If IKEA has a 30% restocking fee on defective items that you tried in vain to assemble (twice) only to decide that you just didn’t want the stupid thing anymore, we couldn’t find any evidence of it on their website. Nevertheless, reader Drew says buying and returning (rather than exchanging) a defective bookcase cost him $60 and a sore back.
Drew writes:
My wife and I were very excited that a new IKEA store opened near our house. After a lot of planning, measuring, and consideration, we decided to purchase several bookshelves (from the Buddy line) and a large bookcase (from the Expedit line) for our home. We purchased nearly $600 worth of shelves, $200 of which was the Expedit bookcase.
I’ve assembled knock-down furniture before — Sauder, IKEA, etc — and I know from experience that it is important to carefully inventory (to make sure nothing is missing) and read the directions (to make sure you’re using the right piece at the right time) before starting assembly, which I did.
It wasn’t until one of the last steps in the (long) assembly process that it became clear that there was a problem with the materials — the pieces simply did not line up to allow finishing of the assembly. The top piece and side piece simply did not match up in one of the final steps. So, I carefully UN-assembled everything, re-read the directions, and verified that I was using the pieces appropriately. I was, so we started to re-assemble the bookcase. Near the end of the SECOND assembly, the problem was still there. It was apparent that this particular bookcase was defective. We also decided that it was too large for the space we’d intended (we’d measured the space and the model bookcase before purchasing it). While it FIT, it didn’t look right to us, so we decided we wanted to get our money back.
My wife & I unassembled the piece (again) and loaded it into her car with the original boxes. This evening (1 day after purchasing the item), I drove to IKEA to return the item.
That’s when the trouble started.
I loaded the pieces of the bookcase onto one of their carts and wheeled it into the returns department. I told them the piece was defective. They asked if I wanted an exchange. I said no, that it was larger than we wanted; we’d just like our money back.
They said that because the piece had been assembled (I’d left the little wooden connection pegs installed), and that the piece wasn’t IN the original boxes (it was ON the original boxes — I was not interested in using my time to repack it in the boxes), and that the hardware (screws and stuff) were in a ziplock baggie and not their original packaging that they would have to charge me a 30% restocking fee. I asked if that held true even though the piece was defective and the clerk at the counter indicated that it was. I asked to speak with the manager on duty, and shortly, Marcie came over.
I explained that the piece was defective, that we didn’t want it anymore, and that we wanted our money back. She looked at the piece and said that because I’d built it, they had to charge me the restocking fee because “they couldn’t sell it like that”. I asked her what other way besides building it she suggested to determine that the item was defective, and she had no good answer for that. I suggested that they assemble the piece there in the returns department, but she said no. They held their line firmly — I walked out with $140 of the $200 item we’d purchased.
So, I spent lots of time building this thing (twice) only to find out it was defective, and for my patience, sore back, and time spent loading and unloading it in our car, I am rewarded with a $60 charge.
The refund policy (the one featuring the graphic of the heart-shaped red pillow with outstretched arms) doesn’t specify anything about defective merchandise nor does it indicate the restocking fee.
I feel like IKEA should at least refund my $60 since their product was defective. I’d like to do a corporate email carpet bomb. Any tips for locating IKEA management’s email addresses?
We sure do, Drew. Here’s the contact information for IKEA.
A 30% restocking fee on a defective item seems like the sort of thing that should be disclosed in big bold letters.
What do you think? Should IKEA have waived the fee because the item was defective? Or was the fee fair because Drew didn’t want the bookcase anyway?
(Photo:Sun Dazed)
@officeboy: Look closer. There are several different sizes of Expedit pieces and (yet another joy of Ikea) some colors are more expensive than others. I bought the piece in your photo but in a different color for $150.
@opinionismine: Don’t have IKEAs in Florida? Which rock are you living under? There’s one in Sunrise, FL and one in Orlando, FL. There’s also one currently under construction in Tampa, FL.
Having done tons of ikea stuff over the years (one five minutes away from my work), I’ve only ever once had a problem with their furniture, and even that was resolved. I’ve never ever EVER heard of ANYONE paying a restocking fee. Sounds more like an asshole tax.
My understanding is that all assembled or restocked furniture goes straight to the AS-IS room for liquidation.
The 30% is the typical markdown they are forced to take.
Nobody wins really.
The return policy as stated on the Ikea website does not reference a restocking fee.
It does say that the unused item is to be returned “in its original packaging.”
