Discuss What is the process of ordering at the store? Page 2 on IKEAFANS.com. We're Personalizing the IKEA Experience. What is the process of ordering at the store? - Questions about how to handle your trip to IKEA? Want to know the best time to go or the procedure for ordering? Ask here..
I have to agree with the above. I can't imagine walking in with only a rough idea of what I wanted and try to trust that to someone I just met in the middle of the store, and hope that it all works out. Everyone has such unique considerations when it comes to their kitchens, the most obvious being style and layout, but less obvious being special considerations (such as how your plumbing and electrical runs, where you are going to want to have a specific type of work surface, limitations with shapes of your space--not everything is all square and straightforward in most houses).
Coming in after having done a lot of research and consideration of what you want and believe will work will give you the greatest chance of success. Then working WITH your Ikean to try and work out the details, discussing other options you may not have considered, etc, you come to the final shopping list.
And SelfServe, as I mentioned earlier, not all stores are the same with how in store interactions are handled. Not all stores pull things for you. Seattle pulls nothing for you save for larger items they have on the Tornado (for us, only 4 items out of a bazillion came off there). Some stores pull everything, it sounds like. So it's difficult to say with your experience in CA what it will be like in FL, unless you actually work or shop there.
Yes exactly. They have computers speficicly desgined to map everything out for you. Just bring your dimentions and a good idea of what you want, and let them plan it out for you.
I strongly discourage this approach! Bringing in a rough idea of your needs and room dimensions will almost certainly result in a disastrous installation followed by a fairly non-functional kitchen. IKEAns are rarely trained in kitchen design, and the likelihood that you will get something that is all it can be is slim to none.
The essence of IKEA is self-serve. That means the customer has to take the responsibility of the decision making and planning, in exchange for a low price and some restrictions in terms of options. Every kitchen, and family, is different and to get the best result, some serious time spent analyzing, planning and designing is needed before you can be sure it will be what you want it to be. That's what we are here to help with, BECAUSE your IKEAn doesn't have the time or the knowledge you will be needing. They're not supposed to!
You will need to live with the results for a long time to come, and as I am fond of saying, life is too short to live with bad design! And good design doesn't just happen magically because you hand over some numbers and an idea to someone. You must be involved in the process every step of the way personally, because you are the one who has to ultimately be satisfied.
I had a fairly disastrous ordering experience with a newbie in the kitchen department a few weeks ago.
This is my second Ikea kitchen i am working on and just planned and ordered a week prior for a friend.
This is not my first kitchen order but rather my third so I knew exactly what I wanted and what changes/mods I wanted - such as a solid shelf with a glass door (which is not a standard item) which confused her and she started telling me no, that glass cab comes with a glass shelf - had to explain to her over and over that I wanted a solid shelf in that cab. I had to dig deep to find the patience to deal with her.
I went in with my plan and each cab number listed and had to explain to her over and over again what I wanted - it came down to me telling this person what to order for me - and it was still wrong once i looked over the draft order.
Educate, educate, educate yourself on everything you need from this Ikean.
Do not expect the Ikean to know all about kitchens - I have to add that my Ikean in the kitchen department asked me if it was difficult to assemble a cabinet or do a kitchen as she had done neither. But that being said - some of the people i have worked with there in the past have been fantastic. Luck of the draw.
All Ikea's operate a bit differently so even a test run if you are close to inquire how they operate / procedure will help you if you are close.
and with regards to the advice not to bring people who will slow you down? I am assuming SelfServe413 meant kids - I brought my 9 and 11 year old with me to pick up all my cab's and hardware from self serve- they were fantastic and helped me and hubs out so much.
Deb
__________________ Treasure the people in your life, not your possessions.
Gloria, Kelly, Doreen, Tribal & Eva - I couldn't agree with you more.
Design is so fundamental to being happy in a functional kitchen that I cannot imagine just handing it off to someone who has no prior knowledge of your space - I just cannot fathom that. That aside, I was at the Brooklyn store yesterday where one IKEAN said they were not supposed to be designing kitchens for customers. To the contrary, my IKEAN was really, really happy when I handed over my spreadsheet detailing the cabinets and the components I required. He said that customers like me would make his life that much easier.
Planning your kitchen design requires a lot of considerations. You may end up with a lot of different versions of your space along the way, but in the end your kitchen will work for you. Not skimping on time & knowledge is a valuable asset that you cannot afford to pass on to a stranger. Yes, as Kelly indicates, they do have good intentions, but that in itself will not cut it.
JMHO
ps, I also agree with you. It seems we were typing at the same time.
This is a timely question. I've made four trips to the Orlando Ikea store from my home in St Petersburg so far. The first two trips were for product exploration and planning. On June 22 I bought my kitchen cabinets. On June 29 I went back for some things that I decided that I had to have; that trip reflects poor planning on my part.
