A week after we moved and put the new covers on, our IKEA LILLBERG sofa broke. Right in half. The main support beam gave out right at the dovetail joint, and even split a board in the process. We were devastated, but figured that we’d be able to wrangle something out of it. Standard customer service would replace the couch, right?
My fiance and I purchased a sofa from IKEA in August of 2006 for our new apartment in Bloomington, IN. We purchased it from the Bolingbrook, IL store because it was near her parents house, where she was staying until the move. It’s a wood frame model with separate cushions, almost like a futon, but we appreciated it’s minimalistic design and size – long and deep. The cushions also had removable covers, which was a feature that we liked. Fast forward to a year later, after we decide to move across town to a rental house. There’s no way we can get the couch out of the door and we’re afraid of damaging it, so I take it apart using the instructions that came with it. We assembled it in our new living room according to the same instructions and decided that when we took a trip back to Chicago that weekend, we’d spend all the IKEA giftcards we’d been saving up. We blew all $300 we had in giftcards on new furniture and then decided that as a treat we’d buy $60 worth of new covers for our sofa. Which was a mistake.
After calling about a bad zipper in a sofa cushion, I learned that IKEA’s policy for returns and exchanges relies on going back to the original store that you bought the item from. So I called the Bolingbrook store and spoke with a standard customer service representative. This girl said that we’d have to bring it into the store, no other way to go about it, and once in the store, they’d be able to do a quality inspection of the item to make sure it wasn’t just regular wear and tear. It was a bit frustrating, but prospects looked good. The main hurdle seemed to be to convince IKEA to ship us a replacement so that we wouldn’t spend $150 in gas money to replace what is a $150 sofa frame – money that we didn’t have to begin with.
I called back the next day and after getting the same spiel, I asked to speak with a supervisor. I told the supervisor the issue that we had, and how it was a near impossibility for us to get to the store. She agreed to let us send in photographs of the break, and asked us for the receipt information while informing us that the warranty was only good for thirty or ninety days (I don’t remember which one it was). Which was our first problem. We didn’t have the receipt. We’re not sure if we threw it out after keeping it for a year, or if it just got mixed up in the move. We’re assuming the latter since we’re normally really responsible for this sort of thing.
I sent the supervisor photographs of the couch, and she responded asking for the receipt information. I asked her if she’d be able to look up the receipt information based on the credit card we used to purchase it and the date of the purchase – we had the bank statement since it was purchased with a debit/check card and we were able to see that information. She responded that she was unable to do this and would not be able to help us along any further without this information.
I should mention that throughout this whole process, I was formulating a Plan B. An Executive Email Carpet Bomb. With the help of countless Instant Messenger conversations with Ben Popken, I was getting closer and closer to developing a list of executives who might hear my plea. I had the basic email formula from when I emailed the customer service representative and submitted it to the Consumerist – good thing I did, because it turns out that the formula isn’t used by higher ups. The day I decided to try and track down the names of IKEA executives was the day that The Consumerist broke the story of the corporate email addresses. So I formulated a letter and sent it off to the higher powers that be:
Dear IKEA,
I have been a very loyal customer. When I moved into my first apartment in Chicago, I spent four hundred dollars furnishing it with IKEA furniture. When I got engaged and my fianc
e and I decided to move to Bloomington, IN, we spent at least four hundred more. We asked only for IKEA giftcards as Christmas presents and saved up for a year, so when we finally took a trip back to Chicago to visit her parents, we bought three hundred more dollars of IKEA furniture and products to furnish the house we moved into.
In the last purchase, we bought $60 worth of new cushion covers for the Lillberg model sofa. We have loved this sofa and had it for just about a year, when about two weeks ago it cracked. The main support beam underneath the cushions along the front of the couch broke in half down the dovetail joint and split one of the main support boards in the process. I’ve included thumbnail pictures of this break from all angles. We purchased this couch at the Bolingbrook, IL store in August of 2006, and were distraught because it is the only couch we own and we loved it so much that we spent sixty more dollars on cushion covers in order to preserve the couch for years to come.
