Okay ...full story first:

This is ALL Nottingham Ikea

Ordered and paid (£645) for a new sofa on 7-9-02. Told that we *should* get a call on 23-09-02 from haulage company to give us a delivery slot.

Monday afternoon 23-09-02 a woman called to say we would get the sofa on Wednesday 25-09-02 ...am delivery which is between 7 and 1

Wednesday I got up at 6am , cleared the old sofa , hoovered behind it etc etc. We stayed in all morning and nothing.

Rang Ikea customer services at 1.30 and was told that several deliveries in my area had been cancelled but there was no other info at that time. Told I would get a call from the haulage company later that day with another delivery slot.

Rang Ikea customer services Thursday am. Spoke to a supervisor. She told me that there had been a problem and that they had passed the info to their own transport department and THEY would get back to me.

Rang Ikea customer services Friday am. Was told the name of the CS Manager and that he would phone me back.

Rang Ikea customer services Friday early evening. Was told that they are open until 9pm and that we WOULD get a call back and that they were waiting to hear from the warehouse

It is now Saturday morning.

I am depressed.

What next?

Melody :(

Edited for update:

Rang Ikea again this am and spoke to someone in the delivery department. He obviously took pity on me and gave me the couriers phone number ;) I rang them. The first question the woman asked me was *Who gave you this number??* I obviously didnt tell her ..but she is , hopefully , cheching the warehouse to see IF my sofa is actually there. If it isn't then at least I know that Ikea is at fault and not the courier company - she told me that they didnt have the sofa there Wednesday to deliver it , which rather makes me wonder WHY they rang me Monday to arriange transport.

I would go to the store, demand my money back and tell them (politely) what they could do with their settee ;-)

I agree with Leigh, because you can almost guarantee that if they do deliver a sofa to you now, it'll be the wrong one!:(
Lynn x

And if you're really good at complaining then demand compensation for wasted time, phone calls, loss of interest on the money you've paid etc etc, :) used to work in a carpet shop and you'd be amazed at what people will try and get away with!!!!
Give 'em hell Melody, tell them your elderly mother has been sat on the floor waiting for the arrival of their settee! ;)

There have been various stories in our Sunday papers here in Scotland re Ikea deliveries, seemingly they are having loads of problems, promising to deliver and not, I would advise you either write to "The Judge" in the Sunday Mail, or the advice page in the Sunday Post, they certainly get things moving if people are having any problems with companies. I ordered a new Leather Suite from Land of Leather in January, was promised a delivery in April, it came to August still no suite, so I cancelled, luckily the deposit was paid by credit card so got my money back, if I had paid any other way, I would probably still been waiting, i've since heard that Land of Leather's owners are the same as Landmark who went bust owing people thousands of pounds for goods ordered and not delivered. This has put me off buying another suite so will have to stick with the "old one" that the dogs love to sit on the back off!!!!

Poor Melody, I feel so sorry for you. It sounds like both Ikea and the courier have really good Customer Care policies (not!). I am with the others, cancel the order, demand full and immediate refund of any payment made, plus compensation for phone calls, inconvenience, loss of earnings whilst waiting for delivery etc, etc, etc.
We got our sofa direct from a manufacturer near Nottingham, very helpful, willing to tailor the furniture to suit you (height/depth of seat, and loads of styles and swatches to choose from. Also kept to their promise to deliver, ringing up two days before, as well as on the day to confirm! :) If you like, I will e-mail you the address/tel number.
Please let us know what you decide and how you get on.

I'm sorry Melody I know we laughed about it in the week . Threaten to cancel -but then you'd still be left with no sofa ,maybe see if its instore and arrange collection yourself !!!
good luck :)
liz

It wont be in store as they aren't made AT Ikea Nottingham :( Also ..this is the only settee that I have seen that I love ...and I mean love. It is HUGE and comfy and big enough to sleep on AND it fits into the space that I want it to.

I dont want a bed settee or futon I want a bed I can sleep on ....

I will update on Monday and let you know what is going on :)

Melody

Any news yet --this is worse than waiting for the babies ;)
LIZ

HI Melody,

If you want the sofa which you naturally do then no point in demanding a refund as you will suffer the lose not them . they won't really care if you don't buy it. Call their head office, be poilet but firm.

Tell them you have taken a day off work etc and that you will be expecting somethings as a will of good jesture.

I am afraid that is about the best you can do.

Good luck it always ruins things when this happens..

