IKEA Valencia — Local services in Alfafar

This is a review for a customized order for a kitchen appliances and furniture with installation done by IKEA own team.

The location: a Spanish city with a big IKEA store. The kitchen small, L shaped, a few meters in total, with only a fridge already installed by us in the kitchen, the rest coming from IKEA. My wife did over mail and phonecalls the order, IKEA sent a contractor to measure the remaining space (twice, even if the space was the same but moving around items appeared to be more complicated than it seemed), we agreed on a final design that included a kitched hood vent, electric oven and pan, dish washer, a sink and a few drawers and a wooden bench (with installation and VAT a bit over 3000 euros).

After we made the payment they sent the team with the boxes (with a 2-3 days delay) followed the next day by a guy to do the installation. When we asked how long it would take, the guy said like 5-6 hours.

12 hours later, just when to do the last things the installation guy said there are a few issues. First, the dishwasher cover was not sent by IKEA, even if he found it in our order and he said he will report it to IKEA. Second, the kiched hood vent could not be connected as the cable hanging from the ceilling was not ended with a female electrical socket and cutting the cable would mean losing the warranty. Third the kitchen sink could not be connected to water disposal tube on the wall as IKEAs own connector was not appropriate and finally the dishwasher tube for disposal water could not be connected to IKEAs main plastic tube as we or the installation guy had a metallic strap to keep the tube conntected in place. He said that all of this will be reported to IKEA and that the installation will be finished after IKEA sent the dishwasher cover. On his way out the installation guy asked us to sign for the installation but we refused as most on the items were not usable in the kitchen.

Next day, as you may expect, IKEA did not call to apologize and say that the installation guy was on his way to finish the job, no, because why would they do it if they already got paid?! No, we called three times, on the first two by my wife they tried to convince her that the dishwasher cover was not on the order and on the last one with me they said that they will send th e missing item when there will be in stock. Just that there is not in stock just now and that we must check when it is avaiable, as the system cannot check by itself and we need to call them for them to order the item and send it to us. Not nice, is it? Wait there is more.

Next day, after we calmed ourselves, we tried to see if really was nowhere in stock that dishwasher cover. But there was, 800km away from us, the only IKEA shop that was still having this item in stock. I called the IKEA support and told them to help us to get that black hole in the kitchen filled with a dishwasher cover, and send it from that IKEA to the one IKEAS store near us. "No, we can not do that as it is not administratively possible" We said that is not acceptable, the item is in the same country, the same company or we well complain to the Protection of Consumer. The lady on the phone, after waiting a few good minutes said yes, it is OK, a sales person will call you back to order the item for you. Guess what, they did not called back and we are in a limbo.

Things to get from this review, always ask them if you have to buy some other parts to get the installation done completely. Ask them to measure the tubes, make sure to double check all the boxes for all the items when delivered, even if they put like 10 boxes in a bigger box and there are like a billion of them.

For us this was a frustrating experience with IKEA..

PS: Did i mentioned that the guy had to cut different wooden parts that filled the apartment and the buildings hallway of millions of small particles as we did not have a big enough balcony to do it there? No, the wooden parts do not come already cutted to the right size as you would expect on a...

Morals of the timeline below: 1- My last time placing orders through this Ikea. 2- Ikea needs to change their courier service. Why isn’t it possible for the same driver to pick up and deliver an order from the same place, if it’s scheduled for the same day?? 3- Wasted a total of 4 days on waiting for couriers and hours on 7+ phone calls. 4- Customer support actually does a good job, they are responsive and quick to act; but their work goes in vain due to the delivery company’s nonchalant attitude. 5- I will start placing my orders through Ikea South Korea, it will probably be more punctual.

Timeline: Received a shipment on 24-April, and one of the items was incomplete. Call#1- I call Ikea on the same day, and we set up a pick up of the incomplete items + delivery of the complete ones for 26-April. They further stated that delivery and pick up need to be on the same date, but different drivers. Call#2- I get a call back an hour later saying that the 26th of April is not possible anymore; and that we would have to postpone both for the 29th of April. Ok. On the 29th of April nothing arrived, i receive an email in the evening that the pickup was rescheduled to 3rd of May, and delivery to 2nd of May (strange that this time it was possible to have them on different dates). Call#3- I called Ikea on the 30th of April to have both (delivery + pickup) on the same day (2nd of May). I have already wasted 2 days waiting, don’t want to waste another 2. They scheduled them both for the 2nd of May (between 1-5PM). Call#4- on 2nd of May I called customer support twice, both persons assured me that my order will arrive and they will pick up today. Until 5PM, it’s radio silence. Call#5- At 5:45 (45mins after the slot), a driver calls me and says he is downstairs. I check the window, and walk the entire street multiple times, there is no one. I call the driver, but he is not responsive. Call#6- I call Ikea to ask them where the driver is, so Ikea calls the delivery company, and the delivery company calls the driver. Then the delivery company says they cannot get ahold of THEIR OWN driver (Tom & Jerry). an hour and a half later (2.5hrs after the agreed upon time-slot) the driver comes and only picks up the order (no delivery yet). I genuinely don't understand why he told me he was there when he was an hour and a half away. On the evening of the 2nd of May, I was told that the delivery was unsuccessful (no reason mentioned). Call#7- On the 3rd of May, I call Ikea and request a refund, which was later processed.

Conclusion: No item + wasted time + money back. So...

For 3 times in a row (!!!!), almost for 2 weeks already, I don't get my orders delivered. Nobody ever calls me to notify about delivery problems, I hear different excuses that make me assume someone in this communication is lying to me, and my kids are sleeping for a week on inflatable mattresses that I had to buy for them instead of normal beds because of IKEA's insanely bad service.

I made order 1366807826 online for delivery, and the same day I made the order 1366819066 in the shop on July 2nd 2023. The delivery date was scheduled on July 5th 17:00-21:00, but courier didn't show up and no one called me.

I had to call IKEA customer service myself to find out that IKEA and the transport company somehow couldn't find my sofa. After hour long conversation your CS rep managed to figure out where it is and we scheduled delivery for July 8th 19:00-21:00. I specifically discussed that the delivery time should be after 7pm and if you can't make it the order needs to be delivered on July 10th instead, any time. It was reflected in the order and CS rep confirmed this. On July 8th a courier called me at 5pm and asked when I will be home, I confirmed that according to the order I will be exactly at 7pm and then the order wasn't delivered again. Without notice again, he just didn't come.

I had to call IKEA CS again to hear that the order can be delivered now on July 13th earliest. I called again on July 11th to confirm the delivery date and was assured by IKEA CS rep that both orders will be 100% delivered on Thursday 17:00-21:00.

On July 13th I received a call from courier at 17:30 and he said that will be in 5 minutes. He didn't show up and when I called him back 40 minutes later he said that they don't have part of my order and will not deliver. Again, no one called me to notify, I had to call myself. I called IKEA CS and after long wait received another version that the van was broken and this is why delivery failed.

As IKEA's CS team can't escalate issues by phone I had to come to the store in Valencia (Alfafar) to talk to a manager. I had a dialogue with Vergilio who said he's the manager and he assured me that he and his colleagues will sort things out first thing in the morning on Friday and will help to get my orders delivered without need to reschedule for another 5 days. It's 12pm now and unsurprisingly no one reached out to me.

I consider this is THE worst customer experience ever in my life. As I see no willingness from IKEA staff to really solve the problem or to at least get in...