I'm a bit of an Ikea fan.
Even known by close friends to be a bit of a 'Sherpa' and I have to say
tonight I'm flummoxed.
Ikea. Basically your
policy lacks rationale. And your
explanation even a little less.
A little background. I
have a very small bathroom and I need to stash towels and, er, um, toilet
'tissue' somewhere. I also have no car.
I currently have a dorm like contraption in use and yes , it
does the job. But I'm a grown up so I'd like to have something a little more
substantial.
Ergo Ikea. Decent. Well priced. Quasi-disposable furniture that when you are
an apartment dweller you feel is a reasonable option considering you might have
this for a short time.
I also have a fixed ceramic hook in the middle of the only
usable wall. So I got my handy measuring
tape out and then went to the Ikea showroom.
Except the piece I was interested in was not on display. So I figured the most logical idea was to go
look at the pieces in the box and see where the predrilled holes were. Except there's a company policy that they
can't open a box on the floor because that makes the item unsellable. A policy which I completely question but since
I was trying to get what I wanted I didn't question to very strenuously.
Needless to say several stores were called looking for a
display unit and a manager got involved.
Mostly because I said hauling the item home and back was not an option I
was interested in if it didn't fit. And
which silently begged the question of where does all my unsuitable MDF stuff
go? Surely not to landfill based on the
sole rationale that they'd never keep their prices as low as they do. (Although usually I get to measure the
furniture at the store and now I'm into a circular argument.)
What I found the most perplexing of the entire exchange was
that the exact reason I was given by the manager for why the item wasn't on
display - which was 'we can't possibly have everything on display' was the
exact reason I felt my request to look at parts in the box before I made a
purchase was pretty amenable.
I understand that policies have to be put in place to help
staff with their jobs. But sometimes
blanket policies don't make sense. Toronto is a pretty big city. And a large section
of the population do not have cars. Ikea
is always on the edge of a city to keep costs down. But if you want the customers to traipse all
the way to you, you have to be willing to help them out. So when I, and I did do it politely, asked if
they'd be willing to come retrieve the item if it didn't fit - based entirely
on their suggested rationale that my only course of action was to purchase and
return the item if it was unsuitable - I thought opening the blasted box was
still the best option for both parties.
I didn't win my argument. I didn't really lose either because finally
after all this work the warehouse woman who was stuck with me agreed to measure
the display when it went up and call me one way or the other I felt that was a
reasonable option. I suspect it's pretty
far off her job description and I did think the manager had a bit of gall to
end the discussion with 'there'. But I
appreciated the gesture.
So now I'm out 2 hours of my evening and I don't have a
shelf. But maybe the promise of one.
Stay tuned for the outcome.
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