Ikea Rant

I caved and bought what is essentially a piece of large stained glass at the over-priced heaven of Ikea. It has been a long week and I felt like giving myself something of a present.

While I was there to pick up this huge piece of glass, I wanted to make sure that everything I needed to mount it onto the wall are inside the package. This is where I hit the first nail. I could find any in the section and nearby sections any sales person. This thing is bigger than i want to carry around with me to find help, and I certainly to go back and forth.

Ok, so I decided to grap it with me anyways, and found my help several sections away. The conversation went something like this:

Me: I'd like to find out how this piece of glass is supposed to be mounted onto the wall
Help#1: hm... Where did you get this?
Me: A couple of sections back
Help#1: What is it?
Me: It's supposed to be a writting board fitted on the wall
Help#1: Ok, Let me check with my co-worker

An ikea employee on duty asking me what an ikea product is, something is definitely wrong with trainning. At least he was willing to get help for me. He came back from the phone and told me how it's supposed to be mounted. I asked if everything I needed is in there and he was very responsible by saying "I'm not sure if I can provide you with the real information. You should ask the people at checkout to really be sure".

Alright, I dragged it to checkout, and asked is everything I needed is in there. Help#2 asked similar questions, "what is this?", "where did you get this", this time with a less friendly tone. My patience was wearing out. Was I responsible to know which sections individual products belong to?

garrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Help#2 finally called someone to ask, after I'd made some noise. He told me that everything except for the screws are in the package. I can get the screws in any hardware store or I can get them overpriced from them.

In the end, I really want to get Help#2's name and write a strongly worded complaint to make sure he feels my pain. But I'd learnt so much from the episode that I felt like giving him a break, and preventing myself from wasting valuable time.

#1. Value your customer
All and all, the real thing that pisses me off is that they made me feel like they can do without my purchase. Sure they've got something I really wanted to buy, but that's not the whole equation. If I feel good (or important, needed, the whole nine yard), I may end up getting something else that I'd probably not need to get from you. Customer relationship really does help in this age of long tail.

#2. Know your product
Help#1 and Help#2 were both as knowledgable with their company's product as my turtle is with linux. If I weren't so determined on getting exactly what I wanted, they would have lost me as a customer. You don't get well-researched customers coming into the store every hour

#3. If at first you don't succeed, get help for your customer
I don't particularly mind if you don't know the answer. Given that I'm not asking hard question, but you don't need to know everything I suppose. Help me find help. If you're not here to help me as a customer, you're not doing your job as a sales person.

I could go on, but I have to go back to watching "The Island" now.

"Is sally here?" :)