IKEA Sofa Complaint: 'Made to Order', but not necessarily made to match

A big fan of IKEA usually, I always said I'd buy a leather sofa from IKEA given half a chance.
And so I did, back in November '09 and was really looking forward to its arrival, but after my experiences, I'm beginning to wish I hadn't bothered...

Not only was I promised delivery on Christmas Eve (a bit of snow on the ground meant the IKEA van (DHL) drove straight past the end of our road and off, not to be seen again until 14th January and several phonecall enquiries later), but we were promised the delivery team would unpack and build our lovely new furniture when it arrived. Which they promptly refused to do and left my asthmatic partner to unpack and build for himself!

So, we couldn't check the contents until after they had gone, which was when we discovered the back cushions didn't match - and if they were supposed to have been made to order from the same batch of leather by someone who actually bothered to quality check before the furniture left the factory, then I am the long-lost love child of Marilyn Monroe.

Or maybe I am...?

The footstool doesn't seem to entirely match the sofa either- it is a lovely soft, supple, dimpled leather, whereas the seat cushions are much finer grained and have a plastic-y texture.

So much for being 'made to order' at the same time to ensure the two items matched!

Numerous letters of complaint and phonecalls about it since 15th Jan 2010 have got me nowhere and I am only just (15th Feb, ie a whole month after I raised my origiinal complaint), being asked by email to supply photographic evidence that the cushions are not of a sufficently high quality to warrant the price charged for the furniture. Well, the digital camera is temporarily out of action so I hope the Flip video I've put together helps to demonstrate the issues and (hopefully) lead to a resolution of this ongoing complaint.

Not the sort of customer care I'd expect from IKEA!

Created on February 16, 2010 using FlipShare.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• IKEA
• Complaint
• Customer
• service
• Sofa
• Poor
• FlipShare

[andrewcobra2000]

Your dog and cat don't if it's smooth or grainy.They look very happy !

[balle2011]

IKEA is obviously the worlds most famous cost cutting brand, which is fine for paper-based flat pack furniture but when you try to make luxury items such as leather-based products you end up with problems like this.

I'd demand a return. IKEA or not, NO sofa should be made this way. They should have used either the smooth or grained leather for another couch. I bet there's another sofa with the exact same problem - find it and swap 1 of the back pillows ;D

[booglypoo]

what's the update? I'm thinking about getting an IKEA leather sofa, but I want it to be smooth not grainy.

[fusionstar916]

not all cows are created equal.

[vamvwj10]

hate to tell you but thats what you get when its real leather... i work in upholstery and lots of leather is like this.. you cant change the the texture but you might be able to change the color.. use a hair dryer on the lighter colored cushion and it might change it to a darker color to match better ... its difficult to match all the leather together because it takes several hides of leather to build a piece of furniture like that

[redskycowboys]

Ikea must be resting on their laurels as their customer service has gone to pot.

Applied a month ago online for an Ikea Family card and received confirmation email welcoming me to Ikea Family.

Phoned their customer care line today asking why card still hadn't arrived. Was told I didn't exist on their system and couldn't explain why. Told to re-apply, told them to shove it as I'll now shop elsewhere. Going to Dekko instead...