Last week we finally received a form to fill out in the mail from Ikea. The form was basically for us to put our bank details in and say that we allow them to debit £27.50 from our account. This is half of the delivery charges, that Tim argued them down to.

We sent it off the form late last week. Due to the urgency of the situation (there are nails sticking out of springs underneath our couch, and I found one poking out by my feet the other day), Tim called them on Monday. They informed him that their payment systems are broken, and therefore it will be two weeks before they can process the charges - therefore, two weeks before we can get the couch replaced. of course, Tim argued with them that it’s very imperative that we get the couch replaced right away as it is very dangerous.

We’re having a new couch delivered on Sunday. AND, they’re waiving the delivery fee. Entirely.

I am smug.

We moved into our flat on September 21st. Okay, technically on the 22nd.. but on the 21st, we made a monumental journey to Ikea and spent more money than I could even fathom.

Among our purchases, we bought two Besta black-brown shelving units and an Ektorp couch. We had also intended to buy the Besta Enon tv unit, which the shelves were going to sit on either side of. We were told by an errant warehouse worker that the Besta Enon was on backorder for two weeks. Since we figured we would have the unit in two weeks, we went ahead and bought the shelving units at that time.

After two weeks of the oddest tv/shelving set up ever, we went for another expedition to Ikea. In the tv unit section, we found a man who told us that the Besta Enon was indeed on backorder for four more weeks.

So we figured.. okay.. four weeks. We can give it another month. Tim wrote a perl script that checked the stock of EVERY UK Ikea for a black-brown Besta Enon. That was the beginning of October. Guess what? They’re still not in stock.

So, last night we realised that they now had the Expedit black-brown unit in stock. We had originally intended to buy this unit, actually - but Tim got sidetracked by the Besta. Tim called Ikea, and complained and complained until they decided that they would take our two Besta shelving units back, at a 30% loss to us. So, he dismantled them both, we piled them into his car, and headed to Ikea at 9:30pm. Hooray for Ikea being open till midnight in London!

After waiting 30 minutes in returns, we finally spoke to an employee who listened to the story, and refunded us.. the full amount! With a refunded giftcard in hand, we bought our Expedit black-brown, managed to fit the 3 rather large boxes in Tim’s little car.. and headed home.

This afternoon, Tim put the entire Expedit shelf together himself. It’s so large that we needed to clear a big work area in the living room. It took forever, but it looks great. We finished, hooked the tv up.. then realised we needed new cables for the TV because they’re not long enough to reach anymore.

As we moved our Ikea-bought Ektorp couch back into place, we realised something was very wrong. It had been making noises for some time, but we didn’t pay much attention because.. well.. it’s an Ikea couch right, they’re not the strongest things, and I just figured it was crappy springs rubbing against each other or something. Oh no. Not even close. Half the springs are completely loose. Staples out of the wood loose.

There is a 10 year guarantee on the Ektorp. We called Ikea, and they basically told us.. too bad, you didn’t get us to deliver it, so you need to get it here yourself. Which to me, seems like they’re telling their customers that unless you use Ikea’s delivery service, you’re screwed on your warranty. We were told to hire a van to get it to Ikea and get a new couch. Tim bitched at the woman, and she told him Ikea would pay half of the cost of hiring a van. Tim bitched more, and she got us a quote on Ikea’s delivery service. To which Tim asked “Are you going to split the cost of that?”

Ikea is going to deliver us a new couch, and take the old one. And they’re going to pay half our delivery charges.