Both times I also attempted to buy two of the Norrgrund mirror cabinet and one of the Lommaren Corner Mirror Cabinet. Both times I printed out the little slip of paper that indicates where to find the item and found that stated “Item available at Full-Service. Please contact sales staff to reserve this item.” Both times I asked a sales associate what that meant and was directed to take the ticket to the cash register, pay for the items and pick them up at the front of the store. When I got the same instructions the second time I figured that maybe the cashier the last time just didn't know what he was doing since a second Ikea associate had told me to do the same thing. Both times after waiting through the interminable lines at the cash register (over 40 minutes each time), I was told by the cashier that I couldn't buy that item at the cash register. Last time the cashier told me that I had to find the associate in that department, make a written request to order the item so that I could have the privilege of standing in line again to pay for it.
On June 22 I bought kitchen cabinets. I went in there with my plans and part list from the Ikea software in hand thinking that I could just hand them over, pay and arrange for delivery. No, they wouldn't even look at the parts list. I had to hand transcribe everything onto another form.
Beware: the parts list that the software generates doesn't say "order 3 of this size and style, two of those, two of this other one." It lists every item separately in the order that you placed them in your plan. So unless you place all of the corner cabinets in you plan at the same time, for example, they will be scattered throughout the printed parts list. You need at least one set of extra eyes to hep you transcribe the list generated by the software to the form that the store uses.
We arranged for home delivery (about $250 for $4500 worth of cabinets). This was a better option for us than bringing our own truck. We ordered the Stat cabinets on a Saturday and they were delivered on Wednesday. Delivery was prompt and apparently complete. We got everything that we ordered and paid for. My poor husband had to unload all of those boxes himself, though.
At this point, I have about five thousand dollars, at least fourteen hours of driving ( 800 + miles worth) and almost two hours of standing in line invested and I still don't have all of the cabinets that I need. I am so angry now that if my husband would agree to it, I'd like to return every last cabinet and be done with Ikea forever.
If I didn't stand to save so much money on my cabinets, I would have never been wiling to drive so far and stand in line so long to pay the first time. The quality for price on the cabinets is outstanding but the shopping "experience" is punishing; the folks at the Mouse could take a few pointers from Ikea on how to herd humans. If the Tampa store was open right now, I'd think long and hard about how badly I needed something before I'd even drive 45 minutes just to stand in line forever to buy it. I would go back if I wasn't looking to spend at least $500 and potentially save that much over comparable retailers' prices.
I'll probably go to the big box store to get my medicine cabinets for the bathroom remodel, since no one at Ikea can tell me how to get the cabinets BEFORE I've spent 40 minutes in line trying to pay for them. Unless someone here can tell me how to get the "Full Service" cabinets that the cashier keeps telling me to get in the "Self Serv" area where the "Self Serv" area employees keep telling me to pay for it at the register and pick it up in front of the store.
Insert non-existent "shoot self in head" emoticon here.
My experiences have differed immensely strictly based on the IKEAn that helped me. I have typically used the shopping list they want you to fill out; it is pretty straight forward if you go with standard stuff. You order by code, B4D36 for example. It has taken me as little as 2 minutes or 30 minutes for the same thing, hello frustrating! Heaven forbid you get a n00b! If you don't have mods or nonstandard stuff it can be a breeze. Happy hunting!
Exactly. If you for example would like a B3D36...come armed and ready to repeat, explain, encourage, get behind the counter, ask for more help, repeat, rinse, repeat.
So we went today and brought home everything we need!
We got there at 9:30ish. We got breakfast and wandered around until 10am, then went straight to the kitchen area.
The ordering process was smooth and easy. Our IKEAn was super helpful and aware of what we needed to have it all work out.
Prices were up about 10% overall from when we priced it last month, but we had expected that.
Our order was placed and in the system and paid for before 10:30am. (We got a coupon for $27 off our next purchase because we used our debit card.)We were told it could take an hour, but no more than two hours to get our stuff ready for us.
After that we went and did our other shopping and loaded that into the car. That was about noon. Then we went to lunch there and then checked back. Still not ready.
It was after 1:30 by the time our stuff was ready! That's three hours! It wasn't at all busy, lots of people were getting HUGE kitchen orders before ours. The staff people there had no idea what was taking so long. They were very apologetic and gave us a $25 gift card to use later. Anyway, we got it, everything was there (checked and double checked) and now it's home and ready to be turned into our workroom!
Other than the 3 hour wait, it was a great experience. It wasn't a HUGE deal to wait. My husband and I had left our kids with my mom, so we kind of enjoyed just hanging out together and eating junk food that we don't let the kids eat! Silver lining and all!
__________________
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Nancy
newly hooked on Ikea!
Last edited by OnTheBrink; Jul 8th, 08 at 4:08 pm.
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