The ever-popular EECB (Executive Email Carpet Bomb) scored another direct hit with reader “Generic_Username.” He and his wife bought some closet doors from IKEA, but didn’t install them until some renovations were complete. When it turned out the doors were defective, G.U. and his wife were told they’d have to pay to have new doors shipped to their house. Ugh!

Luckily for G.U., we had a successful complaint letter to IKEA already posted that he could use as a template.

Here’s his story:

I ran into an issue with a set of Lyngdal sliding glass doors that my wife and I purchased at IKEA in November of 2009. Long story short- the doors were drilled wrong and didn’t line up properly on the track, clearly a defective product. When calling customer service multiple times and a trip to the store were fruitless I decided to write an EECB using the IKEA letter that reader Inderjit wrote as a template (http://con.st/288370). I received a phone call within 24 hours and my new doors are being delivered free of charge today!

Thanks!

-Consumerist reader “Generic_Username”

Below is the EECB I sent on 4/11/10 (you’ll notice some similarities with the Inderjit EECB):

Dear IKEA:

Please let me preface this letter by saying that I am normally a very understanding shopper. I’ve spent a number of years working in retail in various management capacities and know the difficulties associated with day-to-day operations. That said, I have no choice but to send this letter to you.

On November 30, 2009 my wife and I bought a number of items from your South Philadelphia, PA store. Among those items were two sets of Lyngdal sliding glass doors (78 3/4″ x 92 7/8″) for the brand new IKEA PAX closet system we purchased. We set up delivery at the store for the following day (12/1/2009). We were in the process of remodeling our first house and were not living there when the delivery was made. Consequently, we did not open, build, and install the doors until roughly a month and a half later when we moved in. The first set of doors installed without a problem and worked perfectly. The second set, however, had a problem. The holes drilled in the doorframe were apparently not even, and as a result the doors sat crooked on the track and didn’t close completely. This in turn made it impossible to open the drawers since they just bump into the edge of the sliding doors.

My wife and I are newlyweds- we were married on xxxxxxx (in fact, the vases used to line the aisle at our wedding were from IKEA). As I mentioned previously, we also just bought and renovated our first house. As you can imagine, this has been a busy time for us. We stopped in the Conshohocken, PA store this afternoon to pick up some furniture and decided to ask customer service what we should do about the doors. We were told we’d need to call the store where we made the purchase, give them the necessary purchase information, and they could arrange to have replacement doors delivered. It turns out that IKEA is aware of this issue, and I’ve found a number of accounts online describing the same issue.

When we arrived home I called the South Philadelphia store as instructed and was told that because we had exceeded the 90 days for exchanges and returns we needed to bring the original receipt to the store and speak with someone there. We don’t have the receipt, most of our things are still in boxes, but the store was able to pull up the transaction information and verify that we did indeed make the purchase we were speaking about.

I asked to speak to a supervisor and was forwarded to Terrell, who told me that IKEA is responsible for the items, not the delivery, and I’d have to bring the doors to the store and figure out a way to get them home. I told him that if I could do that I would not have paid $75 for home delivery of these products. I further explained to Terrell that I paid for functional products, and IKEA should be responsible for getting me these items.

As it stands, if I want to get working doors I need to somehow get the doors to the store, then pay to have them redelivered (all provided I can locate the original receipt). This isn’t right. My wife and I have spent more than $10,000 at IKEA over the years. We have never regretted a purchase until now. While this is not a large amount of money to IKEA, it is to us. We have come to expect a certain level of professionalism, quality, and willingness by IKEA to stand by its products.

We are not asking for a lot. We are asking for a set of working Lyngdal doors delivered to my home so I can give my wife a functional closet system. I do not want to pay for delivery, I already did that once. I’d like a call by Tuesday, April 13, 2010, and I expect that in light of our years of loyal patronage you will agree with my request. I am happy to provide details of the transaction including transaction number, date of purchase, and card type if requested.

Please make this right.

Calm polite emails are never a bad idea. Way to go, Generic_Username!

The EECB is remarkably simple to construct and launch. Directions can be found in our handy guide, How To Launch An Executive Email Carpet Bomb.

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