Ikea, the home furnishing multinational, with 410 million customers worldwide and 160mg catalogues in circulation (more than copies of the Bible), is doing fine. Its revenues continue upwards, from $4.3bn in 1994 to $19.4bn in 2005, more than 400% growth. It would be hard to do better. Ikea now plans to conquer Russia and China, which have so far resisted its spread. As Ikea's in-house magazine Read Me explains, the aim is to improve the daily life of the largest possible number of people and, to achieve that, shops must constantly sell more things to more customers (1).
Ikea is in no doubt that the act of purchase is the secret of happiness.
What is remarkable about a multinational so strongly associated with global uniformity and consumerism is that Ikea manages to fend off the attacks of consumer organisations, third-world activists and environmental watchdogs. This is no mean achievement. It has succeeded in establishing close links with its customers thanks to unbeatable prices and special children's areas in all shops, inventing an all-embracing concept in which buyers can find everything immediately--and preferably plenty of other items they didn't really want.
There is no shortage of stories about the strength of bonds between the shop and its customers. In 2004 a Stockport town councillor in Lancashire, Britain, bragged that having an Ikea store was an honour for the town (2). At Mougins, in the south of France, local people started a petition which read: "If you are fed up with making a 200km round trip, lasting two hours, just to shop in your nearest Ikea, then seize this opportunity (maybe the last) to bring a new Ikea to the Alpes-Maritimes department" (3). This is remarkable: people organizing a petition, which collected more than 2,000 signatures, standing up for their rights and organizing because a furnishing store lacks an outlet within 100km. Of course success on this scale has its downside. When the firm opened a store in Saudi Arabia in 2004, it offered a $150 check to the first 50 shoppers through the door. There was almost a riot, with two deaths, 16 injured and 20 fainting fits.
What is behind the global love affair with Ikea? Apart from attractive prices, one of the keys to the firm's success is its social and environmental image.
Keen to find a source of cheap, compliant labor it started outsourcing part of its production to a manufacturer in Poland in 1961. Since then Asia has supplied an ever-growing share of its products. China (hardly known for its defense of workers' rights) has overtaken Poland to become Ikea's top supplier, accounting for 18% of purchases. In all 33% of what is promoted as "made in Sweden quality" comes from Asia (4). According to The Observer, developing countries' share in Ikea's manufacturing activities rose from 32% to 48% between 1997 and 2001 (5).
Keep the price down
From the start Ikea offered extremely low prices. In A Furniture Dealer's Testament, published in 1976, Ikea's founder Ingvar Kamprad explained that he wanted every effort to be made to keep prices as low as possible, placing high demands on fellow workers. Without tight control over expenses the firm would not be able to fulfil its mission (6).
However, despite Ikea's current claims, low prices always incur a high social cost. Between 1994 and 1997 three documentaries screened by German and Swedish television accused the firm of using child labor under degrading conditions in Pakistan, India, Vietnam and the Philippines (7).
In 1998, after the discovery of wretched working conditions in Romania, the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers threatened to boycott Ikea, leading to an agreement between the union and the retailer (see tomorrow's CounterPunch instalment, "The sins of the founder found out"). The Iway, as Ikea's code of conduct on the environment and working conditions is known, establishes as a basic requirement for any business relationship that there should be no forced or child labour. Item seven of the guidelines, on worker health and safety, describes working conditions for employees, who must be provided with appropriate protective equipment.
It also purports to protect the right of employees to form or join a union, stipulating that subcontractors should not prevent them from doing so. The Iway condemns any form of discrimination, by race, creed or sex. Subcontractors must not pay their workers less than the country's minimum wage and working hours must not exceed the local limit. It seems odd to draw up a code of conduct just to indicate an intention to obey the law (rather like making a solemn undertaking to drive on the left when visiting Britain). It is more important that the Iway has a positive impact on the conditions of work at subcontractors.
Ikea has certainly ended child labour practices in subcontracting factories, although the Iway prefers to refer to local legislation, pointing out that "national laws or regulations may permit the employment or work of persons 13 to 15 years of age or 12 to 14 years of age on light work" (8).
What about the workers?
