This review is primarily about IKEA.com, although an incompetently processed return this store was an integral part of IKEA.com's screw-up of absolutely every dealing I had with them. IKEA has apparently been taken over by vindictive lunatics posing as legitimate businessmen. I have had two abysmal experiences in just two months with IKEA's so-called ordering site, IKEA.com, which involved a laughably mishandled (by IKEA) return sent to this (Schaumburg) store. In the first case, I ordered a so-called "wi-fi speaker", which certainly implied to me that it could be installed on a PC, right? But no, IKEA is way too "cool" for that, or so I found out when the instructions said that my "wi-fi speaker" could be installed only, and exclusively, on a smart phone. I don't even have a smart phone, and I had no intention of getting one just to install this speaker. The page selling me the speaker said, needless to say, zero about that phone-only installation. I had to be on the phone five or six times with IKEA customer support to finally get a return authorized and processed, due to their over the top, incredible incompetence. Not only that, but you can never talk to anyone on this so-called "customer support" line without a 30 to 60 minute wait, and that is the ONLY and EXCLUSIVE way to contact customer support, period. Don't like waiting? Then eat it, sucker, IKEA seems to say. When I finally did get the item shipped back, I had the presence to make sure that I had a tracking number, and its a good thing. Three and a half weeks had passed since the date of IKEA's receipt at this store of the return, during which I had to make another 2 calls to them (again, 30 to 60 minute waits apiece) to find out where the promised refund would hit my credit card account. The refund his my account four FULL weeks after they had received the returned package, and after a fraud complaint a few days earlier to my credit card company.
So wait, there's more. They play like they're going to be nice to me, and mail me a $20 gift certificate, just to show what swell guys they are. Well, I used the certificate to buy a basic black folding chair and a set of eight basic wooden suit coat hangers, adding in two bucks of my own money. And what, dear readers, do you think arrived in my mail in a long, narrow box? A gigantic poster of a shoe, maybe 4 by 5 feet, rolled in a tube; four black, straight metal bars, two which were 3 feet long, and the other two maybe 4 feet long, with slots in them; 12 white plastic rods, again with slots in them, maybe 6 inches long apiece; and four metal corner clamps and a few screws. From exactly that, dear reader, I was supposed to construct a folding chair and eight wooden hangars? There was nothing sent to me that ever RESEMBLED either of the products that I ordered. Needless to say, there was not one word of instructions whatsoever among any of this. After my previous experience in trying to make things right with these idiots, I have decided to cut my losses and my hassle by sending it all to the dumpster. IKEA is clearly and obviously run by fools. I think at this point that they sent me the gift certificate just so they could mock me by sending me the totally wrong order. Take your money elsewhere. Avoid this company like the plague that it clearly has become. read more