Link to return policy page:
[www.ikea.com]
Just a tip…if you buy an Ikea product that needs assembly I’d recommend having a large meal beforehand and a 48 hour window of time to assemble it…
My experience with any product from them is it either has extra parts or is missing something!
I see this from both sides and understand why IKEA would charge the restocking fee in this case. But if the policy is not clearly stated where a consumer can see it at the time of purchase then IKEA was wrong.
I’ve put together furniture where either parts were missing or defective. Most items come with a customer service number to call to request replacement parts. It’s easier than lugging the item back to the store or shipping it back if ordered online.
Customer service is very helpful with newly purchased furniture with defects. I purchased a $800 dining table for my parents that was delivered scraped on top. The scrape could be covered with a placemat but a brand new table shouldn’t have any defects so I contacted the company. Not only did the company deliver a new table, but didn’t bother to pick up the damaged one. The freight company said they weren’t instructed to retrieve the damaged table and did not want to be responsible for it. (I suspect it was more cost effective for the furniture company to write off the damaged table than to pay the freight charge to have it shipped back to them in CA from VA.)
Since my parents ended up with two dining tables, they didn’t even bother having the deliverymen set up the replacement table. It was easier to just leave it boxed to store in the garage. As for the damaged table, they covered the scrape with a placemat and went on about their business.
We have two Expedit pieces in our home. A 5×5 bookshelf against the wall which we actually use for books and a 2×4 bookshelf which we’ve placed on its side and use for an entertainment center.
In removing both from their boxes, it is clear that no defective pieces can be included, as they destroy the flat-packed shape. I’m almost sure about what he did that he now thinks it’s “defective”.
It’s likely not defective. More than likely, he’s clumsy and is lashing out at Ikea because “it CAN’T possibly be HIS fault”. Understandable, I do the same thing sometimes.
That IKEA charged him 30% to restock it is fair, since he probably destroyed any value the item may have in the clumsy construction.
How do you think IKEA maintains their low, low prices? Certainly it isn’t just by clever tax avoidance.
Aside from the merits of the restocking fee (which doesn’t sound justifiable if it’s not visibly in writing somewhere) I’m suddenly very confused by “If you are not entirely satisfied with your purchase, simply return the unused item in its original packaging.”
How can you be unsatisfied with something you’ve never used? What, something like “I just, really didn’t like the look of the box in my garage. It didn’t fit in with the decor.”
The claims of “defective” are becoming all too common by consumers as a means to avoid restocking fees and the manufacturers and stores are figuring it out.
I got some Sauder furniture a while back. The instructions included a letter stating to call Sauder if I found shortages, defects etc…. no returns to the store for defects.
My Dad just bought a shelf unit (was an off brand cheap crap). Similar letter. Well one of the shelves was drilled goofy. Called the company and a replacement shelf was UPS’d out to fix the situation.
Restocking fees seem appropriate even when claiming “defective”.
@opinionismine:
say what? There’s an Ikea in Orlando and Miami.
@luckybob343: Isn’t just lovely that you’re able to see through the internet and see that his furniture was not defective… holes may have been drilled wrong, how can you say so definitively that the OP is wrong? Here’s the answer… YOU CAN’T! God these blame the OP trolls are so obnoxious…
Sooooo…… give it a rest troll, since no one has ANY evidence to the contrary, then we cannot assume that the OP is at fault. Holes may have been drilled wrong for all you know.
Lets see I don’t live in Orlando or Miami nor do I see a reason to drive to either of these cities to buy cheap particle board and tin-can furniture.
30% restocking fee is only fair if the store tells you about it before you purchase – so whether people think it’s fair or not because he actually decided it didn’t fit doesn’t matter – ikea didn’t make him aware of their fee & that needs to be disclosed.
DANG. Consumerist jumps the gun again? I too agree that the consumer here should have taken the exchange. Regardless of whether or not the product was defective, he opened the box, played with the product and tried to return it for a full refund.
I believe that if he looked at the BACK of his RECEIPT he’d see the restocking fee and other return policies printed in blue ink. Caveat emptor.
No, not caveat emptor.
Try more like unfair trade practices. Damn, so far not one lawyer above?
To the OP:
Send a registered letter to the store and cc the corporate office. Tell them you are rejecting the item because of a substantial defect. Tell them this defect cancels the sale and you demand your entire payment back in full. Describe the item, list the defect, tell them you notified the store in person in a timely manner that the item was defective and they would not return the entire payment. Tell them this letter constitutes a formal request for your payment back in full.