But things are not quite the same when it comes to the right of workers to organize and join unions. During a trip this May to a village close to Karur in Tamil Nadu province, a textile production centre in southeast India, we talked to some people working for an Ikea subcontractor. Shiva (9) was prepared to answer questions from western visitors but her white-haired mother was worried. What would happen if Shiva lost her job? Her wages were the family's only resource, supporting the two women and Shiva's 15-year-old son.
Shiva barely criticized her employers, and talked about tea breaks and equipment to protect eyes and hands. The environment she described seemed healthy enough. And at first sight the working conditions in Karur seemed fine. The premises were clean and well ventilated. There were tea breaks and good quality equipment. Copies of the Iway were posted on the walls of the factory.
This is corroborated by other sources. "Ikea offers the best conditions, there is no doubt about it," said Maniemegalai Vijayabaskar, an assistant lecturer at Madras Institute of Development Studies and joint author of a study commissioned by Oxfam-Magasins du Monde on Ikea's suppliers (10). He added: "They put on a human face to avoid criticism and controversy. But they don't make much effort to improve working conditions."
In 2003 the Dutch trade union federation asked the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (Somo) to investigate Ikea suppliers in three countries: India, Bulgaria and Vietnam. In each case investigators met workers from three or four companies and conducted interviews outside the workplace. They visited the factories and talked to the management.
Their conclusions concerned 10 suppliers representing about 2,000 employees, noting in the final report: "There are still numerous violations of Ikea's code of conduct in all three countries in all factories researched."
The most common concerned freedom of association and collective bargaining for wages and overtime. In the worst case there was no trade union, employees worked a seven-day week and the minimum wage was not honored. No one was "aware" of Ikea's code of conduct.
From what we saw in India, trade unions are still not represented at Ikea's subcontractors. Officially they are tolerated but, according to Shiva, they are not really necessary. She said: "When there is a problem we hold a meeting and we talk about it. It's often when they want to remind us about the cleanliness of the toilets. If I want something, I can tell the manager." Xana, a younger worker without any dependants, described things differently: "A union? No, they wouldn't allow it. And if inspectors visit the factory, the bosses remind us of the lies we should tell them."
There is nothing unusual about this; attempts to set up a union are generally thwarted. Ikea must have expected this, just like any other multinational starting business in India. Wages are kept particularly low. Shiva claims she earns 2,300 rupees a month ($48.30) and it costs her 500 rupees ($10.50) to take the bus to work. Can she really survive on such wages? When her mother cooks, the recipe is always the same. "We eat simply, soup and rice with sauce. We eat meat once a week, on Sundays. But not this week because it's the end of the month." We met 10 days before the end of May.
The Ikea code of conduct offers no guarantee that workers will get enough to eat or furnishings for their homes. There are no Malm beds in Shiva's two-roomed house. Just a few calendars on the wall, some black and white photographs, a couple of mats, two small chests for clothes, a clock and household gods. Asked what she would do if she earned 1,000 rupees more a month, she outlined her idea of comfort: "We'd get a gas cooker with a bottle. Cooking over a fire is a nuisance because the smoke gets in your eyes. In the rainy season it's hard finding dry wood, and collecting it is a lot of work."
Among Ikea suppliers there is nothing unusual about Shiva's poverty. Manjula, who had just married, also works for an Ikea supplier. She said she earns 2,360 rupees ($49.60), but her payslip for October showed that figure corresponded to her gross earnings, from which national insurance payments were deducted. For 24 days' work in October she took home 1,818 rupees ($38.10). Even working six days a week she comes close to the absolute poverty line, without contravening the Ikea code of conduct. To earn a little more she had to work overtime. "They work 12 hours a day, not including travel time," said Vijayabaskar. "At maximum output they may work as much as 15 hours a day."
Beyond the 8-hour day
Ikea tries to reduce overtime but pressure of tight deadlines and the need to earn more make it inevitable. The official eight-hour day is 9.30am to 1.30pm, 2.30 to 6.30pm. Kalaya, who lives in a poor neighbourhood of Karur, said: "If you work overtime from 7 to 8 or 9pm, they don't pay you. If you work till 10.30pm they give you 50 rupees [$1] more. The extra work is generally done twice a week."