I have been in contact with customer service at Bolingbrook, and was recently told that the only solution would be to bring the couch into the store with the original receipt. After asking to speak with a supervisor and explaining that I do not live near the Bolingbrook store anymore, I was told that I would be able to send in photos of the couch in an email and she would try to help us out. But since we have just moved again, we haven’t been able to locate the original receipt. We contact the same customer service representative and asked if she would be able to look up our receipt information based on the card that we used to purchase it with, and she said that we had to have the original receipt or there was nothing that she could do for us.
By looking at the pictures, it’s fairly obvious that it was a basic structural failure of the product. We did not abuse the couch or engage in any rough use. I even took it apart and gingerly transported the pieces separately when we moved in order to avoid any breakage. We were hoping that we could get a replacement sofa frame shipped to us, but have been unable to contact anyone who could help us. A couch that is advertised for every day use should not break in just a year of every day use.
We would gladly try to bring the couch to the store if we lived in the area. But as it stands, our house is located 249 miles from the Bolinbrook store, and to transport it there we would be spending about two hundred dollars in gas for a round trip in order to replace a two hundred dollar couch. If we had the four hundred dollars to spare, we would have just tried to replace the sofa on our own dime.
I am very happy with the IKEA products that we have purchased. The quality and the value have allowed us to furnish a home for a fraction of the cost at a traditional furniture store. At the same time, we appreciate the values that IKEA holds. That is why we have been returning customers after all of these years. It makes me worried, though, that we have been able to get this situation rectified. One of the reasons we felt safe in buying only IKEA furniture has been the helpful customer service that we’ve received in the past. We simply cannot afford to replace this sofa on our own at this moment, and if this situation is not resolved, we will have to think twice about the next furniture purchase we make.
I have included many different photos of the break, but can provide larger images if you are interested. I would also like to be contacted about this issue by August 28th. It has been weeks now since we haven’t had a couch to sit on, and the sooner we can get this issue resolved, the better.
My phone number is _____________. I can also be contacted at jesse.raub@gmail.com.
Thank you for your patience and consideration,
Jesse Raub
____________
Bloomington, IN 47401
____________
jesse.raub@gmail.comI tried to follow the basic tips I got from the last story about an IKEA EECB and from the posts about the book Unscrewed – I wanted to let them know that they’d be losing a lot of money from me as a customer. As I stated earlier, we spent $350 on our last trip, and at least $500-$800 in trips before that. Our tiny house resembles an IKEA shrine.
And a day later, I received a phone call from the Bolingbrook store manager. She asked me to recount my story and I did. And as soon as I had mentioned that I had moved to a new house in Bloomington, she insinuated that I may have damaged the couch in the move since they’ve never had any quality issues with the sofa before in the past. I reassured her that I took the couch apart and that I followed directions. She then implied that I must have put the couch together wrong and that it was my fault that it broke. She said that she would refuse to replace the couch, even if we took it into the store, even if we managed to dig up the receipt.
This was a shock. In our point of view, the entire time we were being told that the main issue was the distance from us and the store. We were fairly sure that replacement was inevitable, just not the free shipping. And to be honest, it was a bit insulting for her to tell me that it was my fault that the couch broke.
I was dejected, but got a letter from the IKEA corporate customer service branch a day later. This letter said that they would forward my information on to Bolingbrook and someone would contact me. The address was hand written, and the letter was personally signed. I thought, “Oh, this is great! These people actually care and will definitely care about how rudely I was treated!” I even had a documented case number and everything. On the letter was a phone number, 610- 834-0180 – the line that will connect you the IKEA corporate Customer Relations Managers.