Bonus points if you can actually look up the relevant statute from your particular state. Look for Unfair Trade Practices Act, or search the AG site for consumer law and defective items.
Tell them that you intend to get your money back, and you will be asking for attorneys fees.
To recap: When you buy something you are entering into a contract. Contracts are bound by law, not by store policies, managerial whims, or surly clerks. When contracts are litigated, they are frequently held to the ‘reasonable man’ standard.
A reasonable man expects his stuff to work. A reasonable man sometimes has to put things together in order to find out it’s defective. A reasonable man tears open packaging and plastic bags.
I can hear the laughter in court already. But judge, he brought back the screws in a ziploc bag! A ZIPLOC!
“(I’d left the little wooden connection pegs installed)”
Those are called Dowels, more precisely.. They are glue dowels. They are supposed to be glued in place on most furniture. But this is Ikea…The Rubic’s Cube of Furniture!
I don’t think the guys who draw the diagrams for this furniture have ever been in the same room as the finished project (outsourced?). Usually there is a way for these pieces to go together, but they aren’t covered in the instructions or match the diagrams. That also don’t require a drillpress and duct-tape.
You really should not have agreed to their return policy… You accepted it.. that’s the end. Personally I would have taken it back out to the parking lot, assembled it, Tell the manager if they can find someone to put the final piece on (as it’s supposed to be done), you would accept their 30% restocking fee.. Otherwise you were returning a defective product that “COULD NOT BE ASSEMBLED”, so their 30% restocking fee is null and void. They don’t accept it, Charge-Back and let them figure out how to pick up the piece! If Ikea can’t assemble Ikea’s Furniture, then it is not furniture and you are entitled to a refund!
Better yet, make a big sign that says “IKEA charges a 30% restocking fee for defective products” and walk through their parking lot…
I’m guessing you’ll get the attention of someone willing to fork over that $60…
I helped to put two sets of these shelves together for my niece and nephew. With one of them we were sure it was defective, the holes didn’t match up… after some frustration we figured out the top just needed to be spun around… we were matching up the wrong holes, it wasn’t about using the right tool at the right time.
“
(… – I was not interested in using my time to repack it in the boxes) “
That part irks me. If you had taken the time to repack the boxes you wouldn’t have been charged the restocking fee.
@opinionismine: They opened one in Orlando.
@rellog: Of course the store sustains loss. They sustain loss for the people they need to pay to stock the item in the first place, to advertise and sell the item, to process the returns and exchanges for it, to repackage it (all items need repacking), to restock it, and to resell it–and likely exchange it again, knowing IKEA. They sustain loss for all the space and equipment that’s used in the process. What about insurance, compensation in case of injury, and employee theft? They intend to recoup that, to an extent, in the original sale. With a return, it’s all wasted money, plus the extra expense of doing it all over again. Returns cost stores money. In the past they’d eat the cost, but that’s changing.
I don’t really take this guys word that the store doesn’t advertise a restocking fee. It may not be where the “heart-shaped red pillow” is. Not every piece of signage in a store has to include all store policy affecting the customers, nor is it the store’s fault if any customer misses any posted policy in the store because they don’t want to bother to read the labyrinthine rules on purchases (I certainly don’t). I can’t say if this store does or does not clearly advertise a restocking fee, but it’s not made any clearer by the article.
The restocking fee is typically applied to all returns, defective or not. It’s a blanket rule on returns to, like I said, recoup general losses from the original sale. A lot of the places I’ve seen will waive it if the package hasn’t been opened, but some don’t. If he had a nice manager and, hopefully, was nice back, he might have had it waived as a courtesy, but looks like he got unlucky here.
I still say this fee is ridiculous, even if it was posted clearly. No fee should be a percentage of the purchase price, that’s just BS, and he should make an attempt at a refund.
I would have rebuilt the thing right there in the middle of the return department…Silly IKEA…
It doesn’t matter that I didn’t want it. While I probably shouldn’t have mentioned it, customer service dictates that since they’ve got to take the *defective* item back anyway, they should go ahead and give me credit.
I didn’t want to exchange the defective item for a new-in-box replacement, load that new one in my car, drive it around for a day (gas prices being what they are), drive it BACK to IKEA, and return the exchanged item. I don’t have the time or inclination for such shenanigans.
In hind-sight, I probably should have done that (and not mentioned that we ended up not wanting it). I guess a $60 charge is “tuition” for the lesson that I learned — don’t be honest at IKEA.
