|
10724. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 3:09:25 AM Never, ever, ever go to Ikea on a weekend afternoon.
I must remember this in future. I had a couple of items to return --- I bought some silverware and a rack and potholders because I couldn't find the box mine were in. Naturally, the moment I got home with my purchases I found the box.
Not a big deal. Returns are easy at Ikea if you have your receipt. Walk in, take a number, return your items, leave.
I also needed a shelving unit for the bathroom. I knew exactly which one. So, I took a number in Customer service for my returns then headed up to the showroom figuring the timing would be perfect for me to shop and wait at the same time. I didn't get lost in the rabbit warren of the display rooms although I'm sure I didn't take the most direct route to the item I needed.
Found what I needed and headed to the self-serve warehouse only to find that it was a full-serve item.
uh-oh.
Now, I'd already begun to get a little irritated by the sheer numbers of people in the store wandering around aimlessly. I'm a purposeful shopper most of the time. I know what I want, I find out where it is, I go get it and I check out. I'm not a meanderer.
I had no idea what "full serve" entailed. It's not complicated but it meant that I had to wait in line and check in with a salesperson who put my order through to the non-self serve warehouse.
This took just enough time that I missed them calling my number in Customer service by 5 numbers. I might have tried to weasel my way in, but that's not really my style and, besides, I'd been told that it would be probably half an hour before they could get my order up from the full-serve warehouse.
So I took another number in Customer Service and went over to check in at the Full Serve counter. 10725. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 3:26:53 AM The Full Serve or Furniture Pick-Up area was chaos. It took nearly ten minutes of standing in what sort of looked like a line to find out that there was another counter entirely that I needed to go to ---- where no one was standing waiting to be helped --- in order to get a Pick-Up number.
So I got that and all the while a guy halfway down the warehouse is shouting numbers into a bullhorn while a frazzled girl is shouting over him and drowning out the numbers trying to instruct people to initially check in at the other counter while this crowd of people try to find out if their number has been called yet.
So, the guy in the warehouse is totally oblivious and making a racket which nobody can decifer, hoardes of anxious, tired shoppers are milling around all trying to find out if their number has been called and grouping up around this girl who not only can't pay attention to what numbers are called, but isn't even listening as is apparent by how often she ignores the call and shouts over it to give useless instructions over and over again while simultaneously trying with ill-grace to run searches (on foot) for the folks gathered around her demanding their items.
I back carefully away and go sit in Customer Service and wait to be called. I get an earfull from a man and his wife complaining about how Ikea is always like this and the products are crap and they always end up waiting in line blah blah blah. My first thought was that I had never had any kind of difficulties at all with the products or the service or my shopping experience. My second thought was why, if they were so dissatisfied did they keep coming back?
So, my number for Customer Service is called and I am swiftly and pleasantly assisted but in the middle of it my other number is called. The CS agent tells me to go ahead and get my pick-up and come back to her when I'm ready.
10726. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 3:27:23 AM I go back over to Pick-Up and confusion and irritation there. The girl running the front is even more irritable and less efficient than the last time I was there. It takes nearly five minutes before I can even get her attention. She writes down my number, hands it off to another person in the warehouse and then returns to her station while I stand there waiting for I don't know what.
Ten minutes of that and I figure they can wait on me to finish with Customer Service. I go and get my refund in two minutes and head back over to Pick-Up which I'm beginning to regard as the 5th circle of Hell.
This time I notice that there's actually a waiting area in which no one is sitting, where the numbers called are displayed on a screen. My number is not there. I find a wandering employee and ask if he'll check on my number. He returns nearly immediately to inform me that my number is not up. I sit and wait and watch the board.
But I'm thirsty so I walk over to the bistro and get a soda. Still not hearing my number. I browse through the little market. Still no number.
I go back to the waiting area and look at the board. The numbers have no changed at all even though there is a constant stream of them being called out over the bullhorn.
I check my watch. I've been waiting for this item for over an hour. I notice that the girl at the front is being relieved and replaced by two folks who look calm and determined and effective.
I march up and present my number "I'm sorry to be a bother, but I've been waiting over an hour for this item and the numbers on the display haven't changed at all. Could you check on this?"
Page an employee, hand him the receipt and send him off into the holding area where delivered items are awaiting pick-up.
10727. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 3:27:26 AM Voila! My single box is sitting waiting right there. It's been there for quite some time. I've been seeing it sitting there. Obviously the stressed out girl dropped the ball earlier when I asked about it.
So I wheel my box out to the parking area, leave it with the attendant who gives me yet another number, retrieve my car and then load the box into it.
Total time spent 2.5 hours. If I'd gone during the week after 8pm like I usually do it would've taken 30 minutes.