Again, wrong. From what I’ve discovered, IKEA operates mainly as a franchise. All the stores function individually and almost independently from IKEA corporate, especially when it comes to customer service. I talked with one of the managers who pulled up my case information. I was ready to spew my whole story at her when she was able to re-cap it to me. All of my information was stored in the case and documented, and she was well briefed. She told me exactly what the Bolingbrook manager told me – they wouldn’t replace the couch, however this lady was much sweeter in telling me so. She explained that it was basically up to the stores discretion on whether or not they would replace the couch, and how there was nothing she could do. She also explained that there have never been similar complaints about the couch, and that if there ever were, they’d open up my case again and contact me. I asked if we could purchase a new couch and get free shipping. She informed me that the store could not ship this far, and that IKEA corporate wouldn’t be able to ship anything out either. And thus I was defeated. But not after spending 30 minutes on the phone repeating myself and trying to get her to budge an inch.
So what came out of this whole event? My advice to you if you ever need to contact IKEA customer service:
- Try calling the basic store. Start out easy – it might work
- Ask to speak to a supervisor. The supervisors are trained to be helpful – in fact, the call center supervisor was the only one who treated me with any sort of sympathy and attempted to help me.
- Try speaking to the Customer Relations manager.
- If none of that works, use the EECB. It will get their attention and somebody will contact you. At least you can get your case heard.
- ONLY TELL THEM THE BASIC FACTS. If I never said that I moved, they wouldn’t be able to blame it on the move. However, I do believe they would have tried to blame it on something else, but I didn’t need to offer that information before I was asked.
- If none of that works, try calling US Customer Relations and speak to an IKEA Corporate Customer Relations Manager, reached at 610-834-0180. They will create a case file for you, and it’s their job to make sure that all customer service inquiries are resolved in some way, shape, or form.
- Be persistent. It might not work in the end, but at least you can’t say that you never tried. I went all the way to the top and was denied. At least I know there was more than likely nothing else I could do.
After this debacle, I highly doubt I will be purchasing any other IKEA furniture. I’ve never had serious quality issues with the stuff in the past, but now I know that if I do, I’ll be screwed out of my money and left couchless. As for the broken frame? My dad’s coming down to visit us this Friday, and he’s bringing a power drill. Let’s see what sort of furniture hacking we can do.
Jesse did almost everything right, but In telling IKEA about his move, he gave them an excuse to deny his claim. Captured POWs need only give name, rank and serial number. The same principle applies in doing battle with customer service. Anything extra you give them can and will be used against you.
Also, he failed to at any point make it more costly for the original store to ignore you than to solve your problem. Consider the technique behind Company Ignoring You? Fax ‘Em To Death, or How To Kick A Scammy Car Dealer In The Nuts. They work by making a simple argument any business owner can understand.
Then again, perhaps Jesse’s next idea, getting a powerdrill and bolting the brace back together (bracing the brace is also an option), is the best, and one most in the IKEA spirit he enjoys so much.
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In all that time you spent desperately trying to make them replace it for you, you could have gone to a hardware store…bought a few 2 by 4′s and fixed it yourself for less time when it would have taken to go through all this. Almost a year ago and you can’t even find the receipt. If it was such an important purchase you should have saved your receipt, and even on there it would have told you how many days you had to replace it. This should be a lesson in saving your receipt and I honestly don’t think IKEA has done anything wrong. It’s also only $150 for a couch…what the hell did you expect? Yes it sucks, but most of the things I have after a year aren’t what they were a year ago and I don’t expect the company that made it to give a crap unless they specifically state otherwise.
My Lilliberg couch had the exact same problem. I fixed it with screws and some books to hold up the broken point. Nobody should buy these couches, they don’t work.
Can anyone explain why a joint HAS to be there on such a span? Seems to be one piece of wood. Was it necessary to get it in a package that would fit it a compact car? Or just to allow them to use cheaper peices of wood?
$200 in gas to drive about 500 miles round-trip? At current Bay Area pricing (3.15/gallon), that’s 63 gallons, or roughly 7.9 miles per gallon.
Maybe you should trade in your gas-guzzling vehicle for something that doesn’t cost a fortune to drive and use the savings to buy a sturdier couch.