The larger issue is that their restocking/return policy is not apparent. Even the manager could not point it out in writing to me, and we were standing in the returns department with my receipt and all the printed signs around us!
30% seems a little steep to me. In any case the signage should make it quite clear from the start and it should be on the receipt as well. I’ve always liked Ikea but this reminds me too much of Target. How disappointing.
@rellog
Let’s think things through.
- Mass produced furniture must, by nature, conform to specific guidelines
- Flat-packed furniture must, by design, conform to a specific tolerance
If the holes were drilled incorrectly, the product would appear defective from the outset, as it would have slid into the press incorrectly and there would be signs of distress. It isn’t as if there’s ONE guy walking around with an 18v Makita in his hands drilling all the holes of Ikea. If it was a miscalibration of the machines, we’d see more reports on this. If the piece was otherwise malformed, it would not have fit into the flat-pack box correctly.
None of these apply. He did not notice any visible damage. There are no reports of massive Expedit flaws and there was no evidence that the box was out of shape or any other error when he opened the box.
It is all but certain that this is a case of user error.
@luckybob343: It is all but certain that this is a case of user error.
I agree 100% !!!! First he returned it with the glue dowels still installed (little wooden things). They would have fallen out unless they were glued in place just moving the pieces, With them glued in place they could not possibly fit back in the box.
Also since these pieces are mass produced, they are drilled on a custom jig for each piece(automated?) The jigs will only hold one size of board so that it can be drilled.(unskilled monkeys?) If the piece was under/oversized it wouldn’t fit the jig, couldn’t be drilled, wouldn’t fit in the packaging, wouldn’t have made it to the store.
But I still blame the instructions for not defineing the top/bottom/front and back of each and every piece. A lot of assemblies can be confusing, following their directions (especially for people that don’t work on furniture.) Be sure to do a DRY FIT assembly before you glue things up to make sure you know how it goes together! Otherwise you will need a drill, duct-tape (NOT) and more wood to assemble it correctly.
I bet 99% of their defective returns are from glue-ups before the customer knew how the parts actually are supposed to go together (manuals fault, no mention of DRY ASSEMBLY!) That’s why they offer replacement parts.
There was *no* glue involved with the “little wooden things”. None.
I “read” (in quotes because it’s all pictures) the instructions carefully before beginning (EACH!) assembly (of two), even going so far as to use post-it notes on various pieces indicating the top, front, and back.
When I noticed trouble, I asked my wife to look over the materials to see if I was making a mistake. Between the two of us and SEVERAL reads of the instructions, I am certain we were doing things correctly.
The RETURN POLICY, as stated on the back of my receipt:
“If you are not entirely satisfied with your purchase, simply return the unused item in its original packaging within 90 days unless noted below. A receipt is required for all returns and exchanges.
Mattresses: “Love it or Exchange it”. You may exchange your matress once within 90 days if you don’t love it. Return your mattress with your receipt to the store and select your new mattress. We are unable to exchange your mattress if your merchandise is found to be dirty, stained, damaged, or abused.
Sorry, we cannot accept returns on used bedding (linens, quilts, pillows, and mattress pads), cut fabric, products from the As-Is department, and custom countertops.”
All of this sounds quite in line with my past IKEA experience. I like their furniture, but not their customer service when it comes to anything involving money. They’re great for free replacement parts, though.
That said, IKEA’s return policy doesn’t say anything about restocking fees. [www.ikea.com]
@metaled:
The dowels on the IKEA Expedit (and all other IKEA furniture I’ve assembled, which is a houseload-full) do not need to be glued.
@luckybob343:
There certainly are a noticeable amount of defects in IKEA furniture. I have returned several pieces (not the whole furniture) due to undrilled or misdrilled holes.)
@officeboy: i’ve got the expedit. it comes in 2 sizes. the 4×4 model is smaller and less expensive. the 5×5 is larger, and is the $200 model.
it is HUGE, so i understand not realizing how it will look until it’s assembled. at the store, it’s in a warehouse ceiling’d room, but having a 6x6x1′ bookcase in a (even large) room with 7 or 8′ foot ceilings can be daunting. i love mine, but i also have a huge great room with vaulted ceilings. i can’t imagine it assembled in a regular room!
@luckybob343: i once bought a smaller bookcase with misdrilled holes for the shelf supports, but just drilled some new ones in the correct location (they had been ~1 inch higher on the other side of the bookcase). May have been drilled, but not all 8 at one time…