Posts about IKEA
(IKEA)
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Reader Matt says, "Just writing to share the fantastic deal we got on a lampshade last night at IKEA." More »
(Gregory)
(Ben Popken)
(pterjan)
(Photo:lauratitan)
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—>Party time is over at the Red Hook IKEA where, taking a cue from their big-box brethren Walmart and Home Depot, the Swedish maker of flat-packed furniture has instituted some intense receipt checking procedures. More »
—>Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is famous for, among other things, spending $1.2 million to redecorate his office as the company was going down in flames. For some reason, Thain's shopping spree of $87,000 area rugs, a $18,000 desk, and a $35,000 chest of drawers didn't go over well. More »
—>On our last visit to IKEA earlier this summer, we noted with sadness how there was a certain GAP-like feeling about a lot of the merchandise, by which we mean it seemed dull and forgettable. But maybe we've been approaching shopping at IKEA the wrong way. More »
—>The IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn is the latest retail establishment that needs reminding: Yes, women have the right to breastfeed their infants in public. No, you cannot banish them to the restroom. Yes, people will get angry when word gets out. More »
—>One thing we've always hated about shopping at IKEA is how their inventory varies so much from website to store to store, making it hard to track down something you wanted to purchase. Their big Memorial Day sale is no better. Tracy was checking out the website and flyers for the sale and noticed some fine print at the bottom. More »
—>IKEA isn't really known for their customer service, but apparently one location in LA is trying to change that. More »
—>As we've said repeatedly, AnnualCreditReport.com is the good website to go to when you need to pull a credit report, because it's actually free. The others, including freecreditreport.com, use the promise of free the way an angler fish uses its forehead-worm-thing to trap dumb little fish. The FTC has decided to fight fire with fire by releasing its own jingles. To be honest, we're not 100% sold on them—they have kind of a squaresville, PBS vibe, which is gonna really hamper their viral power. Check them out below. More »
—>Some German's art project is to engage in "urban camouflage" by creating three different ghillie suits made of bulk IKEA items: piles of dishcloths, boxes, and shopping bags. Then he goes and "hides" out in the open inside the IKEA, blending in with his surroundings and only disturbing shoppers when he moves. Hilarious, brilliant! Here are the videos so you get the full effect: More »
It looks like Ikea is stepping up where Denny's failed; breakfast will be served for free in many Ikea locations starting today, before 10:30. It expires on the 16th, so grab as much of the free Swedish grub as you can! [MainStreet] More »
—>An IKEA employee who worked in a Baltimore-area call center has plead guilty to stealing almost $400,000 in less than a year. His motivation? "Pure greed," according to his confession. More »
—>All reader Scott wanted to do was get his daughter a 'Big Girl Bed'. After a nearly 6-hour trek to a nearly empty Ikea, Scott had to grab the name of the bed and attempt to pick it up himself at the 'furniture pick-up'. However, when he arrived home, he was not happy to learn that it didn't come with all the pieces he needed to build it. Stuck in a robot-phone loop, Scott turned to the tried-and-true EECB. See Scott's letter, as well as Ikea's response, inside. More »
—>Lifehacker has 10 neat IKEA hacks. That's right, toss the manual and start making your own cool Scandinavian-infused furniture mods. In particular, I enjoy the tutorials on making an Allen wrench drill bit and embedding scrap bowls into your counter top. I remember reading one time on the IKEA hacker blog about how you could "make" a couch by binding together a series of the same chairs with plastic ties. That was pushing the bounds a bit, but most of these are straight-up useful, especially if you're a nerd. More »
—>I was in IKEA last night to replace a file cabinet. They didn't have the right one but I picked out a close approximation. While I was waiting in line I thought, what the hell am I doing dropping $160 on a stupid box just to hold my hanging folders? So I got out of line and abandoned my flat-packed box and resolved to see what the nearby STAPLES has to offer tomorrow. Have you found yourself abandoning stuff in the checkout line more often? Or otherwise reevaluating and cutting back on certain kinds of purchases lately that in the past you might have made without thinking? More »
—>Reader Belinda's iPod and a few accessories were smashed by some delivery guys contracted by IKEA. When she tried to file a claim for the $500 worth of damage they did, she got the runaround until she eventually gave up and wrote to us. More »
- Newegg: Wii Fit with Balance Board, We Ski, and Hori Wii mat for $149.99
- Apple: Buy a Mac, get an iPod touch for free after rebate
- IKEA: Labor Day Sale, up to 50% off (in-store only)
- Eastern Mountain Sports: Labor Day Sale Save up to 70% off
- Amazon: Up to 50%+ off High Sierra Backpacks & Messenger Bags
- Geeks: Kodak EasyShare V1003 10MP Digital Camera $90
- Arbor Day Foundation: 10 trees for $10
- Arby's: BOGO free Super Roast Beef Sandwich, more coupons
- The Fruit Company: 25% off everything coupon
—>We've all received IKEA furniture missing screws, but Marc received a couch missing an entire seat cushion. He figured IKEA would quickly hand over a replacement once he pointed out their obvious mistake. Nope! Several employees helpfully explained that the cushion "comes with the couch," and that finding a replacement was "impossible." A resourcefully inept manager finally resolved the situation by insisting that they replace the entire couch. More »