I have the same couch as well for years, and have dis-assembled, moved and re-assembled it three times. It’s broken in many other ways, though. One of the wooden slats (running perpendicular to the beam) broke a bit and the dowel keeping it actually attached to the beam is broken and stuck in there, and one of the little wooden knobs that holds the back piece up falls out occasionally, AND the part that keeps the bottom cushion part attached to the sides in the back corner has fallen completely out of place half a dozen times when people sit on it too hard (making them feel really, really fat when the couch caves in beneath them).
But I’m still sitting on it as I write this, three years later, with the help of some Gorilla glue to prevent future major mishaps, and it was damn cheap.
IF those pictures are of the couth, I could build something more durable from HomeDepot. Just one look the thing, and I can honestly say that I’m not surprised it failed to hold up. Just take a piece of scrap metal, some screws and bolts and mount it behind the board. Not perfect, but cheaper than buying a new couch.
I, too, work at IKEA. We sell everything from junk to fairly decent quality furniture. We do not sell heirloom furniture. When you shop at IKEA you will get what you pay for. Spend more and get more. No matter what, nothing lasts forever. If your car had some maintenance need after a year or two, you would just suck up and pay for it. That is what this is. All it needs is some glue, a clamp for a day, and it will be better than new. Easy. Cheap. Practical. IKEA is perfect for what it is, and not for what it isn’t.
IKEA = cheap, disposable furniture. ‘Nuff said.
@Buran:
I’m not jeering, but rather pointing out that I happen to feel that refusing to shop at Ikea as a whole (rather than at a particular franchise store — say the one that they feel slighted by) is childish . . . IMHO.
I know that couch. It’s broken a LOT in the exact same spot. It’s currently duct-taped together and seems to be fine now.
I have to say that making a support beam out of joined pieces of wood instead of one solid piece seems rather obviously destined to fail. That being said, however, you also get what you pay for. A couch made of MDF and purchased for $150 is simply not destined to have a long life. No matter how this couch had been treated, it was well past its warranty point. If it is such a beloved part of your life, look to repair it and learn from your error. Next time, either spend a bit more for quality, or at least better inspect the craftsmanship.
Also, a comment for those that seem to think purchasing a new kit and swapping out the broken part is acceptable. Maybe you think no harm is being done or you are “just getting what is due”. No matter how you slice it, that behavior is dishonest. You would not buy an orange from the grocery store, let it go bad on your counter and then think you are entitled to take a replacement from the store without paying. Then again, maybe you would. Badly made products are one thing, but everything has a life. For a $150 couch, I would hve given it about six months. Caveat emptor.
One of the reasons people who have legitimate claims and issues get treated shoddily and that customer service people grow bitter and rude is people like Mr. Raub who are completely outside of warranty who pursue these sorts of claims well past the point of reason. The message that seems to be contained in this story is to be a squeaky wheel even when you aren’t the least bit entitled to any grease and maybe you’ll annoy someone into giving you what you want even when you do not deserve it.
I can’t imagine what was going through Mr. Raub’s mind when he decided to go on this crusade but he certainly had no respect for the people who he was badgering with this spurious claim. He completely wasted their time (and therefore their money) and patience and then has the audacity to come on the Consumerist and bad-mouth IKEA (which I have never shopped at, incidentally, and have no loyalty to whatsoever) and proclaim that he’ll never shop there again. Given this claim, I’m not sure they’d want you as a customer!
1st off.. 150 dollars is not high end as everyone else has said.
2n You mean to tell me you can’t throw some screws or nails into that to get a temp fix to last another year or so?
@ BURBANKBURT
So, Paul, shopping at a store that consistently sells defective merchandise is the “adult” way to go?
How’s that work and how does that save one’s nose?
That’s funny, we have the exact same couch. We’ve had it for three years, and we’ve moved twice with it. Both times we’ve taken it apart completely and reassembled it at the new home. The only problem we’ve had is something spilled on one of the cushions last time, and we’ve replaced it already.
