[whitewing]

OT: IKEA online delivery to Bangalore.

I had an eye on a sofa with a chaise longue and ordered it soon as shipping to Bangalore started.

Was planning a self assembly, however that plan went kaput due to badly handled delivery via GATI. One package was in opened state. And to top it, the delivery guy wanted to deposit the package on the road and let me manage carting stuff to the first floor. Apparently they were short of people due to the pandemic.
Almost made up my mind to refuse delivery, then on calling the customer support, they mentioned if I get it assembled via their partner urbanclap, any replacement due to damages etc. would be handled transparently via their channels. The listed assembly price was ~700 rupees. So, to avoid the hassle of returns & replacement with unpredictable wait time (due to pandemic), I went ahead accepting delivery.

Now, getting the urbanclap guys to get the assembly done has been a challenge. I've had 2 appointments till now, where the guy comes has a look and asks for additional money 2-2.5 k to do the assembly since it is a "complicated" one. This is for an assembly that would take 2-2.5 hrs tops.

Has been a very disappointing experience till now.
Next assembly is scheduled for Saturday, figures crossed.

[itwasntme]

Hi all, thought of starting this IKEA online shopping thread. Am aware there are a couple of threads to the physical stores, but as IKEA expands it's online presence across India, a dedicated thread on IKEA online might be useful to TBHP-ians.

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...hyderabad.html
https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shift...er-2020-a.html (IKEA Navi Mumbai store set to open in December 2020)

My experience of IKEA online is disappointing so far.

I ordered within 12 hours of BLR online ordering commencement and got a committed delivery date of 28 June. Today I get this email out of the blue:

Dear Customer,
Greetings from IKEA! We hope you are safe.
This email is regarding your Order number #xxxx.
Unfortunately, the delivery of goods is impacted due to exceptionally high volumes of the orders.
Rest assured, your order will be delivered by July 5th, 2021.
Your patience and understanding are much appreciated in this regard. Please accept our apologies for this delay and the inconvenience faced.
In case you need any further clarifications to request you to call us at the toll-free number 1800 419 4532 or write to us at Customercare.india@ikea.com
Warm Regards,
xxxx
IKEA Customer Support Centre

I immediately replied that even if IKEA gets a high volume of orders (and they have!), the committed date to an early customer like me should not have been impacted by later orders. Either that or the 'live' inventory status is wrong!

Very shabby start to my IKEA India experience. Nothing to say really.

Others have already posted of Urbanclap, their assembly partner asking for 2x of the IKEA-set assembly rates. This is not going to work unless they figure these basic things out.

They have a golden opportunity to grab a significant marker share especially among the 'internationally savvy' BLR middle class, but it can get squandered very quickly!

[saikishor]

Ikea doesnt have a good customer support team. We had raised an enquiry regarding their interior designing services THRICE, but not once did they reply satisfactorily. Infact the third ticket which we had raised has been left unanswered till date.

Another thing which I had observed after some research and internet surfing is that Ikea products have shoddy quality, especially things like wooden tables or computer desks. One of my friend suggested other alternatives like Customfurnish and clearly stated steer clear from Ikea.

[NevGin]

I have had a very smooth experience with IKEA online. Have used them 4 times including before the lockdown. They have this message that things will get delayed etc. but always somehow end up sending it earlier. This happened even before the Mumbai store was open and I am assuming they were shipping from Hyderabad. No complaints from me. Smooth and trouble free experience.

It is best to go see furniture it in person. Most of the grand looking wardrobes are purpose built and will last perhaps 5 to 6 years. As a culture we have been lucky to have Teak and Oak that have come down generations.

[SILVER-ARROW]

We are frequent shopper’s from Ikea. Experience has been wonderful!

Have ordered everything from Backpacks, shopping bags, kids toys, kids furniture to study tables. The online ordering has been seamless. All the products were delivered before the scheduled dates which were shown on order confirmation ( Kindly note we had ordered products before the navi mumbai Ikea had opened, the products were shipped from Hyderabad to mumbai).

