Last Sunday afternoon we trekked to Ikea in Richmond. We'd prepared by printing a shopping list from their website. Ikea was very busy when we arrived.
We were shopping for desks and chairs, for Mia and myself. Although we had the warehouse information to directly collect our items we still trekked through the maze to see them assembled. And I'm glad we did - I quickly realised that the desk I'd picked from the catalogue was in fact too narrow for a widescreen monitor. I picked another desk, about 75cm deep.
We then trekked to the warehouse - and found that all but one item was out of stock. To say I was annoyed is an understatement. I spoke to three staff in different places in the store about when they would receive new stock, and each person referred me to someone else at another desk. I then gave up after figuring that they have no idea and probably weren't allowed to say so. One did day that "the trucks from China hadn't arrived as planned". They'll be waiting a long time for those trucks.
As soon as we got home I checked online and their inventory showed all but one item as being in stock still - about ten units was the lowest of the in-stock items. It is clear that their online inventory is inaccurate.
To get the items I went back to Ikea at lunchtime on Wednesday, when passing through the area for work. This time everything was there - but the queues were just as long as they had been on Sunday because they don't have many checkouts open during the week.
We were lucky because our purchases came to just over $500. At the moment they have a deal - if you spend more than $500 you get a $50 voucher. The checkout person deducted $50 from my transaction, so that it was about $460. This then saved us another $30 on delivery because Ikea's delivery service (run by Kings Transport) is based upon the value of your purchases. For our postcode the delivery is $50 for under $500 and $80 for over $500.
The promised SMS last evening, to notify us of a delivery time, didn't arrive. However we did receive the promised phone call 30 minutes beforehand to advise us that delivery would be in 30-45 minutes time.
Tonight I've assembled three desk chairs and one desk. We only completed one drawer of the last desk before deciding to finish it tomorrow.
I don't understand why Ikea doesn't have an online shopping service. Their business is ideal for online shopping. Do they actually make most of their money from the margins in the small items that people pick up as they wander through the store - sales that wouldn't happen if their goods were available online?
We were shopping for desks and chairs, for Mia and myself. Although we had the warehouse information to directly collect our items we still trekked through the maze to see them assembled. And I'm glad we did - I quickly realised that the desk I'd picked from the catalogue was in fact too narrow for a widescreen monitor. I picked another desk, about 75cm deep.
We then trekked to the warehouse - and found that all but one item was out of stock. To say I was annoyed is an understatement. I spoke to three staff in different places in the store about when they would receive new stock, and each person referred me to someone else at another desk. I then gave up after figuring that they have no idea and probably weren't allowed to say so. One did day that "the trucks from China hadn't arrived as planned". They'll be waiting a long time for those trucks.
As soon as we got home I checked online and their inventory showed all but one item as being in stock still - about ten units was the lowest of the in-stock items. It is clear that their online inventory is inaccurate.
To get the items I went back to Ikea at lunchtime on Wednesday, when passing through the area for work. This time everything was there - but the queues were just as long as they had been on Sunday because they don't have many checkouts open during the week.
We were lucky because our purchases came to just over $500. At the moment they have a deal - if you spend more than $500 you get a $50 voucher. The checkout person deducted $50 from my transaction, so that it was about $460. This then saved us another $30 on delivery because Ikea's delivery service (run by Kings Transport) is based upon the value of your purchases. For our postcode the delivery is $50 for under $500 and $80 for over $500.
The promised SMS last evening, to notify us of a delivery time, didn't arrive. However we did receive the promised phone call 30 minutes beforehand to advise us that delivery would be in 30-45 minutes time.
Tonight I've assembled three desk chairs and one desk. We only completed one drawer of the last desk before deciding to finish it tomorrow.
I don't understand why Ikea doesn't have an online shopping service. Their business is ideal for online shopping. Do they actually make most of their money from the margins in the small items that people pick up as they wander through the store - sales that wouldn't happen if their goods were available online?
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