Ikea Canada - I'm absolutely appalled at the level of service provided by your call-centre.

Ikea Canada - I'm absolutely appalled at the level of service provided by your call-centre.

Ikea Canada

Ikea shop-by-phone. Complaint listed in text of email below. ----------

Hello,

I'm not sure if this email is still valid, as I found it by searching the internet (and discovering someone who had posted problems quite similar to mine). In short - I'm absolutely appalled at the level of service provided by your call-centre.

On August 24th you charged the MasterCard of XXXXXXXXXX, my wife, a sum of a little more than $500 (you can check your records if you'd like specifics; otherwise, I'd be happy to dig up our monthly credit card bill to find the sum).

On Sept. 21st, 2004, we received our order of 1 Meraker Cabinet w/ Shelf Unit (Product no: 80033879 18969). This was an item which we had previously attempted to order in July of 2003, but for various reasons were not able to receive it (you can look through your files to see the numerous problems we encountered with that order). Halfway through putting the item together, I realized we only had half of the item. I checked the box and, indeed, we'd only received box 1 of 2.

I then phoned Northwest Transport Ltd., the trucking company responsible for the shipping of the item. They checked their records and confirmed what I already suspected, one of your particularly

bright warehouse workers only shipped 1 of the boxes. Brilliant. (Might I remind you that while waiting on your 1-800-661-9807 number, you continually remind customers to check to ensure they have all their boxes before leaving the store. Perhaps you should stream this hold music and message into your warehouse?)

On Sept. 23rd I phoned and opened a customer service file (# S1129491). Knowing the quality of your first-line support people from previous experiences, I asked to speak with a supervisor or someone in the customer service department. Amena, the Ikea representative who served me, told me that she couldn't pass me to either, and that I would have to wait 5 business days for a return call.

On October 6th I realized that Amena had obviously lied to me, as it had been more than 5 business days and I had still not received a phone call (perhaps terming them "call centres" is a bit of an oxymoron?). I phoned the 1-800 number again, and to my surprise received Amena again. This time I asked what had happened. She said no trace had been put on the item (she offered no explanation as to why SHE didn't put the trace on it before, even after I pointed out she was the agent who first handled the file), and that would have to be done before a replacement could be shipped out. Fine, however I asked to speak to a supervisor in the meantime. Again, I was told that supervisors aren't able to take phone calls, and I'd have to be put on the "48-hour return call" list.

On October 8th I realized I had once again been duped by the tricky Amena, as no phone call had been received (despite my leaving a home number, work number and cell phone number -- truly, I would have to be living in a cave for Ikea to be unable of reaching me). I phoned the 1-800 number again and spoke to a very unpleasant woman by the name of Elisa (or possibly Eliza). Should I even mention this was after waiting 25-minutes on hold, listening to reminders that I should check that I have both box 1 of 2, and box 2 of 2 before leaving the store?

But I digress. I explained my situation to Elisa, and asked why I had not received a return call. She said there was no mention or record of this request for a call within my file (curse you Amena; tricked me yet again). Elisa was snappy, insulting and just generally unpleasant to deal with. I asked to speak to a manager, and was shocked to learn of the incredible amount of rust you put in your workers. "There aren't any supervisors working," Elisa told me. Really? How shocking.

I remember the time I spent working in a call centre, and can't recall one instance of working completely unsupervised. Ikea must have an incredibly rigid hiring process to managed to recruit employees with such credentials that it's not necessary to provide them with any supervision. Ah, but then the truth came out. Elisa admitted that there are supervisors, she just doesn't know where they are. (Which begs several questions - Are they camouflaged? Or perhaps Elisa suffers from some form of Polkaroo syndrome, where the supervisors always disappear the second before she enters the room...

I explained to Elisa that I wanted to send a letter to Ikea's head office. Elisa, who by this point I'm realizing is potentially even trickier that Amena, then tells me that there is no Ikea head office.

Really? Wow. What an efficient company that it doesn't need to have national or regional offices. But...no, no...again Elisa backpedals when questioned on the truth of her statements. She's under the impression that she works in Ikea's only office in Canada, and therefore I will have to send it to that address.

However, she does inform me that you don't retain any lawyers when I ask for an address for your law firm or legal affairs department. Once again, I'm amazed at Ikea's efficiency. Truly, the company should be a case-study in business schools everywhere...oh, wait...Elisa admits she may have been wrong again, but she just doesn't know where the legal department is (Which makes me wonder -- do you teach your new employees anything??).

Finally, the battle of wits between Elisa and I come to an end after 45 minutes, simply because I have a job to do -- and in my line of business, I simply can't get away with feigning ignorance or lying to my customers. Elisa promises me that she has put a message on her supervisor's desk, asking him/her to phone me. And she also promises me that she's put a note into my account noting that she has done so. But, of course, by now I know how much the word of employees like

Elisa and Amena are worth...

Which leads me to the points of this letter. First off, can you please just ship me box 2 of 2 from the Meraker Cabinet with Shelf (the red one)? I am missing the shelf portion. I feel I've waiting long enough, so please don't ship it by truck. Yes, we do have courier services here in the North. I'm sure there is a Canada Post outlet within driving distance of your warehouse. Have a warehouse worker (preferably one that can count the number of boxes he/she is grabbing)

drive the box over to Canada Post, and have them ship it. Express. So I can finish the job I'm halfway through.

