Josh and his girlfriend are very unhappy with IKEA right now, and it’s not just because the company’s contracted delivery service mishandled several thousands of dollars worth of appliances and cabinetry. What really has them steaming is the fact that the retailer never even shipped the couple’s new fridge… and now won’t tell them where the appliance is.

Neither Josh nor his girlfriend could be home when the delivery was scheduled, so the contractors working in their home signed for the delivery.

After sorting through all the boxes that appeared to have been left out in the rain or otherwise mangled by the delivery service, Josh and his girlfriend noticed that their brand new IKEA fridge had somehow not been included in the shipment.

It took several calls to the delivery service to find out that the fridge had never been put on the truck in the first place.

Writes Josh:

At first, I thought there would be a simple fix. Surely, if I called and explained what had happened they would just reschedule delivery, right? But for two days now I’ve been shouting into the abyss that is IKEA’s customer service.

I’ve called the “after sales” department over 20 times since Monday only getting through once. Calls to any other department get me routed back to “after sales,” allegedly the only department that can handle my problem. And when I finally did get through they had no idea what was going on and assigned me a case number and said they’d be looking into it within 48 hours. Nothing so far…

At this point, I still have no explanation of where the fridge is, why it wasn’t delivered and who is responsible. The mysterious after sales department, where no human being actually appears to work, remains virtually unreachable and meanwhile we are fridgeless and out $800.

I would understand if the fridge of temporarily out of stock or if they had simply made a mistake and not loaded on the truck, but this is crazy!

We’re contacting IKEA to see if we can get anyone to sort this mess out, but this is a perfect illustration of why you should always be the one to sign for expensive, multi-item deliveries. If you see a box missing from the shipment, do not sign for the shipment until the problem has been resolved.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.