Rant: Ikea

Aug 22

universalheadOpinions 1 Comment

We needed some bookcases for our living room. Anything from a non-Ikea/Freedom-type shop proves way too expensive. A browse of the Ikea website reveals they have simple 4×4 and 5×5 cubes bookcase in dark wood—they‘re affordable, and look fine. But then you start to deal with Ikea. You call to see if the item they advertise on their website and in their brochure is in stock and you get a five minute recorded blurb telling you about the website before you join the queue to talk to a sales person. Umm—I‘m using the phone, if I wanted to use the web I would wouldn‘t I? Then, of course, the 5×5 model is out of stock and won‘t be in again for 6 weeks. Six weeks?! Why does this happen every time I want something from Ikea?

The place astounds me; how does a business be so blatantly unconcerned with customer service, and yet have somehow developed some kind of untouchable reputation for quality and customer satisfaction?
Isn‘t the founder of Ikea one of the richest men in the world? Probably because he understood that marketing is everything. Give the public cheap, crappy quality goods dressed up as designer items, hire young and inexperienced staff, get the customers to do all the work (wait for six weeks, pick their goods up from the factory, build it themselves with the help of a badly designed language-free leaflet) and then sit back and rake in the profits.

Of course, we bought two of the other model and some other stuff and ended up spending $800. Now excuse me, I‘m off to watch Fight Club.