Assam, who works at the same factory, said there was no overtime. The day we spoke the machines ran late into the night and we saw groups of workers going into the factory until 8pm. With strict instructions from management and the fear of losing a job, people may gloss reality. Denoosha made no bones about needing extra cash. She spoke to us briefly when she left work, then said she must be off. She had another job, from 8pm to 1am, which earned her 80 rupees ($1.70) plus food.
Ikea views Shiva, Kalaya and Denoosha as labor costs that must be strictly limited. It is precisely because of low labour costs that the firm sources products in India. To make things worse its subcontractors contract work out to cope with fluctuating demand. At this point the Iway code of conduct becomes completely theoretical, with no control over anything but the deadline for delivery.
Even for official suppliers, auditing of compliance with the code of conduct is extremely uneven. Ikea's 46 purchasing offices, in 32 countries, carry out most (93%) of the audits. The firm's Compliance and Monitoring Group has a staff of five (three in 2004) and is tasked with implementing the code of conduct. It trains the purchasing offices and carries out audits: 53 in 2005 (11). External auditors, such as KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Intertek Testing Services, only did seven audits in 2004. Ikea admitted that the number was low but explained that "[2004] was a year with a low number of third-party audits. [2005] will in contrast be a year with a high number of audits" (12). In 2005 external consultants did 26 out of a total of 1,012 audits.
The third-party audits are integrated into Ikea's internal auditing system. Auditors cannot publish their findings, which are reported directly and exclusively to the firm's management. Each audit, carried out at two-yearly intervals (every six months or year in Asia), takes one or two days. It considers 90 criteria defined in the Iway code of conduct. In an eight-hour day that means checking one criterion every 10 minutes. How can anybody check that no pressure is being exerted on trade union representation in just 10 minutes? What about overtime, payment of wages on time, breaks, child or forced labour? The solution is simple: auditors ask the boss, check company records, or interview workers at the factory.
The people checking compliance are well-meaning but under the circumstances it is impossible to carry out a proper audit. They can only skim the surface, with little chance of employees providing a full account of their working conditions, particularly as the auditors are checking production quality at the same time. Ikea auditors visited Toneesh, a quality controller, twice last year. He said: "They ask a few questions, above all on product quality, to check production. They are Indians, based in Delhi or Chennai, but also Europeans, who only talk to the top-level management.
Because of the language barrier the workers cannot talk to them directly."
Kalaya confirmed this: "Yesterday a man from Ikea came to the factory. He showed us a video on preparing a quality product. And he asked questions, but only about the product." This approach seems unlikely to prevent Kalaya from working unpaid overtime.
In practice Ikea merely sands off some of the rough edges of exploitation. Employees have access to filtered water, gloves and separate toilets. They sometimes have tea breaks. But tea is no help in making ends meet. As soon as social issues such as wages, union representation and overtime raise their head, the tune changes. Ikea is the main beneficiary of the semblance of social responsibility embodied in its code of conduct. As Vijayabaskar pointed out: "Ikea unloads the cost of its social policy on its suppliers." At the same time it boosts its image with commitments that cost it nothing, steering well clear of child labour, which really upsets western consumers.
Ikea's supposedly socially responsible attitude makes no difference to the hard lives of some of its workers. For Ikea to claim to be an ethical enterprise it should be able to offer them a decent living. This does not mean luxuries--televisions or mobile phones--just enough money to buy food more often, keep their children at school without needing to do two jobs, and have a proper day off every week. Or even the chance for Shiva to treat herself to a tiny luxury from Ikea's shelves.
Translated by Harry Forster
Olivier Bailly is a journalist, Jean-Marc Caudron a researcher and Denis Lambert the secretary-general of Oxfam-Magasins du Monde (Belgium); they are joint authors of 'Ikea, un modèle à démonter' (Editions Luc Pire, Brussels, 2006)
Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St Clair write: This article appears in the December edition of the excellent monthly Le Monde Diplomatique, whose English language edition can be found at mondediplo.com This full text appears by agreement with Le Monde Diplomatique. CounterPunch will feature one or two articles from LMD every month.
In Tomorrow's CounterPunch: Who Owns Ikea?
