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IKEA bathroom unit fail


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In the small bathroom in our cabin we fitted an IKEA bathroom unit, white painted wood, possibly MDF, with sink that sits on top of it.

 

Thee months after fitting the paintwork is all split on the front legs and the cross members. So I called IKEA and they sent out a bod to inspect it and do a report. Conclusion, manufacturing fault, so they will replace it. Great!

 

BUT!!!

 

They will send out a new unit, but want the person bringing the new unit to take the old unit back. I point out that it's not really possible, as we would be without a working bathroom and I would need the new unit to be delivered first, so that it's a straight swop, no plumber standing around all day waiting for a delivery driver to turn up. Once the old unit was out I'd phone them when the old unit was ready for collection. After a lot of back and forth on the phone they dig their heals and said no, they would only guarantee deliver If the old unit is ready for collection at the same time.  Well isn't that great!!

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I have always found ikea customer service to be great.

 

When we fitted one of their kitchens in our last house we were running late with getting the gas pipe moved and some other plumbing stuff, so they agreed to store the kitchen until we were ready for delivery for no extra charge.

 

Also when the worktop turned up I noticed a scratch at one end,  so called up to advise. They requested I take some pictures and send them over. They got back to us and agreed to give us £200 gift vouchers. As it turned my friend ended up cutting the scratched part off anyway as the worktop was ordered a bit longer than needed.......result :)

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13 hours ago, Rossek9 said:

I have always found ikea customer service to be great.

 

For cost reasons, we ended up installing Ikea wardrobes in the kids' bedrooms in the new house (despite promising ourselves we'd never have Ikea wardrobes). Installation proceeded well - everything done in one room, and all bar the doors in another.  Oddly, we ended up with three clearly different types of drawer runners, and two types of hinge, despite all wardrobes apparently being identical.

 

A few days later we went to finish the second room, only to find that the door hinges wouldn't click into the hinge mount on the carcasses.  All of them were the same.  I took some photos - the little pins were simply too big for their complementary slots.  With our recent experience of all the different types of hardware, I assumed someone had put the wrong halves of different hinge models into the bags.  

 

Eventually we dragged ourselves down to Ikea an hour away, with photos and a couple of examples (we didn't remove all the installed hardware, as it isn't really meant for easy removal).  After waiting nearly 40 mins to see someone at customer service, I explained what the problem was to the very nice but slightly dim young chap serving.  He took us through the installation process, even though we'd told him that we'd successfully installed the ones in the other room.  I kept showing him that the slot and pins just weren't the right size for each other, getting more and more frustrated by his seeming inability to understand basic mechanics.  Eventually, he went and got his manager.  The manager asked me in a patronising way what the problem was, so I explained again.  I was starting to get pretty frustrated by this stage and started my explanation by saying that we'd been here nearly an hour and just wanted replacement hinges.  I then went to put the pieces together to demonstrate, and they snapped together perfectly!  Turns out I'd accidentally put them together the "wrong" way, which was, of course, the right way!  

 

I immediately realised that my lovely wife, who'd wanted a go on the tools the first night we were assembling the carcasses, had installed all of the carcass mounts upside down in the second room, and I was too thick to realise this when trying to fit the doors!

 

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Each of our 4 bedrooms has a 3m run of Ikea wardrobes (two doubles, two singles) plus another 5 units in the dressing room. 

 

We put the fancy lacquered doors on our ones and the guest room and for the kids put the more basic doors on and applied full size vinyl murals from Wall Sauce. Joiner framed them into the wall with MDF so they look built in. Look good and cost wise, they're pretty unbeatable when you allow for all the internal fittings.

 

By the end I could get one finished in just over 20 mins, however it is very easy to get the fixings  / holes mixed up if you lose concentration.

 

Never want to see one again though.

 

I did made the kids assemble one each as a 'life skill' :)

 

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10 minutes ago, Bitpipe said:

Look good and cost wise, they're pretty unbeatable when you allow for all the internal fittings.

 

I think they look okay.  It took several weeks for the Ikea smell to dissipate though.  My kids have already destroyed two of the drawers by closing the doors on them when they're open. I guess the same could/would happen with any other wardrobe of this design, but if we were having proper built-ins, I wouldn't have the drawers behind a door.

 

We still haven't done our walk-in wardrobe, but one way or the other, it will NOT have Ikea fittings!

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Agreed.  

 

I'm not a great fan of drawers. Their sole advantage, for me, is that they look neat. Our kids are at the age (ie, between 1 and 30) where they just don't put things away without constant haranguing, so the ability to shut the mess out of sight is nice.  Of course, we could have achieved that with shelves given the wardrobes all have doors...

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An update on our IKEA bathroom sink unit problem.

 

Having been told that there was no way IKEA would send the new unit out without collecting the old unit at the same time. I had a call this morning to inform me that the customer service rep was wrong and that a new unit would be dispatched today and once the defective unit had been removed, could I call to arrange for its collection. Excellent news !

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