—>Although stores often claim they employ receipt checkers to make sure you got everything you paid for, you still might get ripped off. This past weekend, three stores tried to sell us items that did not match their price tag or description. Each time, we politely pointed out the difference to a manager, and each time, we were rewarded for doing so, either with a reduced price or a better item than the original one we wanted. Let us tell you about our exciting weekend, inside. More »
—>About a month ago, we wrote about Walmart's new logo, and its resemblance to one of Kurt Vonnegut's favorite drawings. It's happened again, although we might be, um, stretching it. While browsing Ikea the other day, we came across their Visen bathroom set, and, well, judge for yourself. More »
—>The mighty EECB (executive email carpet bomb) has brought justice to West Chester, Ohio, says reader Drew. Drew was mistakenly charged a $60 restocking fee on a defective bookcase. He wrote to us and launched an EECB on IKEA. The results? A very nice apology letter, a full refund and a $25 gift card. Looks like it's Swedish meatballs for dinner tonight. More »
—>If IKEA has a 30% restocking fee on defective items that you tried in vain to assemble (twice) only to decide that you just didn't want the stupid thing anymore, we couldn't find any evidence of it on their website. Nevertheless, reader Drew says buying and returning (rather than exchanging) a defective bookcase cost him $60 and a sore back. More »
—>Joyce has been waiting since December for IKEA to send her a replacement couch cover. IKEA admitted that the cover had a known defect, but since they were out replacements at the time, they promised to call Joyce a month later when new covers arrived. Joyce gave her information and asked for a reference number, but was told that one wouldn't be necessary. Wouldn't that have been nice? More »
—>Remember that one guy who decided to visit all the Starbucks in NYC in 24 hours? Yeah, we'd forgotten about it, too. He's convinced IKEA to let him live in their Paramus, NJ store for a week while his apartment gets fumigated. More »
—>If you have an IKEA store near you, give them your old CFLs and they'll recycle them for free. CFLs contain small amounts of mercury and should not be thrown away or recycled with glass bottles. More »
—>Know how it's usually cheaper to buy in bulk? After markdowns at the West Sacramento IKEA, you'll save $4.92 if you buy the poster and frame separately. More »
—> IKEA would like you to know that it's your last chance to save on the HEJ tealight holder. More »
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A week after we moved and put the new covers on, our IKEA LILLBERG sofa broke. Right in half. The main support beam gave out right at the dovetail joint, and even split a board in the process. We were devastated, but figured that we'd be able to wrangle something out of it. Standard customer service would replace the couch, right?More »
—>For some consumers, it seems IKEA wants them to also build their own customer service. But hex wrenches can't effect a warranty repair. If calling the general customer service number doesn't help you out, these methods may help you lob your issue into their laps. More »
—>Turns out that for security purposes, the shiny brass at IKEA use email addresses that stray from the format we posted yesterday. If you've got an IKEA complaint that needs to go the top, use the addresses inside while the getting is good. More »
—>IKEA waived the shipping costs on two Hemnes bedside tables after reader Inderjit loaded the dreaded Executive E-Mail Carpet Bomb with the names of 16 IKEA executives. Inderjit's repeated attempts to purchase the tables at IKEA stores over the past two months were unsuccessful, but within thirty minutes of launching the EECB, he received responses from three IKEA execs who promised to ship the tables free of charge. Read Inderjit's complaint letter, after the jump. More »
—>If you plan on shopping at the Oslo IKEA any time soon, don't worry about how you'll get home. You can sleep there, according to the Guardian. More »
—>Here's a question that never gets any easier to answer. When a company's customer service drives you into a blinding rage or otherwise severely inconveniences you but doesn't actually cost you any money... what, if anything, should you expect as compensation? More »
—>Here are some of favorite ways to convert cheap Swedish furniture into other kinds of cheap furniture, via the IKEA hacker blog. More »
—>Laptop desks can cost a stupid amount of money, but luckily for you they can be constructed with IKEA stuff, sandpaper, and a saw. More »
—>A former IKEA worker tells us how some tips for making your jaunt through furniture Legoland more enjoyable and efficient. More »
I had originally asked the IKEA in Paramus, N.J., to deliver my kitchen cabinets on a Saturday. I later found out that my Manhattan co-op building prohibited large deliveries on the weekend, so when the truck arrived on the designated day, the crew couldn't unload their cargo. IKEA billed me for the delivery. Totally fair—I goofed. More »
—>Ikea is a good source for dirt-cheap ugly unfinished furniture—but who says it has to stay ugly? Ikea Hacker has a few hacks from Angelique, one of their readers. She adds creative finishes to basic IKEA children's furniture and picture frames. Her techniques look easy enough for a novice to replicate, and sort of fun, too. We love the ferns. We love cheap furniture. —MEGHANN MARCO More »
—>Ikea refused to ship Oz the parts he needed to complete his $2,200 order. The order was placed in early September; when it finally arrived in late October, so many parts were missing that several items could not be assembled.