(1) In the first French-language issue of Read Me, the Ikea international in-house magazine, March 2006.
(2) "Un Ikea sinon rien!", Courrier International, Paris n° 722, 2-8 September 2004.
(3) http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/ ...
(4) "Social & Environmental Responsibility Report 2005", Ikea.
(5) "Trying to assemble a perfect reputation", The Observer, London, 25 November 2001.
(6) "The testament of a furniture dealer", a brochure published by Ingvar Kamprad in 1976. See also Bertil Torekull, Leading by design: the IKEA story, HarperBusiness, New York, 1999.
(7) The German documentary, Mattan, is mentioned by Manuel Balza Duran and Davor Radojicic in "Corporate social responsibility and NGOs", Avdelning, Linköping, 30 January 2004. The Swedish programmes are quoted by Susan Christopherson and Nathan Lillie in Neither Global Nor Standard, Oxford University, November 2003, and in "The Teflon shield", Newsweek International, 12 March 2001. See also "Ikea accused of exploiting child workers", BBC, 23 December 1997.
(8) Iway standard, item 15.
(9) As several people we interviewed were afraid they might lose their job if identified, we have changed all the names of the workers quoted.
(10) LA Samy and M Vijayabaskar, "Codes of conduct and supplier response in the Ikea value chain", AREDS and MIDS, 2006. http://www.madeindignity.be
(11) "Social & Environmental Responsibility Report 2005", Ikea.
(12) "Social & Environmental Responsibility Report 2004", Ikea.
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Saturday, April 30, 2011
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
IKEA EMPLOYEE SAYS HIS EMPLOYER SELLS JUNK!!!!!
Brain dead ape?
This came in and it never ceases to amaze me how some people feel the need to defend the giant Ikea. I have not spoken a word of lie in any of my posts and yet this person felt compelled to call me, among other things, a liar. Truly bizarre. Where do these people come from? You be the judge.
If this person did not want to hear about my "ridiculous story" they could have easily moved along. As I have said all along I knew it was CHEAP when I bought but I still maintain that even though something is cheap it does not necessarily mean it is crap. An expectation that when you pay money for furniture it should last more than a few months is, IMHO not asking for to much.
This person goes on to say that even a brain dead monkey could work at Ikea. He starts by saying that he works at Ikea. He ends by calling me a brain dead monkey. Who's the real brain dead monkey? Hmmmmm.
i work at ikea and i can tell you that none of your story is true based on the policies i know from the inside out. you are a very poor story teller and an even worse liar. you know the saying you get what you pay for idiot. ikea buys their products from the cheapest suppliers on the PLANET, and whatever country will give them the cheapest price that is where they buy it from. the key word is cheap, yes ikea is cheap and yes it is crap, so if you don't like it, go somewhere else, we don't need to hear about your ridiculous story, dump your cheap assed gilfriend while you're at it. before i worked at ikea i rarely shopped there because it is a given that their stuff is cheap crap. get over it. if you don't like it, don't buy it. i happen to know that a manager would see you immediately. a brain dead monkey could do almost any job at ikea including manager. all you would have had to do is go to ikea with your broken hopen and return the damaged one and then go buy a new one with your refund card. is that too hard to do you brain dead ape?
If this person did not want to hear about my "ridiculous story" they could have easily moved along. As I have said all along I knew it was CHEAP when I bought but I still maintain that even though something is cheap it does not necessarily mean it is crap. An expectation that when you pay money for furniture it should last more than a few months is, IMHO not asking for to much.
This person goes on to say that even a brain dead monkey could work at Ikea. He starts by saying that he works at Ikea. He ends by calling me a brain dead monkey. Who's the real brain dead monkey? Hmmmmm.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Oh joy oh bliss
Just recently it was announced that our fair city is getting ..... wait for it ..... our very own .... oh joy oh bliss I can hardly wait ... free standing, massive IKEA store!
I think I am one of the very few that aren't simply orgasmic about this. Best of luck to them all. May their experience be much better than mine.
Top of the season to you all. Cheers.
I think I am one of the very few that aren't simply orgasmic about this. Best of luck to them all. May their experience be much better than mine.
Top of the season to you all. Cheers.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
More of the same and then this...