Pam

Is there another IKEA (relatively nearby) to you that might have it in stock????
If I was there, I'd offer the use of my truck to pick it up :) :) :)
Even though it's currently sitting on the lot with a For Sale sign ;) :D
Sorry, I can't help :( Good luck and best wishes :)

No ..Ikeas are spread out here in the UK. Also they make the sofas when they are ordered and only keep the display ones in stock.

Melody

Everything comes in a box here :) No specially made stuff :( Sounds neat though.

IKEAs here are also spread out, but we happen to be at the bottom of a huge triangle. An hour away from one -- an hour and a half from another (but with high speed driving on a very lonely autobahn :) )
Sorry, couldn't be of any help :(
It sounds dreamy though. I hope this week goes better for you and it shows up :)
toodles

Everything ELSE comes in a box :( Our house is Ikea heaven ..we used to go to the Brent Park one in London about 45 minutes away from where we lived in W London but now the Nottingham one is the closest (again 45 minutes). AFAIK ALL large suites are made away from the Ikea sites and then delivered ..if you look in the catalogue it tells you. Some smaller sofas and chairs can be picked up from stock but the larger ones are made in a variety of coverings and , therefore have to be made individually.

I *could* get to either of another 2 Ikeas but would do no good as they wont have my settee :( Thanks anyway

Melody

Just a thought but have you tried ringing to speak to the general manager ?-just bypass everbdy else and go as high up as you can --the higher they are the louder they shout !!or if they have a head office try them ,if you irritate somebody enough they,ll get it sorted just to get rid of you
good luck
Liz:)

Thanks Liz ...when I rang Customer Services the third time I managed to get hold of the CS Managers name and asked to be put thru to him ....we only have internal numbers she said ..I will get him to ring you.

They are experts I tell you ...EXPERTS!

I was a CS agent for several years and I know that to get things done you need to be calm and persistant and , and , and ....but I am dire danger of losing it soon :) I know it isn't the reps fault ..they can only *do* so much ...but Mr Gary Deakin will be getting a strong letter Tuesday morning :)

Melody

Welllllllll! any news yet ?;)
liz

Nope in a word

Rang them AGAIN yesterday ..spoke to a supervisor ..very nive lady ..she explained that they changed their delivery agents over during a 3 week period ...my order was one of those affected. The sofa HAS been made ....and it HAS been sent to the hub (haulage term for big warehouse ;) ) but then it SHOULD have gone to the local distributor ...but they cannot find it.

Yesterday I told her to order me another one ....and , guess what , yup ...I am expecting a phone call :D :D

Sorry to say one of my friends reads my online diary and has read about my trials and tribulations. She WAS going to buy a complete Ikea kitchen next year ..but has decided to change her mind

Melody

aaawww I'm sorry
Liz :)

know what you're going through.... same story happened to me last year at Ikea Croydon. won't bore you with loooooooong twists and turns but all ended up getting a refund though followed by Ikano Finacial services statments for 2 months afterwards still asking me to pay for sofa that never materialised. I cancelled card and told them to never ever ever send me even the slightest promotional leaflet. Guess what? yesterday received a statement (that's a whole year later!) asking me to pay £30 to renew my Ikea store card. Have written letter which I intend to send registered to Goran Nilsson himself (UK MD of Ikea) unfortunately, impossible to get a head office address. Any suggestions anyone?
Bamboo

Welcome to the forum Bamboo :-)

Head Office: Ikea, Brent Park. North London. NW10

Hi

Try looking on the Companies House Website and do a search under company information which should give you the registered office address.

HTH

Tracy

PS To check you have got the right company the company reg no should be on your reciepts.

Okay ..ahve found several Ikeas on there now (after looking in a different bit to the one I searched a week ago). There is no number matching on my till receipt. Plus the address given is 21 HOLBORN VIADUCT LONDON EC1A 2DY which is different to the one that Leigh gave.

Melody

Google reckon that 21 Holborn Viaduct is a company called Radamec Group PLC? Could they be linked to Ikea?

Unless it is one of those mailing places?

or ...maybe it is all a Government plot?

MWAHAHAHAHA - think I'm losing it yet Leigh?

:)

Melody

We had nothing but trouble when we ordered some wardrobes from ikea, the wrong ones were delivered. We called for weeks to get them to collect the ones we had and deliver the new ones. No-one ever returned our calls like in your situation. Cutting a long story short, they arrived on a date we asked them not to and were left with our 80 year old neighbour like we asked them not too! My partner and neighbour had to carry these very heavy packs into our house. Ikea have never returned nor contact us about picking up the wrong ones so have have two extra wardrobes.

