So you want to buy a kitchen at IKEA? Great! Make sure you use the online planner tool or if you have trouble with that you can always go to the store and one of the awesome associates will help you. We chose to do it online and it worked pretty well. Nothing is perfect so be prepared for some anxiety and stress using any software like that. We also had the consultant come out and measure the kitchen to make sure we were doing it right. That fee was reimbursed to us when we bought the cabinets.
I spent probably the better part of a year (basically since we moved in) planning and redoing the plan online. The IKEA here wasn't even open until October 2017 so if I had wanted help I would have had to go to one of the other stores 3-4 hours from our home. Nope. I just don't have that kind of time. I highly recommend planning the kitchen and working with one of the associates on the plan at least once before buying your cabinets.
Ordering the kitchen
When we were ready to buy our kitchen we had actually already had some experience buying cabinets from IKEA for the living room and the laundry room. It took WAY longer to order the kitchen though. Of course the living room consisted of 4 cabinets (originally we bought 10 but had to change our plan) and the laundry room has 6 but the kitchen has 27. Yes, that is correct TWENTY SEVEN cabinets. We really like having storage space!
We arrived at IKEA right at 10 am on a Saturday morning. We went straight to kitchens and found an associate. She was awesome. She listened to us about the changes we needed done to the plan that the planner would not allow for and made notes of that and the extra items we needed to buy. Once we had gone though the entire plan she got to work on her part. She had to go through each cabinet and make sure that all the parts would be included and that we had enough end panels, lights, trim, etc. Once she was done it was checked by another associate to make sure nothing was missed. I like that.
While we waited we shopped and picked up other things that we needed to get. We also chose our counter top. That was a big deal. It's so hard to choose things like that when faced with so many decisions!
Delivery was set for 20 days later. We could have had it a little earlier but we wanted it delivered on a Friday. In all it took about 3 hours from the time we walked in to the time we left the store. Not bad at all I would say.
The Delivery
The Delivery
Up to this point we had had very few hiccups and I should have known a big one was coming. Delivery was scheduled for March 2. I received multiple confirmations via text, email and a computerized phone call the day before. I was shocked when I got an email a little after 10 am Friday monring telling me my delivery wasn't going to happen. Ed starting calling to try to figure out what was going on. He was finally told by someone that the order had been cancelled because there were some missing pieces. We didn't like it but said fine. We were told we would get a call to reschedule once everything was in place.
About 30 minutes later I got a call from the delivery company. Did I mention that IKEA hires this out? Well they do. The woman from the delivery company apologized and told me the truck had broken down and as soon as the recovery truck got loaded they would deliver. She assured me we would get our delivery that day but a few hours late. We were okay with this. Well, that didn't happen. Saturday we started calling again but this time we called the delivery company directly instead of the number to IKEA. We figured they had the stuff and they needed to answer for what was happening. Ed talked to someone who assured us we would get on the schedule for Sunday. Great. I didn't believe them at this point though.
Sunday morning we called to confirm like we had been told to do the day before. Ed was told to call again around 10 to make sure it was loaded. At 9:43 am I got an email stating our delivery wasn't going to be delivered. OMG I was livid. He called and was told they would figure it out and call back in about half an hour. Around 5 pm we got a call finally telling us they would deliver that night. We had no idea why this kept happening. I still didn't believe it and I stated as much. They said they would be here between 5 and 9 but probably closer to 6. At 6:40 pm we got a call saying they would arrive in about 35 minutes. At 7:21 pm we got another call stating they would be there in about 35 minutes. A little after 8 they finally showed with our stuff and guess what, it wasn't all there. Yep. Fourteen pieces were missing. After the weekend we had had trying to get the stuff delivered I just wasn't surprised. We asked why we kept getting cancelled and were told it was because we had such a large delivery they kept bumping us for smaller ones. That's BS. When they unloaded it they counted and got 307 pieces. We were due to get 321. So after they left Ed and I sorted it out by cabinet to figure out what was missing.
We were short 5 glass doors, 5 toe kicks, 3 power cords for the lights and a remote control for the lights. Ed called IKEA Monday and after almost 2 hours on hold and being transferred 3 times he finally talked to someone who arranged for the items to be delivered Saturday. I prayed we didn't have a repeat of the previous weekends delivery issues.
We ended up going back to IKEA and buying 2 butcher block tops for the island and asked that they also be delivered at the same time on Saturday as the rest of our first order. We got it all set up and went on our way. I received a text stating we would get delivery on the 10th between 2pm and 6pm. At 2:15 on the 10th I called the delivery company to find out where our stuff was and was told the manager would be calling me soon. He called me about 1/2 hour later and told us that our orders had been combined and were missing some pieces so they would pick them up and deliver them the following day. After our conversation I received a text stating the delivery would occur on the 11th between 9am and 1pm. At 1:13pm on the 11th I received another text stating that the delivery was rescheduled for 2pm to 4pm. This was really getting old by now. The delivery did occur a little after 4pm on the 11th but guess what? There were missing pieces. The driver told us that the manager had already talked to us we would be short some items and I said no that he had told me that they would pick them up before the delivery and all would be delivered. The driver then called his boss and put Ed on the phone with him. This was when we were told that the remaining items were being FedEx'ed to us. Okay. I am just tired at this point. We did get a FedEx package 2 days later but it was still short 2 cords. We called and told them we would just come up and pick them up ourselves because we needed to order the Quartz counter tops anyway. What an ordeal this was.
My opinion on a company hiring out things like delivery is that they are only as good as the companies they sub contract to. A builder is only as good as the sub contractors who actually do the work. Same goes for delivery. This is not a company I would hire to deliver anything. I am thankful we finally got in touch with someone who saw the problem and did what they could to fix it. I can't imagine there was a human making the decision to bump us repeatedly so I will assume it was the software they use for loading their trucks. Frankly I hate that so much has been taken over by technology. I hate hearing a computer on the phone, I hate having to try to communicate with one. I am a human and I want to speak with another human, not a machine. Computers have their place but I think for the sake of saving a buck companies are taking it too damn far.
The IKEA Kitchen Event
The IKEA Kitchen sale was not happening when we bought our cabinets BUT we are IKEA family card members so we knew all we would have to do is take our receipt to the service desk and ask for our refund during the sale as long as it was within 90 days of purchasing the cabinets. The plan was to use this refund to help pay for our counter tops.
Counter tops
Before we ordered the Quartz for the counter tops I changed my mind about the island counter top. I was thinking it would just be too much light with white cabinets, white back splash and light counter tops. I really wanted to do butcher block but needed to figure out how to treat it so that we wouldn't have rings and spots like the last one. We used mineral oil only on the last one and it drove me nuts with the rings and spots. I did some research and since we won't be cutting food on the counter top itself I found a couple of options.
I looked at different options for buying butcher block and decided that the Hammarp butcher block from IKEA was our best option for the money and time. We had to buy 2 of them and cut them then join them together to fit the island. But that's a post for another day. :D
If we ever do this again we will not ask that IKEA deliver. We will pick up our items ourselves. It was be much easier and less stressful.
Thanks for stopping by!
Chris