I find it interesting and disappointing all at the same time that I continue to get story after story of similar encounters with Ikea. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given what I know.
And then there are those who choose to defend them. That is fine but sometimes I feel compelled to comment on comments that I receive. Below is one such comment that I felt needed a reply:
First let me say that I appreciate this comment and agree that one needs to go into buying cheap furniture with their eyes wide open knowing that you get what you pay for. I know we did when we went and bought this table. But the minute one pays, no matter how little, for something one rightly expects that A) all of the parts are there, B) that it goes together as expected, and 3) that it lasts more than a few months. If you read through this blog and most of the subsequent comments you will find that often one, two or all three of these were not the case. Yet as the quoted writer suggests we are supposed to some how accept this because we didn't pay what some believe to be enough for that kind of quality?
I would suggest that for many what they have paid may very well be a small fortune and that they deserve something that will last beyond a few months, have all of it's parts and go together as suggested in the instructions. They do not expect it to grow into the family heirloom antique otherwise they should definitely be shopping somewhere else. Most just want and deserve something that they can get by with.
I find the comment about the customer giving a little and then them giving kind of troubling. Didn't the customer give them hard earned money for their defective product? Aren't they, at least in my case, those who gave nothing? I would have had plenty of patience and give had they shown me even a modicum of it. They shut me down from the get go and forced my hand.
It seems like such a waste of energy now. Cie la vie I guess.
Happy furniture hunting.
And then there are those who choose to defend them. That is fine but sometimes I feel compelled to comment on comments that I receive. Below is one such comment that I felt needed a reply:
honestly i am an ikea employee, and i would never order from online, not because it's ikea but because ordering furniture online seems pretty weird, anyways the reality is ikea is cheap, and you get what you pay for, you could always pay triple for the similar piece of furniture somewhere else, but you don't. so live with your choices in life, just deal with it. if you wanted ikea to have tons of smiling faces helping you in store or over the phone prices would sky rocket and then you wouldn't shop there, i have learned by working there and shopping there that if you want to be an ikea customer you need to learn to be patient. our motto is if the customer gives a little, and we give a little together we can save a lot. but customers believe that they need all the attention all the time, and in this world that comes with a price. it's like shopping at Target and Nordstrom, at Target you can't find anyone to help you but stuff is cheap, at Nordstrom you have to beat coworkers off with a stick, and the price reflects it. anyways good luck shopping and it's hard being no. 1, it's lonely at the top.......
First let me say that I appreciate this comment and agree that one needs to go into buying cheap furniture with their eyes wide open knowing that you get what you pay for. I know we did when we went and bought this table. But the minute one pays, no matter how little, for something one rightly expects that A) all of the parts are there, B) that it goes together as expected, and 3) that it lasts more than a few months. If you read through this blog and most of the subsequent comments you will find that often one, two or all three of these were not the case. Yet as the quoted writer suggests we are supposed to some how accept this because we didn't pay what some believe to be enough for that kind of quality?
I would suggest that for many what they have paid may very well be a small fortune and that they deserve something that will last beyond a few months, have all of it's parts and go together as suggested in the instructions. They do not expect it to grow into the family heirloom antique otherwise they should definitely be shopping somewhere else. Most just want and deserve something that they can get by with.
I find the comment about the customer giving a little and then them giving kind of troubling. Didn't the customer give them hard earned money for their defective product? Aren't they, at least in my case, those who gave nothing? I would have had plenty of patience and give had they shown me even a modicum of it. They shut me down from the get go and forced my hand.
It seems like such a waste of energy now. Cie la vie I guess.