Never go to Ikea on a weekend afternoon. 10728. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 3:34:03 AM I'm quite pleased with my shelving unit, though. 10729. judithathome - 8/10/2004 5:44:09 AM What I learned from MsNo's saga: be glad, be very glad there is no Ikea here. 10730. Absensia - 8/10/2004 5:59:03 AM Ms. No, I'm glad you are happy with your shelving unit. I never never never go to places like Ikea or Costco or Walmart, for the very reasons you just laid out. If I have to go to some place like OfficeMax or even Trader Joes, I go at the minute it opens on a week day. I confess I have even stooped to using a handicapped motorized cart, even though I don't need one, just to get the hell out of there, ASAP. Those places have several and I've never seen anyone else use them. 10731. Magoseph - 8/10/2004 6:17:42 AM That's a good idea, Abs. 10732. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 6:33:10 AM I've been pretty fortunate, really. I don't go to Trader Joe's not only because of the crowds but because TJs are invariably located on lots with really lousy parking --- it's one of the ways they keep costs low by taking lots that are undesirable to other businesses.
The Target near me is remarkably uncrowded. I haven't yet figured out why, but I'm thankful for it. This was the first time I had a problem at Ikea and I know there's a Walmart somewhere within 50 miles of me but I don't know where it is. CostCo is like Mecca.
None of these places do I visit on weekends if I can possibly avoid it. 10733. robertjayb - 8/10/2004 6:48:29 AM Oh Goody! Can we rant? And BTW I feel your pain, Ms. No.
Telephone solicitations have returned to disturb my peace and tranquility and to piss me off something awful.
When no-call lists came around I signed up damn quick and they seem to have been effective. But now I'm being hasseled by twerps who are using the charity dodge.
"Hi Robert!" I'm calling for the Clean Underware Society and I'd like...
Do I know you?
Well, No, but...
Then why are you calling me by my first name and don't you know you are violating state and federal no-call laws.
We're a charity and exempt from those lists...
Maybe, but you are supposed to have an internal list. Put me on that and don't call back.
Click
Better these people get a real job and sign their checks over to Gecko relief or whatever.
I'm afraid they're right about charities not having to honor no-call lists. But do you suppose they collect a lot from pestering folks who have clearly indicated they don't want telephone solicitations? Duh.
Back to being a silent grump.
Carry on. 10734. robertjayb - 8/10/2004 6:51:31 AM That would be underwear,
Underware sounds a bit kinky. 10735. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 6:54:33 AM Judith,
I'm thinking that you wouldn't much like Ikea even if you had it all to yourself, but I have made some good purchases there. I got a great bedroom rug (5x8)for under $40 that's going to look awesome with my walls. 10736. Ms. No - 8/10/2004 6:55:50 AM heh heh heh, they might get more fund raising done if it were so. ;-> 10737. arkymalarky - 8/10/2004 8:21:06 AM If they're like a bigger Pier I I would like them, but not if they're really big. I went to a Bed, Bath, and Beyond in Boulder and bought some towels and one of those bathroom container sets that you put cotton balls and such in, but it's not a place I would frequent if it were handy.
For relaxing shopping for just about anything, if it's not a sidewalk sale, I prefer a plain old department store.
I will resist the urge to get on my Loathing Wal-Mart stump, for which I'm sure you all are very grateful.
And Robert, I'm with you, and some of what I'm doing requires unsolicited communication. I hate it. I'm not much of a phone person anyway, and I hate hate hate having to call people I don't know and ask them for support, even legislators, who signed on for that kind of crap when they ran for office. 10738. Absensia - 8/10/2004 9:25:32 AM Thank God for caller I.D. If it says caller "unknown," I usually don't answer. I figure it's someone soliticting for something and if it's a friend, s/he will leave a message. Also, I have a block on my phone so most calls, not all, don't get through, unless their number shows, although that doesn't work for 1-800 #s.
Arky, I'm with you. I hate calling people and soliciting. 10739. arkymalarky - 8/10/2004 9:36:24 AM I used to have caller-id, but I felt like I was paying $10 a month or whatever to be told 90% of the time it was my mother. 10740. Absensia - 8/10/2004 9:45:10 AM Yeah, it is an extravagance, but when I moved I got this package that included almost everything for $20.00. If I kept caller i.d. and the answering machine feature only, I'd pay more that $20.00. One of these days I should just pick up a cheap answering machine and get rid of all the features. Besides, I use my cell phone for most calls anyway. I'm just far enough out of the calling area where most family and friends live that calls from my home phone are long distance. What a rip off. I was smart enough to get a Seattle area code for my cell phone, so as long as I watch my minutes, those calls are free. 10741. Magoseph - 8/10/2004 9:57:33 AM We are on the state list for those annoying calls finally. It took three months before they stoped entirely. Now, of course, we have the local beggers only.
By the way, Arky, now Praxis II is a requirement for out-of-state teachers and new teachers to take the test up here. Do you have the same requirement in AK?
10742. TheWizardOfWhimsy - 8/10/2004 11:35:40 AM FYI Department: The James Salter short story for which I did the fronticepiece, is finally out. 10743. SnowOwl - 8/10/2004 11:50:51 AM It's a beautiful looking book, Wiz. Congratulations.
|
