🚀 go-pugleaf

Jodi Giannini (giannini@socrates.umd.edu) wrote:
> Hi,

> I recently  received an IKEA catalogue, and was looking at all the spiffy 
> stuff.  The question is, how cheesy is the lower-priced stuff?  

Well... since I'm sitting here in a room _full_ of Ikea furniture, I suppose
I'd be just as qualified to respond to this as just about anyone out there!

About... 6? 8? years ago, IKEA opened their store in Plymouth Meeting (ie, 
Philadelphia suburbs) PA.  It was one of their first in the US, and their
HQ for this area is still near the store.

About this time, my younger sister and I were getting to be around high school
age, and it was decided that our older-than-dirt bedroom furnishings would be
yard-sold, and replaced with new IKEA stuff.  This cost less than $500/room,
much to the delight of my folks.

My share of it included:

A bedframe (black, low, tubular steel)
A mattress (relatively cheap foam thing)
A sheet (black)
A $15 steel/canvas chair (black) (they're $19 now)
Some shelves and drawers (white, with black support units - Niklas system
A floor lamp (black)
A desk chair (black)
A wastebasket (black)
A desk lamp (black)

Since then, I've given the floor lamp to an ex-girlfriend (she's an IKEA fan
too), added a bookshelf (white), a stool (black), windowshade (grey), and
more shelves (black and white).

Overall, the only part that ever gave me any problems worth mentioning was
the Niklas drawer unit - this (and apparently some other IKEA units) uses
plastic guides which are screwed onto particle-board side boards.  The sides
and back of the drawers are also plastic and the bottoms are particleboard.
Putting a decent amount of stuff in a drawer would cause the bottom to bow
out, and the screws gradually loosened in the side particleboard.

HOWEVER:  Quoting from the back of the Ikea catalog:

"Should you ever have a problem with the quality of an IKEA product, please
 contact us as soon as you can.  We will of course exchange it, repair it, or
 give you a refund."

I took my drawer unit back to Plymouth Meeting last month, after putting it 
through several years of use, at least one paint fight, and who knows what
else... they took it back, no questions asked.  I opted for store credit (in
the amount of the _original_ cost of the drawers, not the current cost which
is a bit higher) and used it to expand my shelving some more (and get the
stool).  I also, of course, was given the option of trading it in for a new
set of drawers, and (surprisingly) they would even have let me trade it in
for a cabinet module (with doors) which costs as much as the drawers _now_
cost.

So... my view of IKEA:

95% of the time, they have good stuff at good prices that holds up well.
The other 5% of the time, they have the best warranty I've ever seen. :)

-Shag

(Note the followup to misc.consumers, since I don't like followups going all
over the place - if this is a problem for you, EDIT it.)
-- 
shag@gnu.ai.mit.edu - birchall@pilot.njin.net - shag@glia.biostr.washington.edu
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