Not really looking for advice but just a word of warning for anyone planning to make a purchase and expecting even basic customer care.

I ordered a kitchen on 12/05 and was advised of a delivery date of tomorrow 28/05. They have an online order tracking which I checked on Saturday and yesterday morning and it still confirmed delivery of 28/05. I took a week off work to remove old kitchen and receive and install the new units. Today I received a new email informing me of a new delivery date 05/06. I rang the customer care line and queried the change of date. The girl on the phone seemed completely unsympathetic to the fact that a) I had removed my old kitchen in preparation, b) I'd wasted a weeks leave off work. I asked for an explanation and was told one of the units was out of stock. She refused to discuss why I wasn't given the option of getting the rest on time and the missing unit later and could not confirm that the same problem would not occur on the next delivery date. I asked why the stock shortage wasn't noticed when I ordered which she could not answer and said basically if I wasn't happy I should cancel my order....which I did. I cannot beleive such a large company can have such contempt for its customers and just cancelled a £1000 order without even trying to appologise and rectify the situation.

I now have no kitchen to use for the forseeable future and a weeks holiday off work to sit around the house doing nothing.....thanks IKEA!!!

Yeah, that's Ikea for you. Great products, great prices, until it comes to actually buying the stuff.

I call Ikea the shopping trip to hell. Sort of Consumerism meets Nightmare on Elm Street

Yes I guess the cheap prices are due to savings on staff training in custome care! I was already annoyed having gone to the store to buy 10 sets of handles which in the brochure were £3 each but in store £5. When I queried it in store they said there was a disclaimer somewhere instore which had a list of incorrectly priced items on including my handles. I pointed out that on the cover of the brochure it said ' prices valid until july 2008' her reply was they are only valid if they are correct which makes a nonsense of the guarenteed price since only IKEA knows the correct price !

I asked for an explanation and was told one of the units was out of stock. !

Well the new consumer law that came out yesterday will not allow them to do this any longer. It is now an offence to sell things that are not in stock.

Perhaps the law is retrospective.

Well the new consumer law that came out yesterday will not allow them to do this any longer. It is now an offence to sell things that are not in stock.

 

Perhaps the law is retrospective.

I rang up today to find out why my £800 had not ben returned to my account and was told I could not have it back for 14 days!! I asked why and was told they had to wait until the goods had been returned back to IKEA depot by the delivery agent. When I pointed out they didn't have the items as they were out of stock I was told this was not the case and the original customer service agent had 'made an error (lied!)' and the delivery had been postponed a week due to a back log of deliveries.

So now I have NO kitchen and NO money to buy one for two weeks!

Each IKEA store is a franchise. Don't try taking something back to a different store from which you bought it, they won't accept!

Hello. I have had similar problems with IKEA and the sorry situation with my kitchen rumbles on. Like Green and Mean, I too will never order or recommend an IKEA kitchen. I bought a kitchen from them on their 21st Birthday sale thinking it would save me money. Far from it! Ever since I ordered the kitchen it has been nothing but trouble and has cost me several days off work and hours on the phone to their frustrating call centre being passed from pillar to post. IKEA failed to meet 2 delivery dates and did not notifying me of any problems. I also gutted my kitchen and the repeated delays added to my frustrations. I discovered although my delivery dates kept getting pushed back, if I walked in to the store the items were actually availabe to pick up. It made me really mad, they cleared my money but sold my kitchen many times over to whoever came in to the store after me. They could keep pushing back my delivery date because they already had my money and didn't care. In the end my partner and I hired a van and collected the stuff ourselves from the store. They reluctantly refunded our £90 delivery charge and paid for the cost of the van hire. However the problems did not stop there. A fridge was not available and I am still waiting for it. Then there is the on-going issue with their slimline integral dishwasher - which they sell without an integral door that fits. The door they sold me was 55cm too big. IKEA first claimed I had to cut it down to fit, then when I reported the matter as a breach of the Sales of Goods Act 1979, they then claimed that customers who wanted integral doors for their slimline integral dishwasher left a gap of 2.5cm on either side. Ludicrous! I have written a formal letter of complaint to IKEA and notified trading standards.

I don't know if the service is any better - but B&Q seems to have quite a good range of kitchens with more options.

Well the new consumer law that came out yesterday will not allow them to do this any longer. It is now an offence to sell things that are not in stock.

 

Perhaps the law is retrospective.

AIUI, it's not.

But surely this would have implications for places like Amazon who occasionally sell items to order - unless the legislation is falsely stating the goods are in stock.

AIUI, it's not.

Correct. Very little legislation in this country is retrospective.

But surely this would have implications for places like Amazon who occasionally sell items to order - unless the legislation is falsely stating the goods are in stock.

No, items can still be sold to order. Otherwise, nobody could sell bespoke items ever again. Nothing could be commissioned. Only the articles stocked by a retailer could be available. You could only buy a car from dealer stock as opposed to factory order. This is clearly not so.

Do you really think our lords and masters would have passed legislation that effectively closed their Savile Row tailors. I think not.

Correct. Very little legislation in this country is retrospective.

 

 

 

No, items can still be sold to order. Otherwise, nobody could sell bespoke items ever again. Nothing could be commissioned. Only the articles stocked by a retailer could be available. You could only buy a car from dealer stock as opposed to factory order. This is clearly not so.

 

Do you really think our lords and masters would have passed legislation that effectively closed their Savile Row tailors. I think not.

I think not - so essentially as I thought, they can still sell things out of stock but not claim they are.

I got an email today stating my money will be refunded in within 7 days.....incredible!! They make a complete balls up of my order and then keep my money for nearly 3 weeks after I cancelled the order! I'm glad I read your post Rainbow Warrior because I was kicking myself for not just waiting for the new delivery date as I should have had the kitchen by now but reading your tale made me realise it probably would not have come the second time either.

Are you thinking about this part of the regs?

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (No. 1277) - Statute Law Database

The Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (No. 1277)

SCHEDULE 1

Regulation 3(4)(d)

Commercial practices which are in all circumstances considered unfair

5. Making an invitation to purchase products at a specified price without disclosing the existence of any reasonable grounds the trader may have for believing that he will not be able to offer for supply, or to procure another trader to supply, those products or equivalent products at that price for a period that is, and in quantities that are, reasonable having regard to the product, the scale of advertising of the product and the price offered (bait advertising).