I hired a guy off of craigslist to help me assemble all of the furniture, given the fact that we had 3 rooms to assemble. This turns into a 2 day ordeal, with a ton of missing parts and us having to document it to call Ikea later. We get to several items such as the desk, which is missing so many parts it's un-assemblable. More »
—>We were so excited yesterday to go to IKEA that we left the lights on and our car battery died. More »
I love those Philips Amiblight HDTVs - you know, the ones with the rear backlight that projects colours onto the wall behind the TV? Not only does it look pretty, but if you're gaming or watching a film in low-light conditions then the backlight reduces eye strain. More »
Proceeds of up to $1.75 million (that's a whole lot of bags) from the bag campaign will go to American Forests, the nation's oldest non-profit citizens conservation organization, to plant trees to restore forests and offset CO2 emissions,..IKEA projects that the number of plastic bags used by their U.S. customers will be reduced by at least 50% from 70 million to 35 million in the first year. This program was launched in IKEA stores in the UK in late Spring 2006, and reduction has been an impressive 95 percent.The program was very popular in the UK, and we love those IKEA shopping bags, so we're all for it. We imagine, however, that a lot of people won't be.—MEGHANN MARCO More »
i have had about five orders "mysteriously" disappear from their system....i originally ordered the vika amon/vika artur desk on september 8 and have yet to see it. it seems the trestles are always out of stock, even when i call first to see if they have any then immediately place the order. i still get the "out of stock" email. i even had one phone rep give me a delivery date, which came and went.We've been getting complaints too, like this one from Reader Christopher. He keeps driving back and forth from IKEA based on bad information from both their website and their employees, and is a little irritated. We don't blame him. More »
—>Reader Gerald writes in after an odd experience with IKEA. He's writing to ask if he has a legitimate complaint, or if he's just being whiny. After calling to make sure that IKEA had the mattress he wanted in-stock, he rented a man with a van on craigslist for $30 and they went to go pick it up. Weirdly, IKEA refused to sell him the mattress because they have a policy against using their forklift during store hours. More »
IKEA Hensvik Bookcase [left of picture]: $59.99 More »
—>Everyone likes IKEA, but some people go the extra mile—messing with IKEA stuff to create even better stuff. More »
—>As Black Friday draws ever nigh, a splooge of new Black Friday ads appeared on the internet. More »
—>IKEA's BULLA transcends the common sad sack to become a laundry bag worthy of accolade. More »
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It used to be that owning IKEA just meant enduring some Fight Club barbs. A new product recall threatens to take away your ability to even turn the catalogue pages (which you read just for the articles). More »
The Consumerist went shopping for a couch at IKEA this weekend. We made a tight little movie about it. More »
—>Jessica Coen, one of our chaste sisters kept cloistered in an attic room over at Gawker.com, had a very strong reaction to our IKEA catalogue review. To wit: More »
—>The new IKEA catalogue is here. Oooh. Touch it. Glossy. Slidey. Smells like snow. More »
We'll cop to sort of being taken aback by Ikea, as our first experience with the Scandinavian furniture superstore was just a couple years ago. We're still somewhat in shock at how much appearance of good furniture one can get for such a small amount of money. Plus, as we are legally required to mention, meatballs. More »
