I'm growing older, and the great thing about these type of stories is that it saves me a lot of money because I no longer shop mindlessly at places like IKEA or "Best" Buy, etc. Their awful treatment of me and others has instilled a discipline of frugality for me within their walls that no level of conferences and books could possibly have done. When I do what little shopping I do at either store now, I only enter with a specific list and lots of pricing research, it's done with a focused, guerrilla mindset of getting what I need at the absolute lowest price and minimum of interaction with staff.

I have become a "demon customer" in their eyes (someone who doesn't casually spend $$$ for no reason) because of the way they have treated me, and they have only themselves to thank. Treat your customers like you want them to disappear and you may get your wish, jerks.

dweebster

I finally asked for the manager, commented that the box wasn't much consequence for a defective lamp (not like they can sell it again) and did get a full refund. The manager wasn't very nice about it however though.

This was only a $30 purchase, but the treatment I received makes me nervous about ever spending more money again in this store. Never before have I had to argue with a clerk, wait for them to "inspect" the product and defend my position to get a simple refund on a clearly defective product, especially since I had a receipt showing the recent purchase date. Suppose it was something for much more money that turned out to be productive, would I be so lucky next time?? In this day and age with stores like Costco, Walmart, Target, etc providing no-questions-asked return policies, even without a receipt in cases, I'm shocked at how rudely I was treated at my local Ikea.

jamiej

ALL HAIL THE EECB!!

verucalise

I have complained about EECBs, but I think I've done so when the customer didn't follow the rules: for example A) trying to skip normal channels or B) the company already to compensate with a lifetime supply of free product, but the customer wants two concurrent lifetime supplies (example may be exaggerated).

Michael Belisle

QuantumRiff

Before we bash Ikea too much, those cookies that come in the cardboard crate with the cellophane wrapping..... I can polish one off in about 3 days. Swedish Crack.

SkokieGuy

alfista

Isn't that spelled Skrü Uuü?

muckpond

BlondeGrlz is having a BlondeBoyz!

He chose to return the item instead of exchange it for one without the defect. That is his choice, but that choice carried a restocking fee.

That said, IKEA understands that such a small amount of money (to them) isn't worth losing a customer over an isolated incident.

ThomFabian

Drew's experience just reminds me of the Simpson episode where Homer tries to assemble an outdoor BBQ, but couldn't figure it out. So he tries to return it.

LatherRinseRepeat

I, however, say more power to him. You shouldn't have to pay to return defective merchandise, no matter the situation.

generalhousewifery

Too f'ing bad you had to email all our company executives to get me to pay attention to you.

If we really valued customer feedback, maybe we might have shown the slightest bit of interest when you tried to return the bookcase and were getting hassled by our lower level staff.

Please note in the future our customer service department will be known as the Snoorgen Floopen Department, as can cannot permit the convenience of using actual words to describe actual products, services or deparments.

Skrewgen Uuu.

SkokieGuy

friendlynerd