GRACE ON THE CASE: My £750 Ikea delivery never arrived

I ordered £750 worth of wardrobes from Ikea on 9 October 2020. My order was processed and I was charged.

I received an order confirmation and a delivery date for 4 November. In the meantime I removed our old wardrobes and arranged for a family member to wait in with me on the delivery day to help. 

Nothing came and I didn’t hear from Ikea. I have tried to call it and contact via its website but have heard nothing. Where are my wardrobes? Claire via e-mail.

Lost in Narnia? Ikea never said the wardrobes would no longer be delivered and were hard to contact

Grace Gausden, consumer expert at This is Money, replies: After initially ordering hundreds of pounds worth of wardrobes in October, you were frustrated to find you were still without a single piece of furniture by the beginning of November.

No delivery turned up on your confirmed date and you received no email or call to explain why this might be. Maybe they got lost in Narnia.

As a long-term customer of Ikea, you were disappointed as you say usually the service has been excellent. 

More frustratingly, despite it taking payment swiftly, you were unable to contact Ikea at all. That is incredibly disappointing behaviour from one of Europe’s best loved homeware stores.

Unfortunately, in anticipation of the delivery, you had already got shot of your old wardrobes and now have clothes piled high around you in ‘disarray’ – not an ideal situation.

You contacted me not long after the expected delivery date to say it was proving nigh on impossible to get through to the furniture giant.

The store has taken its webchat offline due to ‘exceptionally high demand’ – a route many other companies are taking at the moment, despite the fact this is often a quicker and easier way for customers to get answers.

No email address or online form is available for customers to use either.

However, whilst Ikea’s customer service phone line is still available, it warns on the website: ‘We are extremely busy at present and most of our team are working remotely from home. 

‘Please bear with us as we try to connect with you as quickly as we can.’

Ikea has taken nearly every form of contact away due to ‘exceptionally high demand’ this year

You tried to call multiple times but said their phone lines are always closed – another dead end.

Eventually, you resorted to social media to get in touch but it wasn’t until I got in touch with Ikea looking for answers that the firm responded to you on Twitter messenger.

The customer service agent said Ikea had been receiving a high amount of messages through Twitter and Facebook which had caused the delay in reply.

I’m not surprised they have been inundated by customers if the firm refuses to open the phone lines and doesn’t respond in a timely manner to other complaints. 

The agent went on to say there had been issues with kerbside orders, although it didn’t state what these issues were.

Kerbside orders are those that are delivered to the nearest pavement to the customers delivery address.

It added the order had been cancelled and the agent would re-order the items, providing they were all still in stock.

You replied to the message saying you didn’t want the order to be cancelled and you just wanted your delivery as it had been two weeks since the original promised date.

However, since then, you have been emailed an updated order with some new delivery dates.

Initially you were told your order would arrive in three separate deliveries but this was then changed for all the pieces to arrive on 16 November, which they did.  

An Ikea spokesperson said: ‘We naturally want all of our customers to be happy with the service they receive and apologise unreservedly to Ms C for the inconvenience caused.

‘Due to a technical error, the order did not process correctly, which in turn impacted the delivery of the order. We have been in direct contact with Ms C and have resolved the matter to her satisfaction.’ 

You are waiting to put the wardrobe together until your father can help you, which he cannot do until lockdown is over, meaning you are still sat with your belongings piled around you. You don’t face tackling the Ikea flat-pack challenge solo. 

The lesson here? Wait for new items to arrive before getting rid of the old. 

The arrival of the PS5 has caused drama with gamers looking to get their hands on a device

Hit and miss: This week’s naughty and nice list

Each week, I will be looking at some of the companies that have fallen short of expected standards as well as those that have gone that extra mile for customers.  

Miss: Last week, the hotly anticipated PS5 was finally released with thousands of gamers rejoicing when they got their hands on the new device.

However, not everyone was happy with the way the launch was handled with a number of Game customers complaining their pre-order of the newest Playstation was not completed.

One customer, who does not wish to be named, said many of their friends had money taken from their accounts, signalling their pre-order was successful.

However, no money was taken from his bank and he cannot get through to Game to check whether the order was completed.

In fact, the company has actively removed nearly all forms of contact, only responding to customers through Twitter – a platform not everybody uses or has access to – or through an online form, with no guarantee of reply date.

There have been other reports of orders going to the wrong location and people paying extra for home delivery to then find out others didn’t pay for delivery at all.

With so many people having more time on their hands, gamers are more excited for the new Playstation than ever before – making it even more disappointing that Game didn’t live up to its promises. 

This is Money has contacted Game for comment.  

Hit: However, we don’t want to just highlight which firms are not meeting expectations but also those who have provided outstanding customer service.

This week, we heard from Carol, a This is Money reader, who wanted to praise holiday firm, Coquet Cottages.

She booked a cottage months ago and had already had to defer the trip once due to the pandemic.

After news of another lockdown at the beginning of the month, she wasn’t sure how this would impact her arrangements.

However, on 2 November, she received an email detailing her options, including the choice for a bank transfer for a speedy refund, if preferred. 

She opted for this and within 48 hours, the funds were back in her account, without her having to chase the company once.

Carol said: ‘So many businesses must be reeling from the ever-changing situation. I am really impressed by the service of Coquet Cottages.’

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk