Sunday, November 6, 2022 my elderly Mom lost her bag with her wallet in it at the Ikea store in Coquitlam, BC Canada, sometime around 5:30 p.m. We discovered it missing shortly after we arrived home. Through a process of deduction, we knew she had lost it somewhere in that Ikea.
Just after I got home I frantically searched the web to try and find a direct phone number to that store so I could have them search for it. Nothing. Only phone number was their customer service line 1-866-866-4532. I talked to their customer service rep asking for a phone number, but was told he did not have any phone numbers to any of their stores. I then asked for an email contact. He said they don't give out emails because they're only for staff. He said the best he could do is email the store. Then he put me on hold for a short time. He said the email came back stating that our missing item was not turned in. I said that just because it's not turned in that doesn't mean it's not somewhere in the store.
I then asked to speak to a manager or supervisor. He said no one was available. However, he could take down my name, address, and phone number to have someone call me back. I did that and was given a file number. Because Mom's wallet, inside a small shoulder bag, was lost, throughout the call I tried to impress on him the urgency of the matter that, the longer we waited, the less likely her bag would be found. I told him my 86 year old Mom was crying and very stressed over this, and that an email was NOT good enough. However, he refused to do anything more.
Two days later, I got a call back from a fellow named Erick. I told him what happened, that I was still really angry and upset over the lack of care given this matter, and found out that the email their customer service rep sent off to the specfic store went to Security there. Yet, even though it was a wallet, a matter of strong urgency, it was not flagged in any way. I said to Erick why wasn't this done soon after they received the email? Why didn't their customer service rep on the phone ask me what the bag looked like, where we were in the store, what Mom was wearing and looked like, where we were parked, etc. I was the one on the phone who described the bag, I wasn't asked any other questions.
So, TWO DAYS after she lost her bag Erick started looking for it. No one else had up to that point. While on the phone he asked me those questions. That included the make, color, and model of my vehicle. I also told him the specific area I parked in, again which their phone customer service representative never asked anything. As I was answering Erick's questions, he started searching the camera footage for the time I had given him. He found us on that footage and was describing our movements in the store around that time. He then asked for some time to further check the footage and would call me back.
He did call me back roughly 30 minutes later and said he found the bag. I then asked him why did it take almost TWO FULL DAYS JUST TO START SEARCHING FOR THE BAG? Nothing had been done before that (except for the email). And, WHY DID IT TAKE ALMOST TWO DAYS FOR ME TO GET A CALL BACK?? Why wasn't I promptly called the next morning (Monday November 7, 2022) for them to start doing something about this?? It was about 3 hours short of 48 hours before I got a callback from him.
All the while this was happening, over a span of two days, my elderly 86 year old FRAIL Mom was frantically calling her credit card companies, calling to get special transportation arranged for her to get to her banks to get her bank cards cancelled and replacement ones, calling to arrange to get a new medical card replacement appointment so she could see her specialists, etc.
WHY did all this have to happen? If their customer service rep on the phone had been trained properly, as had the store's Security and other staff, all of this wouldn't have happened. They should have gotten on this right away, RIGHT AWAY, when I placed the call shortly after we got home from their store. But, no, THEY DON'T DO THAT.
To say that their customer service is terrible is an understatement. Mom's bag with all her important cards in it could have been stolen, someone used her credit cards, or even took her identity--all because of the lack of action by Ikea Staff immediately after I called.
She is darn lucky to get her bag back. But the stress we incurred during that two day wait was a lot. Mom is a very frail 86 year old woman with multiple health issues. All we were offered was a lousy $25 in-store gift card as compensation for gas (we live about 25 minutes away from their store) and stress.
Honestly, I really didn't care about the money, what I really wanted was immediate action, and policy changes, training changes, that would prevent this from happening again.
But, no. We don't count. If we did, they would have acted right away, NOT 2 days later! read more