I wrote a heavy letter of complaint and got £50 worth of vouchers.

Nicky xx

If you want rid of the wardrobes I'll have them :D

Fiona
x x x

LIza and I had a similar problem with Courts, ordered a bed, on the 28th june, 2002, 14 weeks later after been told a load of BS, we cancelled the bed, went to bensons, ordered and then got the bed just under 3 weeks later, although, the bed wasent being ordered by bensons, until this week, and we're not suppoosed to get it until week after next, but when we ordered we were told that it would take no longer than 3 weeks.
So on the monday of the week we were due to have the bed delivered we rang and got told the above info, I got on the Bike, went tothe store and scared the s**t out of the salesman, got the bed a week later, AND £30 compensation. He went on aobut it being the fault of the other saleswoman, and that we couldent have the bed, I merely said, not my problem, you garunteed, (is that the right spelling??) wed of that week when we gave you the deposit, and signed the contract, he went on to tell me ALL about the bed being in 1 warehouse, and haveing to be moved elsewhere, I again said, well, sorry to hear that but its nothing to do with me OR my order, get the bed by Friday or we go legal for breeching the contract.

He spent 2 hours calling in favours from various depots etc, and we got the bed, just under 3 weeks from order, its a super king sized metal frame bed, its brill.

complain, complain, as much as you can, point out that they promised legally to supply you with a product on a certain day, they dident, the reasons arnt YOUR problem, your problem is that you dont have the item you wanted, and that you lost wages, money, time in waiting for them to get back to you.

Tell them that you want the ikea customer service managers name and call them, dont take no s***!

Go as far as to demand the name and number of head office and the directors name, it gets results, everyone you speak to take their full name, and tell them that you'll be contacting the director via snail mail or email, and listing them in the mail, as to whether they were helpful or not.

Jay

Way to go Jay :D :D :D

In february of last year we bought an Indesit cooker from Comet and didn't take out the extended warranty - not sure why but we never got round to it. 4wks ago the inner glass panel on the door came away from the glue and fell into the door frame.

Chris phoned them up and complained so they said they'd send someone out to fix it, but we'd have to pay the call out charge - parts and labour would be free. We were happy with this as we should have paid for the whole lot. 3 days ago the oven stopped working. It's electric and I only discovered this when I went to get my sunday roast out and it was stone cold. The fan goes round and the light goes out but the heating element is faulty.

Chris went mad and phoned them again yesterday to demand we have an engineer with us this week and informed Indesit we won't be paying anything towards the call out charge or part/labour. The engineer is coming out tomorrow to replace my oven!!

I hate to say it Melody but Ikea may well take Stephen more seriously than you - I never get anywhere yet Chris always gets what he wants :(

Fiona
x x x

Sorry Fiona no offence intended ..but you havent met me or Stephen ...*I* am the one that Stephen gives the phone to in order to get things done ;)

I will get compensation from Ikea ..but I am waiting at the moment. I wi;; wait for:

The sofa to arrive (there *is* no point me cancelling I *want* the Ikea one)
The phone bill to arrive

As to calling Customer Services , I have worked in CS and I know how they work , they are as capable of *doing* things as Manglement let them be ;) Also , Ikea has a system I have not encountered before ..2 large call centres that aren't actually Customer Services ..more like a place where people moan and then get passed on ....no one and I repeat ..NO ONE calls back . I thought about going to the Nottingham Store ...but as the sofa comes from a depot in Peterborough and Nottingham Ikea have no way of making them *do* anything there is little point.

WHEN the sofa arrives , and when I have my phone bill I will write to Nottingham Ikea in detailed letter , listing the phone calls , lack of response , the fact that we have had nothing to sit on for 5 weeks etc etc. I will demand compensation AND I will forward a copy of the letter to The Consumers Association AND Ikea headquarters AND Watchdog.

I rarely complain ..but when I do , I get results ;)

Melody

I'm also the one telling Chris exactly what to say but people very rarely listen to me - they all seem to react a lot better to a mans voice on the phone and a mans name on letters :(

I hope you enjoy your sofa when it arrives :)

Fiona
x x x

I find that the best way to get people to jump is to take their name as Jay said.
They are always worried then about any 'come-back' upon them ;) Take their name and then ask for the name and postal address of their regional manager :)
This tends to make them panic ever so slightly :)
Sure that you will work things out though Melody :)

lol Too true Naomi ..I have EVERY name of EVERY person I have spoken to at Ikea ;)

Melody

Ouch!! everyname.... *sniff**sniff* mmm sackings possibly in the air!!! lol
jay