I love how the customer describes the way he moved the pieces, as though he lovingly hand carried them to their new destination. You’d had the couch a year, you moved, THEN it breaks.
And you say IKEA is crazy for saying maybe something happened to it in the move? If the couch was defective or something was going to break, it was going to happen when you had it for that year. Somewhere in the disassembling and the moving, something happened and it’s not the companies fault.
Was it under warranty? No? Then why do they owe you anything? I couldn’t imagine calling them up after a year and a half and insisting on a new couch frame for free if something remotely like this situation happened to me.
We have mixed feelings about fashion week. On one hand, it makes it feel better about ourselves because come on, these models don’t look that great. I have nicer eyebrows than that betch.
From the photos, it looks like ONE SCREW would repair the “broken” slat pair, and make it even stronger.
Sorry, this looks like wear and tear from the photos, and a very simple home repair.
No, standard customer service would not replace the couch. If it was
within a week or two of original purchase I would send someone over to
put the one screw in with gluing, as a courtesy ONLY, not for any legal
obligation.
Ikea doesn’t need this complainant as a customer and neither would I.
Wow, I’ve set off a hotbed here.
Update: my father brought his drill down and we screwed a board the entire length behind it after wood gluing it back together and we added two short legs in the middle to offset the pressure.
Regardless of whether or not IKEA owed me a replacement couch, I think that it should have been replaced regardless. It’s just good customer service.
If you have a broken Lillberg couch, I suggest contact IKEA corporate and letting them know. The more cases that they have on file, the better chance we all have for getting a new one shipped to us. A new one that we can return to a store for credit that we can use to buy something that’s not going to break.
@jesseraub:
Jesse! Get real! No company that I know of does not draw a line that ends the terms of a warranty. It HAS to end at some point in time. IKEA already told you, and you knew it from the day you purchased the couch.
Sure it would be nice if this couch would last longer, but it had a relatively minor issue that had a minor and inexpensive fix. That was not too much to ask of you, to do minor repairs in time. So stop your badgering IKEA. Your issue is, to every reasonable reader here, YOUR issue. It is not IKEA’s problem to fix. It is YOURS.
I work for IKEA, and all I can say about this “article” is if that is the worst you can say about IKEA, then we are doing pretty darn good at generally provided decent products for a darn good price. I challenge you to find any other moderate quality furnishings provider that does a better job for you and still pay meaningful attention to the environment.
(However, there is an issue with IKEA that does merit complaint, they pay their employees an indecently low wage. Sorry IKEA management, most of us who work here have difficulty selling IKEA goods because we ourselves can’t afford to shop IKEA.)
Ikea has the worst repair/return policy of any store I have ever dealt with, so I can totally relate. Once you put something together and the item breaks, you have to bring the whole thing in to get it looked at or replaced. I would NEVER buy one of their couches — their other items are cheap and fragile enough, but a couch, that’s just asking for trouble. Even so, no one deserves such shoddy, inflexible customer service.
@jesseraub: No… it would be customer service going the extra mile if you got a replacement. After reading this statement I can see why the CSR manager quietly told you where to go.
Ikea furniture is known to do this. My ex’s futon broke at about the year mark (and coincidentally after a move as well). Ikea furniture also seems to have one or at most 2 stress points on each piece that are bound to fail.
I usually recommend that people just mod the fuck out of the furniture to make it last longer. In this case, if you know someone who does metal work, just have them make you a steel bracket with holes in it to go over the crack, then bolt it in with high strength steel bolts, should last forever after that.
Then again, it is a piece of Ikea furniture, so its easily replaceable.
YODLER — If this is what you think qualifies as “good” customer service, then I suggest you take a nice job at Macy’s also. You’ll fit right in. Listen, it’s a cheap couch that probably cost Ikea pennies to make. It’s a bit out of warranty, so what. For Gd sakes, ship him a new one! Is it worth losing a potential life-long customer over a few shekels to Ikea? Dickering over terms of a warranty contract is really the best way to seriously tick off a customer like this. Target will be waiting with warm and open arms.
