to be completely satisfied with an RTA purchase? Taking boxes home and positioning the unopened box in the room is not the same as seeing the piece of furniture in its intended completed state. Furthermore, "using" to me means that I have actually used the furniture for the purpose it was purchased such as setting up the TV in the unit not just looking at the furniture. The manager indicated that seeing the furniture in my home was not necessary to be satisfied since IKEA has displays for this purpose. I forgot to tell her that my house does not really look like an IKEA showroom.

Now the boxes for the TV unit are back at my house, and I am completely dissatisfied. After reading a bunch of posts regarding IKEA, I realized that the return policy is not the same for each store. As such it looks like the best approach to this problem is to shop in a different IKEA store. A reasonable return policy is important to me and my hubby. We, like everyone living in this area, have many options for shopping and therefore don't need to put up with IKEA Covina's inflexibility towards returns of RTA furniture.

Posted 01/15/08 | Report Abuse

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Ikea is one of the best stores. The prices are great, and any furniture you put together is so easy! The parking lot at this IKEA is very very large. It's hard to not find a space for yourself. This IKEA is always clean and tidy. The lines can get kinda long sometimes though, so you have to be careful at what day and what time you go at. They also have cheap food!

PROS: Prices are very low`
CONS: Lines can get long

Posted 07/09/05 | Report Abuse

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