Second, as I figure it you owe me approximately $210.99. I expect payment within 30 days, and yes - Ikea gift cards would be acceptable (I realize your hands would be tied on being able to give me an actual cash refund).

This is broken down as follows: $7.50 (the credit card's 18% interest of $500, and a deal as I'm only charging you for 30 days); $99.99 (that's an approximation of 3 hours of my time that has been diverted from my job to deal with your blunders, at my currently hourly rate of pay of $33.33 per hour); $3.50 (that's for 10 kilometres of driving, at the standard rate of $0.35/kilometre which I pay my freelance writers and photographers); and I'd say $100 is a fair, round figure for simply dealing with the stress, and barrage of lies, created by the employees of your company.

Third, I would still like the address for your legal affairs department. I feel that Ikea is in breach on contract, and is showing a blatant disregard for rectifying the situation. As such, I believe it is within my rights to take the company to Small Claims Court in the jurisdiction of the Northwest Territories. I have a feeling that my complaints contained within this email will be further ignored, and I believe I am left with no alternative for recovering my expenses save through litigation.

If you could respond quickly, it would be greatly appreciated. If you do not respond at all, it wouldn't be out of line with the rest of the service I've received from Ikea Canada.

Sincerely, Jake K

Comment On This

A purchase and subsequent attempts to reach ikea regarding some issues we had concerning a purchase made 1 week ago which we paid for delivery of ,there was a part that had a missing pre drilled hole and 1 screw that was US...after 40 mins on hold to reach a person from Ikea we finally spoke to a person fron the Call Centre??????

we also are apalled at the lack of customer service, we now have todrive 37 km back to the store to exchange the parts .We suggest that Ikea have some store personnel that will take care of their customers who have some issues with merchandise...

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This has been a total nightmare in dealing with this company. I ordered a bed online and the person neglected to send me the mid beam. They promised 2 weeks ago to send this out via purulator. Well to find out 5 different people have not yet processed the order as they promised. I have been given the run around for 2 weeks now meanwhile sleeping on the floor waiting for this darn bed part. I will never never ever order from this company again!! It is the worst customer service that I have ever dealt with.

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NEVER GO TO THE IKEA ETOBICOKE AND NEVER CALL THE CALL CENTRE. ACTUALLY NEVER SHOP AT IKEA PERIOD!

They are trained to make you give up if you voice your concerns. My wife and I bought a milk table to put in our about to be born baby room from IKEA about a month ago. As we were assembling, we noticed that one of the part(leg) had a holes on the left side instead of right side. We called IKEA to see whether we need to bring the whole thing or just the part that has defects. They advised us just to bring the defected part. So went I with my 10 months old pregnant wife. After an hour of waiting, they told us that we must have picked up the old version of the table so "it's unfortunte that" we have to go back home to bring in the whole thing because giving us the new one and bring the old one back cannot be justifed to "P and L"(Profit and Loss) department...MOD finally came out after rasing our voice over this stupidity, he was adamant that there is nothing he can do than us going back and bringing it in the whole thing. MOD then continued to tell us that we only have brought the part in because my wife was pregnant(?) or otherwise we would have brought the whole thing(?????) I talked to 2 different operators(I am gonna call them "bouncer") at the call centre before I got to this person name by "Crystal"(who was the other MOD at the Etobicoke store) who promised me a call back and who never called me(surprise). Now a month later, I called the "bouncer" to speak to Crytal, they said I must reiterate the whole situation again for him to transfer to Crystal. Then he told me that there was no extension under "Crystal". Well it gets better. Then he said he will transfer my call to the Etobicoke store. After 15 minutes of the wait, guess where they transferred me to "Coquitlam, B.C.". So thanks for trying to reach the ordinary people and thanks for taking their dollars and thanks for making things extra ordinary and ordial for them. You will never see another penny from me again. All the furnitures we bought for our wedding, all the furnitures we bought for our newly purchased house and all the furnitures we bought for our newly born baby room, I kick myself in the head when I think about the humilation my 10 months pregnant wife and I got that day in the store. So Congratulations for being one of the richest company in the world, you did a fabulous job convincing me as a family-friendly store but I am not gonna be fooled twice.

BTW, did I tell you that you just lost one customer but hey you've got million others right?

Comment On This

Just counted Friday night Etobicke store 9pm: 3 cashiers and 125 customers in very long line up.

Shame. Never goinG there again!

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I worked for Ikea and.... it's hopeless

I got fired for telling a supervisor off for giggling about 'cumming' - infront of customers. I went through all the propper complaint proceedures, and their a tightknit organization, that if your new and you stand up for what's right... -your out- I'm disgusted.

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Wow, it does not surprise me that another individual in Canada has had a bad experience dealing with Ikea here. I placed an order online, waiting nearly a week without receiving any kind of confirmation on shipment. I called Ikea only to find out the order had not yet shipped. My wife and I decided we wanted to cancel our order, but were told that someone would need to call us back. After we did not receive a call we called back and the second time were told that everyone in their office was too busy so they could not help us (but we could try again in the morning when customer service was open again [I guess they stay open later to take people's money, but not to resolve customer issues]). We final got our order cancelled (at least that is what we have been told), but the money has not been returned to our credit card ($700). We have called back since and been told to wait longer. I am absolutely amazed that a company as large as Ikea can continue to operate in such an unprofessional manner!