Happy furniture hunting.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Been a while
Sorry that it's been a while since posting to this blog and or replying to comments. I forget that people are still commenting here with most empathizing and or sharing their own horrid experience with Ikea. Then I get the ones like you see quoted below and it reminds me that some people take their own personal ownership of places like Ikea and feel the need to defend while throwing insults at those they don't agree with. To me, and especially now that I am no longer in a very angry phase of my life, they are simply being rude. And for what? The defence of a multi-national corporation like Ikea. And they say I need to get a life. To be fair not all who disagree with me are rude and I surely don't mind being disagreed with. Heck it is what makes the world interesting. Having said that I present two examples of disagreement, one being rude and the other being funny. You decide for yourself. Oh and do take a minute to read the other comments as some of them are very interesting:
Rude:
FYI: Being honest wasn't honest or brave enough to leave a comment that could be replied to. Typical. Not to mention that I stated a couple of times that I don't think I would have had any of these problems had I had an actual store to walk into and talk face-to-face with someone. Instead, as a mail-order customer all dealings where done over the phone or via e-mail. Apparently to this person being critical does not include being thorough and reading the WHOLE story. And I'm the one who needs to see a psychiatrist. Ha!
Funny:
To that I say "thanks I have and it helped a lot, but I still won't shop at Ikea again." ;)
Well that's it for now. Shop at Ikea at your own risk. To those with nothing but positive experiences with Ikea and their products I say "congratulations, good for you. I would expect nothing less from the biggest furniture company in the world." I only wish that was my experience but it wasn't and I, for whatever reasons, felt like writing about it. If you want to leave your counter experience by all means please do. Just please don't be rude about it. Thanks much and Cheers!
Rude:
beinghonest said...
i'm sorry, but this truly is just pitiful. i shop IKEA all the time ad not only do i get GREAT service when i'm in there, but if something breaks (which NEVER happens for no reason) i am always given a replacement piece. no problem. they probably were "rude" to you because they serve human beings, not arrogant pricks like you. all that "time" you wasted... you probably caused it. i'm sorry but this whole "saga" is disgusting, self- centered, and annoying. grow up. IKEA is great.
FYI: Being honest wasn't honest or brave enough to leave a comment that could be replied to. Typical. Not to mention that I stated a couple of times that I don't think I would have had any of these problems had I had an actual store to walk into and talk face-to-face with someone. Instead, as a mail-order customer all dealings where done over the phone or via e-mail. Apparently to this person being critical does not include being thorough and reading the WHOLE story. And I'm the one who needs to see a psychiatrist. Ha!
Funny:
anonymous said...
Go. see. a. psychiatrist. At once.
To that I say "thanks I have and it helped a lot, but I still won't shop at Ikea again." ;)
Well that's it for now. Shop at Ikea at your own risk. To those with nothing but positive experiences with Ikea and their products I say "congratulations, good for you. I would expect nothing less from the biggest furniture company in the world." I only wish that was my experience but it wasn't and I, for whatever reasons, felt like writing about it. If you want to leave your counter experience by all means please do. Just please don't be rude about it. Thanks much and Cheers!
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
A comment worth posting.
This came to me as a comment on this blog and I thought it worth posting. Seems many many people have had similar experiences to mine. Again I ask "How did this company become the best selling furniture company in the world?" We must be stupid or something. here's a good one, enjoy:
i have an ikea story for ya...
so my girlfriend buys me a hopen (six drawer cabinet) from the aforementioned place of suckery. builds it for me as a christmas present. does a good job. no pieces missing and everything SEEMS sturdy. about three weeks later after barely loading the thing with nothing but socks and t-shirts the doors start to stick. then they just plain wont open. seems the crappy particle board wood is cracking and cant hold the screws in. so i call ikea up. they inform me that they have a replacement side panel. im in california so we have like 3 nearby. nearby being at least an hour and thirty minute drive. get in the car. load piece of crap hopen in the back. drive to "closest" ikea and then begin to wait. and wait. and wait. at least 40 minutes of respectful asking for service later do i finally get "served". and by served i mean ive gotten better help from people beating me up. apparently the guy i spoke to on the phone was on an extended meatball break and when he finally got done the part i had driven all that way for was given to somebody else. so of course im pissed off but dont want to burn any bridges. i respectfully leave after giving them my name and number and getting their full assurance that once the part i need comes in i will be called. 3 hours on the freeway. 1 hour at the store. keep these numbers handy we'll be adding them up later.
