Booked a collection of a wardrobe on call for a particular date due for two weeks after earliest collection. Couple days prior to the collection almost two weeks later with no notice I receive a missed call and a text message immediately afterwards telling me they tried to contact me to ‘confirm’ collection but I was unable to ‘confirm’ so they will cancel my collection if I don’t reply. I tried texting back but texts don’t go through to them so I called back within *10 minutes*! to return the missed call to ‘confirm’ my collection which I was on a phone call for 20 minutes for. The man told me it’s confirmed and I don’t need to do anything else. That was on a Friday morning. Today, Monday 3pm I received a missed call from Ikea. 2 hours after I returned the missed call to find out what it’s about only to find out they had called me at 3pm to ‘confirm’ the collection only to inform me they had cancelled the collection because I didn’t contact them back today as well as last Friday when I did! And I need to wait another two weeks for the next collection date for a wardrobe and bunch of shelves in their original sealed packaging just waiting in my house taking the space. The lady said i needed to contact them directly and when I said I tried but couldn’t so I had to contact the general Ikea customer service line, she then says, ‘that’s right, the store for collection doesn’t have a direct line you could contact them on so you needed to call the general Ikea customer service number like I did today, so I replied, that’s exactly what I did and the man told me thank you for confirming. I even was skeptical at first and explicitly asked him are you sure you confirmed it and he said yes.When the lady said ‘it’s because you didn’t contact them back’ and when I heard the news, I expressed my confusion and disappointment without shouting and the lady accused me of ‘shouting at her’? She then became stern to tell me all she can do is book another collection. She wasn’t caring to understand my situation and also repeated I didn’t contact them back and I tried telling her I did! I even have the evidence in my recent phone call list on my iPhone. I asked isn’t there a collection earlier as I already waited two weeks and did nothing wrong: I made a list of the article numbers I’m returning in their original packaging and moved the heavy boxes to my corridor, and the multiple big shelves in the living room floor, I identified which articles numbers I’m retuning per order as I had two orders with some items in each order needing to be retuned, I contacted Ikea to clearly tell them the list of items to be returned and the man curated a list of the items to be collected and booked a date with me on the phone call. I wrote down the collection reference number and set the event in my calendar, I returned the missed call last Friday within 10 minutes! I was very organised and doing my part, I don’t understand why you need to confirm 3 times!! Such a hassle and difficult customer service. I feel I am suffering at the expense or their disorganisation and being blamed for it. The lady told me nobody wrote on the note you had called to confirm when I did call and the man confirmed it he said. I did my part! This collection was so important I was counting the days down in my head, prepared to welcome the collection men for the collection because I waited 2 weeks and it’s a big collection taking space! Now I have to wait another two weeks and the lady gave me new reference numbers and I’m back at square one chasing them up. And if without notice they had contacted me and you’re not glued to your phone so it’s natural if you had missed a call, I contacted them back immediately, and the lady was very stern and accusing. I feel mistreated and it’s such a heavy burdening situation experience. As for the assembly service I booked for the wardrobes, Ikea weren’t able to refund or cancel the items in the assembly I’m returning, so I had to pay assembly for the items I am returning?! I tried on the phone call for like 1 and half hour being transferred department to department and they couldn’t amend the assembly so I gave up. I didn’t think anything of it and let it go thinking it’s just a bit of a nick on an otherwise perfect furniture, delivery, assembly and procedure of booking the collection with them (seemingly at first) until their hassle and a difficulty of customer service they are really unfolded. I like the ikea furniture range and interest free finance options. But unless you’re a perfect human being and didn’t make any mistakes in your order that’d need returning is when you really need to contact customer service to learn that they have appalling service when it comes to actually getting stuff done. I had never experienced this level of disorientation with any other retailer. Customer unfriendly interface. Difficult, not caring…