Will definitely recommend Ikea for online purchases. Have been ordering from pepper fry and urban ladder as well. But the thrill which one gets in assembling your own stuff is something which needs to be experienced. Specially with kids who are thrilled to see the end product in front of their eyes

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by SILVER-ARROW

But the thrill which one gets in assembling your own stuff is something which needs to be experienced. Specially with kids who are thrilled to see the end product in front of their eyes

Wow! There are always two kinds of people! I have always simply wanted everything readymade and I absolutely hate assembling anything by myself. I think I am way to lazy and probably useless then.

Coming to IKEA, I see that they gave have a delivery fee and that too upto 12kg something for same fee. Has that been made free now? I am interested in their Mulig Cloth dryer and don't want to order more stuff to fill up the 12kg quota

[SILVER-ARROW]

Originally Posted by RavSam

Coming to IKEA, I see that they gave have a delivery fee and that too upto 12kg something for same fee. Has that been made free now? I am interested in their Mulig Cloth dryer and don't want to order more stuff to fill up the 12kg quota

There is no free shipping. The shipping is calculated on the total weight of your cart. They have predefined slots of weights which carry corresponding shipping charges. From Zero to three kg they charge 199Rs shipping charge.

We normally prepare list of all the things and buy it together to avoid spending exorbitant shipping charges on a single item. Not sure if the shipping charges are location specific. People from outside mumbai can pitch in with their experience.

Below is shipping charge for product worth 79 Rs.

[for_cars1]

Originally Posted by RavSam

....

Coming to IKEA, I see that they gave have a delivery fee and that too upto 12kg something for same fee. Has that been made free now?

I ordered a chair the day they opened online store for Bangalore and it was delivered dot on the promised date.

They have a 0 to 5kg slot at Rs 299 and the higher weight slot being 0 to 12Kg at Rs 499. There is no free delivery.
Sounds reasonable given that they need to ship it from Hyderabad to Bangalore.

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

I ordered within 12 hours of BLR online ordering commencement and got a committed delivery date of 28 June.
Unfortunately, the delivery of goods is impacted due to exceptionally high volumes of the orders.
Rest assured, your order will be delivered by July 5th, 2021.

Reposing my trust anew, I placed another much bigger order (7 items/600 kg) and got an immediate shipping advice (GATI) within 12 hours. Looks like they are prioritising the bigger shipments. However, no update on my first small order.

[itwasntme]

Smitha seems to be unusually coy about my harmless question

Truly, customer support seems to be hopeless!

[huntrz]

They are so much married to their model to push people through their maze like store to get them do impulse shopping and there are so many in store rules with respect to their unique model, like even shopping carts are different for their different floors i.e. concepts and market place floors, that it takes a while just to understand what's going on. Further once you understand what's going on, one realizes that their model is so much rigid to accommodate different business needs. It kind of assumes self service and high labor costs which is not a reality in India.

One such example is despite being the biggest single brand retailer they are miserably fumbling with ecommerce. If one gets gati tracking number on time then its fine else you are on your own. Another such business that comes to my mind who were also reluctant on ecommerce due to their model being so focused on physical footfalls is DMart, but even they are making better efforts to embrace internet and digital modes. I ordered few items online. Experience with first order was fine. With second order which was larger one, they did not honor their delivery date. There is no way to track the order and shipment on their site or app. They were absolutely non-apologetic towards this lapse. They finally delivered it after tweeting and making noise on social media but still the over all attitude not customer focused when I compare them with amazon. Behavior of their instore staff is also similar, more than helping their customers it always about how things don't work here. India will be an experience for them like none other. Though this thread is about online experience but I would to mention that their main attraction elsewhere i.e, food turned out to be major dampener in India. Food is forgettable and its not that would bring in footfalls plus due to the harrowing experience of handling and billing of large items more and more people will opt online route. I found whole offline shopping experience at Damro much more humble and customer centric.
Another issue I faced is that despite hefty delivery fee the Gati guys are expecting a tip for large consignment. Their seems to be a disconnect between both the businesses which spoils the over all experience.