two weeks go by without a word so i finally decide to call them back. after waiting on hold for a 30 mins i am directed to voicemail. leave my message. over the course of the next two weeks i leave 5 more. usually only after having to wait through 20 minutes of automated diretories and empty promises that the person im looking for will be with me shortly. finally after three weeks of this crap i get ahold of the guy and low and behold they had my piece for a while but couldnt get in touch with me. yeah uh huh. i ask to speak to a manager. no luck must be eating meatballs. but before i give up hope and just set fire to my cardboard hopen my contact there tells me that he just happened to find another piece but i need to come down rightaway to pick it up. so on what was shaping up to be a wonderful sunday of picking my nose scratching my butt and sleeping in turned into another hour and a half drive to ikea. aka annoying people suckville. i get to the store wait twenty minutes to speak to my guy and am later told that he went home for the day. nobody knows anything about the piece im there for so im instructed to look around the store till it can be found. 30 minutes later OOPS! no luck! no side panel piece. however i was instructed that i can purchase another 250 dollar hopen and use the piece from that one... yeah im not kidding that was their "suggestion". so its manager time. im upset but still respectfully request to speak to a higher up... and im told thats gonna take some time. i guess everyone in ikea is busy at their other jobs or solving the cure for cancer cause nobody seems to be available EVER. im told its going to be about 40 minutes so i decide to walk around their store.
i walk around for about 20 mins and head to the check out line with some cd holders im pretty sure weren't made out of particle wood or need to be put together... though one can never be sure. im in line for around 15 minutes until its finally my turn. and when i get to the cashier i am told that the holders i am trying to purchase were display models and arent for sale. a 2 dollar item that is no longer in stock is not for sale??? after she makes about 5 calls, one im assuming is to the pentagon to make sure our national security and or economy wont negatively be affected by this sale, i am told that infact i will just have to come back another time when they are available. so i go to the front of the store ready to meet the manager when i find out that its going to be a little while longer. now at this point im sure any normal person would haver either got pissed in yelled or just left. but this is a mission now and i have no life. so i decide to stay. but im hungry. luckily ikea has a wonderful gormet cafe that serves old hotdogs and disgusting cinnamon rolls. so i wait in line for another 10 minutes. place my order when its my turn and am then told that i cannot use a credit card to make this purchase because the machine is down... yet we are only five feet away from the checkout lines that do accept credit cards. i ask if i can just be rung up at one of those and am looked at like i just asked for a mountain to be moved. i reach an agreement with the highschool dropout ive been so fortunate to have take my order that i will be able to take my food so long as i leave my credit card with her until the machines are up... which should be in five minutes.
so i dont have any cash on me and am hungry from my long drive my long wait and just plain frustration i make the deal. and then things start to really get bad. i finish my slop about 20 minutes later but the manager is still not ready to meet with me so i mosey on down to the cafe to get my card back. wouldnt ya know it the machine is still down. im then told by someone at the front that the manager wont be able to meet me at all today... for absolutely no reason. they couldnt even think to make up an excuse they just said he cant do it. then i am told by dropout number one that the cash register is going to be down for an unknown amount of time... and i just lose it... at least on the inside. i calmy go back to the dining area and wait another 20 minutes for somebody figured out that it needed to be plugged in to work. i pay for my meal and then i walk out. i walk to my car. get in. but i decide not to leave. i back up to the front of the store and open the trunk. i begin to take out all the side panels all the front and top ones and all the drawers and put them in a pile behind my car about 10 feet away from the main pretentious glass enclosed entrance. and of course people are looking at me like "what a nut" and admittedly after a while it starts to get to me. i start to feel bad and like said nut. but then i think "screw that" and decide to build something out of all the broken cardboard pieces. i stack them as high as i can, one on top of the other, reaching to the heavens so that God can maybe notice and see all the wrong being done to people at this store. i stack everything a good ten feet on top of each other making a nice little ikea statue. i drive off and smile. revenge was mine. i laugh to myself as i think of how the high school dropouts having to wear ugly blue and yellow uniforms are being ordered by meatball eating managers to pick up my modern art garbage masterpiece right now. i smiled and i laughed and then im reminded that 250 dollars, one month of hassles fake promises and phone tag, around 60 dollars worth of gas, and a disgusting hot dog were all still dumped in my lap for the sole reason that i got something from IKEA. I HATE YOU IKEA AND I WISH YOU WERE DEAD YOU SWEDISH EURO TRASH PIECE OF CRAP. YOU SUCK!