@jesseraub: “Regardless of whether or not IKEA owed me a replacement couch, I think that it should have been replaced regardless. It’s just good customer service.”
This sentence makes absolutely no sense. You say if they owe you a new couch or not they should give you one anyway?
Because it’s good customer service?
That’s what those of us who work in customer service call “entitlement” and it is part of the downward spiral. You call in acting entitled to something you don’t deserve because it’s “good customer service” (it is not, getting what you deserve is, getting what you don’t deserve is bad business and is you screwing the company over).
Then the people who give the customer service get sick of the attitude, and start behaving badly to other people, people who deserve nice treatment. Or they mistrust those people and think they’re being screwed over.
Then those people get cranky and start acting badly, thinking they deserve even more, and then the service employees get angrier.
You should ask for and receive what you deserve. That’s it. IKEA gave you a $150 couch that served you well. That’s what you deserved. That is customer service.
Asking for anything more is contributing to the problem.
Assuming gas is 3 dollars a gallon and it will cost you 200 bucks to get there you plan on burning 66 gallons of gas at a grand total of 7.5 miles per gallon. Nice!
Just repair the damned thing and go on. You oughta know that Ikea doesn’t sell high-end stuff. I consider it a junk-store.
IKEA is one step above a yard sale. I’ve bought stuff there and later found that the box did not even include all of the parts listed in the instructions (partial return?).
I have the same couch and the exact same problem. I had it for three weeks, and have been unsuccessful at navigating the maze of customer service purgatory. I am taking the DIY to heart, and can’t justify any more of my life to dealing with Ikea. I will never buy from them again and I will say bad things about their mother.
I purchased a “Hopen” bed from Ikea in Frisco, TX Sept 06, for my son. Within 6 mos of my purchase the side rail began to split in the middle starting from the bottom going up. When I called Ikea, they told me to bring it in to the store, because they guarantee their furniture. When I explained to them I was not able to find the receipt because we moved shortly after purchase. They said there was nothing they could do about it. They had to have the receipt.
I spent over $1200.00 that day. I purchased the bed, side table, chest among other things.
Two weeks later, I called back, and that cust. service rep told me to bring in a copy of my bank statement and they would go off that along with purchase date they could find it in their system.
Boy, I thought I was really going somewhere now.
But, they also told me they would still have to inspect the bed rail to see if its faulty or just abuse of the bed. Of course, they just couldn’t see how it could be faulty.
I said to them, “you mean I still may be denied replacement of the rails? She said, “yes”.
I told her that my drive one way is 1 hr and 45 minutes and I still can be denied?
I said how about if I just purchase the side rails
and they told me I couldn’t do that either.
“Whaaaaaaaat! I am just floored at this time.
Now I have a side table and chest that I’m not sure what to do with as well as buy a new bed and
chest from a REAL FURNITURE STORE that will actually GURANTEE ITS QUALITY.
IKEA! YOU HAVE LOST ME AS A CUSTOMER!
Does anyone know the phone numbers to The Room Store, Rooms to Go, Havertys? I really don’t care anyone but IKEA.
I own a business myself, and if I treated any of my customers that way, they would be gone in a heart beat
Sincerely,
Lost Me In Texas
@jesseraub:
Hahaha. Oh lord. You’re precisely the kind of customer that people don’t mind losing and don’t mind ranting on the internet, because as the comments clearly indicate, you’re just not right in the head when it comes to what you should get with purchase.
“Regardless of whether or not IKEA owed me a replacement couch, I think that it should have been replaced regardless. It’s just good customer service.”
What a laugh. . . good customer service isn’t spoiling the customer senseless with policies that’ll run you out of business.
Old thread but I have this couch and it broke in the exact same spot. Glad I found this, I was about to go through all the hassle of trying to get it replaced.