If I could give 0 stars, I would.
On June 19, 2024 we ordered a sofa and other items at IKEA Cabo. We were required to go to the cash register right away with the floor person who entered the order. I used my US credit card and selected to pay in MAD (since my credit card company doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees). I was told that the purchase HAD to be made in USD. When I checked the receipt I found that the exchange rate was very bad (I was charged almost $100 more). In the meantime we had purchased some other items for ~900MAD. At the register we asked once again to be charged in MAD and, guess what? This time it was magically possible to do so. I calculated the exchange rate and found an almost $100 difference for the sofa purchase.
We brought this up with a supervisor, who told us that the store manager was only willing to credit the delivery and setup charge (200MAD). The only alternative would be to cancel the order and to re-purchase it with MAD. At this point we had already spent over an hour trying to get to get this resolved, so we opted for canceling and re-entering the order. As the order was refunded, I saw that it was in MAD, not in USD that were originally charged. I brought this up with the supervisor and my wife and I were assured that we would receive the full amount we had paid.
When I went to the floor associate to re-enter the order, the associate could not enter the order, because the sofa had been the last one in stock and the system did not update the quantity when the order was cancelled. In the end we decided not to go ahead with the order due to the ineptitude of the staff and the IKEA system.
I kept an eye on my credit card statement and found that later that day a refund had posted that was $89.81 lower than I was originally charged. We drove all the way back to IKEA Cabo (a one hour trip each way) to speak with the local store manager. We were refused and instead spoke with a customer service supervisor. She put us in contact with someone from CMI, the company that processes IKEA’s credit card transactions. After some back and forth explaining the situation, the CMI person agreed to refund the difference in exchange rate between the first purchase and the refund once I provide evidence of these from my credit card. For the past week I’ve been trading numerous emails with all the information I can provide (copies of receipts and credit card charges), but the CMI rep keeps insisting on more and more info that I don’t have.
Bottom line: if you value good service and want to be able to get a full refund for any returns, don’t go to IKEA Morocco. Read the other reviews about these stores. It’s a shame, because we bought a full kitchen, a bathroom, as well as two bedrooms from IKEA. There were issues with delivery and multiple replacements of broken items (shelves, etc) and service is very inconsistent depending on the individual, but we had never had this blatant robbery of our funds.
We have traveled around Europe and bought many things from different IKEA stores, returning some of them for full refunds. Not once did we have money retained between a purchase of an item and its return/refund.
IKEA, if you’re listening: we want our money back now!!!!
Update July 15, 2024:
After sending email to the Kuwait office (franchise owner) and the IKEA franchise office , finally had a call from IKEA Cabo offering to refund the missing amount from our return. Still waiting for the wire transfer to...
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