Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Mad at IKEA


Okay, first off, I admit, I'm a fan of IKEA. I like some of the products very much, and they are affordable. In fact, half the things you see on the DIY shows are products from IKEA. However, I am a bit miffed at them, and here is my tale!

I am remodeling several portions of the house. My wife and I decided to do one big purchase of all the products we needed from IKEA. So, we went to the great Dutch Furniture Warehouse on Saturday and we spent over two hours there. It was quite the trip. We purchased new cabinets, shelves, lamps (those are important) hardware, etc. etc. etc.

The day of purchasing pretty much wiped us out. There is a lot of heavy lifting to be done, and we vowed to tackle the project Sunday. Which we did. Sunday I had my tools, I had my box cutter and I was ready to spend a lot of time with Hex Style Screws and little tiny dowels. I whipped through our new Cabinets for the bedroom in record time and installed them. I then moved on to the two wall lamps we purchased, which went into place fairly easily.

That's when I noticed, they did not come with light bulbs. This was step one in my journey to madness. So, we find out standard light bulbs do not work, you need a specialty light bulb. Ugh! So, I journey down to the Home Depot, which was closer than the hour long drive to IKEA. I search for the bulb, and I am given a bulb by an employee who 'swears it will work'. That bulb of course does not. So, I am forced to make the trek down to IKEA. The wife was kind enough to tag along. I get there, and I begin searching for the bulb... everywhere... instead of a nice and neat little rack with bulbs say... at the front of the damn building... I am forced to do what I like to call the IKEA SPRINT. It's where you have to run through half the damn building because they have to create a shopping experience, instead of easy access to product. When I get to the lighting... the bulbs are not next to the lamps... they are strewn all over the "Illumination" department, which I remarked to be not a very illuminated floor design. So, with a little help we grab some bulbs from a bin marked E12 40w, and make the purchase. As we are leaving, my wife checks the bulbs.... they are not E12 as the bin said, but E26... My Blood Pressure spikes. I head back to the returns and askthem for a refund. I then ask if they might be nice enough to go get the bulbs for me since it was there error that caused the problem... they politely refuse. So, I'm back to the IKEA sprint... I get up there, and I find that they no longer have the E12 as an incandescent, I have to buy the new power saver kind, which are three times as much... I then sprint back down to the check out to find they closed most of the check out lines down to two, and there are 30 customers waiting to get out.... AAAAAAAAGGGGHHH!

Here's my suggestion to everyone at IKEA. Create an area by the front door for hardware and small items like LIGHT BULBS! So, I can get in and get out! I do not want to spend my whole weekend smelling your swedish meat balls! I just want to get in and get out! Or you can solve this problem, by including your whacky bulbs in the damn packages for your lamps! HULK SMASH!

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