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Still more misguided comments
I received this from yet again another anonymous (read: guttless coward) poster:
Now if the 12 year olds who have some how taken it upon themselves to champion the cause of IKEA(suckz) would guit wasting their time posting disparaging comments and go and get a real job in the service industry then maybe they wouldn't be so quick to condem me for wanting, no demanding good customer servce. If you're already in the field DO YOUR FUCKING JOB WELL and you won't get any complaints from the likes of me. Otherwise don't expect me to freely give you my hard earned cash. Maybe then they'll learn the value of standing behind a product and not looking at everyone who complains as an ass with nothing better to do. Quite frankly I find it appalling that I need to defend my position in any way. It's so clear to me.
Oh and just to be perfectly clear, I will NEVER shop at IKEA(suckz) again! You can mark MY words on that one ya stupid dumb ass!
TAGS: ikea sucks! | ikea | IKEA | furniture
If you knew anything about good service you wouldn't be acting in this way. People like you are horrible to have to deal with. I'm sure you'd be just as rude to someone who offered you the most amazing service imaginable...All you're trying to do is get stuff for your lousy complaints. Quit being an ass someday ok. Love ya..See ya at IKEA next time...cuz you know you'll be back..mark my words..no doubt about it :)Since when are we not to expect good customer service, especially from a giant like IKEA(suckz)? Please, enlighten me on how if I knew anything about customer service I wouldn't be acting this way! This should be good. I mean really, have we dumbed ourselves down to the point where we are suposed to accept poor quality and service? I thpought it was the other way around. And to say that I was being rude is plain ludicrous! I did not get nor was I ever rude with these people and in fact they were rude to me. So much so that that is the reason they replaced the broken parts; their poor handling of the situation and the fact that they treated me rudely.
Now if the 12 year olds who have some how taken it upon themselves to champion the cause of IKEA(suckz) would guit wasting their time posting disparaging comments and go and get a real job in the service industry then maybe they wouldn't be so quick to condem me for wanting, no demanding good customer servce. If you're already in the field DO YOUR FUCKING JOB WELL and you won't get any complaints from the likes of me. Otherwise don't expect me to freely give you my hard earned cash. Maybe then they'll learn the value of standing behind a product and not looking at everyone who complains as an ass with nothing better to do. Quite frankly I find it appalling that I need to defend my position in any way. It's so clear to me.
Oh and just to be perfectly clear, I will NEVER shop at IKEA(suckz) again! You can mark MY words on that one ya stupid dumb ass!
TAGS: ikea sucks! | ikea | IKEA | furniture
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Comments. Arrogance at it's worst!
Apparently some people would rather spout off and be all insulting without having a bloody clue of what they speak. My problem was never with the instructions. The comment, if read properly, was referring to something Jay Leno featured on the Tonight Show. The example he showed on the show was quite simply nothing more than a picture of a table. Nothing more. That's why it was so funny in it's absurdity.My problem with Ikea is their extremely poor customer service. It is quite simply deplorable. If those who commented would have taken a moment to read what this blog was all about they may not have been so arrogant in their condemnation of me. There is nothing so frustrating as those who feel they can make arrogant comments based on 1/100th of the information. And to make matters worse the comments were either left annonymously or in such a way as to avoid my responding to them. Gutless to boot. Nothing worse than guttless arrogance!
I will say this much. Ikea did in fact replace my table. Of course they did it in the most ridiculously inefficient, costly (to them) and arduous fashion. They also made it clear that they were not accomodating me because the product was in fact faulty, which it was, but because of the extremely poor fashion in which this whole thing was handled by them. The bottom line is that they still do not stand behind their products. So, to those negative commenters who were too guttless to leave a way of contacting them and who didn't care to take the time to read the information I say "Get a life, ya bunch of dumbasses!"
Please visit New York city Handyman and Furniture Assembly for all your Furniture Assembly and Installation needs both commercial and residential. We specialize in the assembly and installation of IKEA,Crate & Barrel,CB2,Elfa Shelving, as well as Kitchen Cabinet installation and complete renovations. Our team of Expert Technicians also provide all the Handyman services any New York City Dweller would Need.
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