[firstdrive]

Ordered a couple of times in last 1 week and the orders were delivered on time, rather one of the order was delivered the very next day(felt like Amazon Prime delivery ). Not sure if it's seamless in Mumbai, I see a lot of people from Bangalore complaining.

A couple of issues I see with their online ordering:

1) You can't see your previous orders once you login with your account. They send an email with order details and images of the items you ordered in a pdf format. Would be much more convenient to revisit my orders on my Ikea login itself.

2) You might see a few items added to your cart which are shown as available, but when you are on final payment link you start getting some error code, that means one of the items in your cart is not available, then beings the trial and error or removing one item at a time to see what all can be ordered.

I've ordered Coffee Mugs, Couple of Chairs, Kids chair, Kids Study Table, gardening tools to name a few things, planning to buy Cupboard and bed sometime in August. The delivery charges are on higher side but then I save on the time and Petrol to travel to Ikea. For things which I am sure of I'll prefer their delivery charges rather than visiting Ikea in this pandemic times.

Overall a I am very satisfied with Ikea Service

[RavSam]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

Sounds reasonable given that they need to ship it from Hyderabad to Bangalore.

Originally Posted by SILVER-ARROW

There is no free shipping. The shipping is calculated on the total weight of your cart.
Below is shipping charge for product worth 79 Rs.

Yes. Thanks Guys! So in order to complete the quota of upto 12Kg I would need to order more to make the shipping cost feel VFM

Kidding. The delivery charges are reasonable. But as a common man I like to 'see free delivery' even if the cost is included in the pricing

[Beerus]

I have used IKEA online once, last year after the first lockdown. I ordered a sit-stand table, paid for standard shipping. The order took time to get delivered, but got delivered at the promised date. So in that regard the online shopping experience was pretty good.

I then assembled the table at home which took 2 hours and was immensely satisfying. The product is of very good quality compared to stuff that is sold in India.

Overall it was a good experience here in Pune. I would totally recommend it to everyone who is looking to get new furniture.

[amalji]

I've been a fan of IKEA for some time now. The physical store experience is unmatched.

The reasons why I like them are

• The amount of R & D they can put into the design of even the simplest of products is unmatched and it shows in even their cheapest products by way of usability, ergonomics and modularity.
• Neutral colours and minimalistic designs which blends well with the home rather than standing out.
• The modularity of their products. The amount of small accessories which can act as add-ons to the basic utility.
• Designed by international quality designers. It shows in most of their products.
• With products made of Stainless steel, plastic or glass, in most cases, IKEA gives very good quality ( except if you need Borosilicate glass in which case, I will recommend Borosil ).

Having said that, there are a few products which I'll stay away from them as well like

• If the product is supposed to take heavy load at high frequency like a bed for example, I'll stay away from them especially if it's made of ply/MDF/HDF. If it's solid wood, I might still go for them. But, the solid wood options are still very limited with IKEA.
• If I live in a place with high humidity, I'll stay away from their MDF/HDF wardrobes as well. For me, a wardrobe should last atleast 15 years and I don't think, IKEA can be that durable. At the same time, if I need a shoe rack, I'll almost always go for an IKEA for the compact and functional designs that they have. Even for Balcony furniture, they have very good simple designs that too made of solid wood.

We have made a few trips to IKEA a few times ( Bangalore to Hyderabad ) and every single time, the Innova was loaded to its brim with IKEA goods.





We consider IKEA as the Decathlon in home products.

Having said all of it, the online experience ( in Bangalore ) has been nothing short of pathetic. It allows me to add things to the cart, allows me to waste my time on it and when I get to the payment stage, it gives an error which asks me to contact the customer care. Customer care promises me to call back in 2 hours. No one calls me back. I again ping them after 4 hours. They tell me to wait for 2 days and then order. I have been trying to order for the last one week and it has never worked. It shows funny error messages each time and IKEA is just proving that its online services are unreliable and cannot be depended up on. We are done wasting our time and have instead gone to Amazon basics as an alternative.