Magdalena D.
Yelp
I don't know how to begin articulating what a nightmare planning and installing our Ikea kitchen with this Ikea location has been. Everything that could possibly go wrong from Ikea's end went wrong - over and over and over.
First, the measuring service we paid for didn't take into account the location of our appliances and kitchen plumbing. Even though we paid for the service, we ended up having to measure it ourselves, otherwise any plan we built in store would not leave adequate room for our sink's plumbing. Instead, we were told we could "extend" the plumbing by paying a contractor. (Which would obviously cost more, and which we had no intention of doing.) Next, Ikea made multiple plans for our kitchen, and e-mailed us the incorrect one. We were on the phone and on hold with Ikea for hours, and it seemed like no one in their Kitchen planning department could find the right design, or any record of it. We finally managed to locate the right one after several days and many hours on hold with various people, but of course, it now meant the installation quote was wrong. It ended up costing more than we'd anticipated. Fine.
At least we were finally going to get our cabinets and look forward to the installation, right? WRONG. Ikea attempted delivery 8+ times over the course of two+ weeks and each time, they got the address wrong. We called repeatedly to have them correct it and were told that either a) they have corrected it and it would definitely arrive during the next delivery window (it didn't) or b) we had to call the third party delivery company to confirm the address. When we called the delivery company, they told us to call Ikea. It was a game of hot potato and no one wanted to take ownership of the issue. They ended up delivering thousands of dollars worth of cabinets onto a random lady's porch in Hamilton (2 cities over). We only found out because our contact info was on the boxes and she called to tell us. Imagine if she hadn't! We'd never have known where our delivery disappeared to! Beyond unacceptable. We had to call the delivery company to inform them of the mess-up, and arrange for them to pick up the delivery from this poor woman's porch. This resulted in even more hours on hold, and time wasted speaking to uninformed customer service reps.
I wish I could say this was the end, but it's not. It still took 3 delivery attempts before we got our mis-delivered cabinets, and many of them were damaged by the time they arrived. We had to haul them back to exchange them, on our own time. We also went through each line item on the order to make sure nothing was missing and sure enough, parts were missing. Thank goodness we did this and caught the mistake before the installation happened, but it shouldn't be on the customer to triple check Ikea's work.
During the installation, we found out that the hood vent above the stove wasn't part of the install so, there go another couple of 100s of dollars for that addition. We also find out that we have to wait a few weeks to confirm the countertop installation, so for almost a month, our kitchen is unusable. Finally, the day comes when our countertop is suppose to be installed and we find out that the measurements didn't account for everything, and there was an invoice adjustment. We have to pay more - AGAIN. On top of that, we cannot pay via credit card link. We have to print out the adjustment and go in person to pay at an Ikea. It's 2023... but I can't pay by credit card?? I need to go in store? What's more, when we were in store and wanted to pay there, we were told we had to pay online. So which is it? (This happened repeatedly, at many stages of paying for various parts of the kitchen. It seemed like no one knew the right way to pay). We were also in limbo now and were told that even if we were to pay in store same day, there is no guarantee that our installation will happen the following day, as in store payment still take 2-3 days to process.
I'm just at a loss for words. I feel like it requires an advanced background in project management to try to stay ahead of every screw up that Ikea has caused over these last several months. And it has been months. I feel like we deserve a credit for the hours we spent on hold, number of times we had to go back to the store (when we have limited access to a car), and general stress of feeling like this horror will never end.
If you're considering an Ikea kitchen, save yourself the trouble. Unless you're also in the market for a stress-induced receding hairline and a permanent eye twitch, it is not worth it.