Online shopping is a helpful and efficient way to get the items you need without having to spend any time in the store. However, it can be stressful trying to do this with items from IKEA.
IKEA bases its initial delivery information on estimates, so it can be worrisome not knowing exactly when your item will come. Read on to learn more about what you can expect the delivery process to be like.
IKEA is notoriously bad at meeting estimated delivery dates. An average wait is one month, but some deliveries are put off for months, and others are delayed indefinitely. In addition to substantial delays, customers report poor communication from IKEA and bad customer service.
How Long Does IKEA Say Deliveries Will Take?
The average estimated delivery date that people receive from IKEA is about a month after purchase. However, this is only the average and some people receive their items sooner or later than this.
The delivery date that customers are given seems a bit random from person to person, but some factors that could affect this are the type of items you purchase, if they are in stock, and your location.
In addition, there doesn’t seem to be a difference in how smooth the delivery experience goes when selecting your items in-store versus online.
Some reasons customers have given for deliveries not arriving at the arrival date include the item not moving through the preparation steps timeously or the item being discontinued after purchase and delivery arrangement.
In many situations, there seems to be no clear reason for delay at all.
Your Delivery Might Go Smoothly
Although there are many horror stories from customers regarding the success of their IKEA deliveries, it’s still possible for the delivery to go well.
The IKEA delivery process starts by giving the customer a reasonable delivery date for the items. After that, you will receive updates as your order moves through the delivery stages.
As the customer, you are able to track your item through these stages and see when the items get to each step in the process.
Once the item is ready for delivery, you will get a notice of the actual delivery date IKEA has planned as well as a phone call the day before or the day of the delivery.
Alternatively, you may receive a notification that your delivery date has been pushed back to a later date. This scenario would still be good, as you are being kept up-to-date.
Can An IKEA Delivery Come Early?
While orders will sometimes come in early from online retailers, it isn’t likely that your IKEA order will arrive early.
After looking through several reports from customers on how their delivery experience went, it seems that it is far more likely for your order to come late than early.
Most often, customers report that their delivery either came right on time, shortly after the estimated date, or was rescheduled for a much later date.
It makes sense for this to be true, as IKEA deliveries (especially furniture) are probably a bit harder to fulfill ahead of schedule than your typical items ordered online.
In addition, there are several steps in the IKEA delivery process that all require their own set of steps and minimum time required to complete them.
The checkpoints IKEA delivery follows are:
- Preparing the order.
- Picking the order.
- Preparing the delivery.
- On its way.
- Delivered.
In the event that your order is processed faster than another order, it’s still unlikely that your item will get to you early.
This is because IKEA will focus its efforts on delivering other people’s packages on time rather than trying to get your order to you early.
Delays Are a Regular Occurrence
Unfortunately, if you do choose to have something from IKEA delivered, there is a good chance your delivery will be delayed.
In addition, IKEA will sometimes delay your delivery date without giving you a warning or a reason why this is happening.
If you’re lucky, you may be notified that your delivery date has changed or have the ability to see the new status in the online tracking system.
Two weeks seems to be the most commonly reported delay time. However, there are others who have waited months, whether it be two months or up to six months! In such cases, you should definitely request compensation.
Communication and Customer Service Are Often Poor
Deliveries from IKEA can be tracked online on their website. To do this, you simply must enter your order number and the email or phone number you associated with the purchase into the search bar.
From there, your order should show up and display one of the tracking statuses in the delivery process.
If your delivery date were to be delayed, this is also the point at which that notification would show up for your items.
Oftentimes, if the delivery date is changed there is little to no communication regarding why it is happening, or that it is happening in the first place. You will literally only know if you go onto the tracking app to check.
In addition, IKEA doesn’t have a great track record for customer service in response to delivery delays and issues.
Customers typically have a hard time getting information when they call or email to find out what’s wrong and get new updates on their orders.
Some Deliveries Are Delayed Indefinitely
There have been cases where someone has arranged for their order to be delivered, and the delivery date never arrived.
When the planned delivery date comes and goes, contacting IKEA reveals that the delivery has been placed on permanent delay—essentially canceled—because the item is no longer available.
This is obviously beyond frustrating, but how does it happen?
When you order something online from IKEA, the order is processed and filled at an IKEA warehouse, not from an IKEA store.
This is especially important to keep in mind if you order an item online after seeing it in-store as the warehouse may not have the item from the IKEA store in stock.
In addition, the IKEA website has a history of being wrong and not always kept up-to-date, so it may say the particular item is in stock and allow you to order it when the item really isn’t available.
For these reasons, your delivery date for your purchase may end up being delayed indefinitely because they’ll be waiting for the item to become available or for the customer to cancel it.
Go in-Store if Possible
The best advice I can give is to just purchase your items at a physical store location if it’s possible for you. There are enough horror stories out there to suggest that ordering online isn’t the most reliable way.
If getting the item home in your vehicle isn’t possible, you can always invest a little money into renting a trailer to haul it home.
Overall, you have a much better chance of having a good experience with IKEA if you pick out your items in-store and get them home yourself.
It is still better to have IKEA deliver an item that you picked out in-store because at least you will be able to know right away if the item is in stock or not.
Tips if You Have to Use Delivery
If you are able to go to a physical IKEA store and pick out your items in person, then do so and have them delivered from the store. This is a much better alternative to buying online and having them delivered.
However, if you absolutely need to use online shopping and delivery, there are some things you can do to be proactive about the delivery process and be prepared for problems that may arise.
For starters, I wouldn’t recommend buying anything online from IKEA that you need to be delivered by a certain date. As I said, there are countless stories of IKEA deliveries being delayed for extended periods.
In addition, order your items with the understanding that things may go wrong and your items may experience delays and setbacks.
After ordering your items, make sure you regularly check the tracking status to make sure you are aware of any changes that are made to your order or delivery date.
In case something goes wrong, it’s a good idea to keep your purchase confirmation, order information, tracking number, and any other information that could be useful in the event of returns or mishaps, like the name of the person who helped you.
It’s also a good idea to have IKEA’s contact information handy so that you know who to reach out to if an issue does arise.
Sources
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/customer-service/track-manage-order/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IKEA/comments/g3tp08/have_delivery_dates_been_accurate_for_you/
https://www.reddit.com/r/IKEA/comments/g8uwfw/online_orders_delivery_delays/