IKEA Happened

I'm ready to cry at the amount of money that's going out this month.  We can find the cash for it, but it's painful.  We've paid for a new window, as the old one was just about keeping out the rain and the new one should reduce our heating bills.  I've put down the deposit on the intensive driving course, which will almost certainly be less than if I paid for one hour a week until I pass, but it's a chunk of money.  Bear's computer has driven DH and I to the brink of distraction as it isn't working, has been failing for years, the whole thing is slower than a hand cranked adding machine and bear does not hide his pain when the game crashes.  So we've paid out for a reconditioned PC from Tesco which should hopefully see bear through High School.  The one he has now is around six years old, and DH suspects that the operating system isn't quite booting up as it should.  And today we had a delivery booked from IKEA from between 11 and 3 for two very necessary bookcases for bear's room and a recliner.

The recliner is really important.  DH likes to sprawl out and prefers to lie down on the sofa in the living room when possible, but everyone is hanging out in the study.  DH does come in and hang out, but sometimes nips out for a lie down on the sofa for a little while before coming back.  The recliner from IKEA, £250 and very comfortable, will allow DH to snooze while hanging out with us.  It's a big deal.  We want to stay together.  I did a lot of furniture shifting and found a tonne of yarn and half finished projects which means I'll be knitting a lot tonight. 

IKEA didn't turn up between 11am and 3pm.  I called their office @ 3.30pm (got through @ 4pm) and eventually found the right combination of buttons to speak to a real person at the right store.  Apparently their truck broke down this morning.  There were delays.  Someone would ring me back.  No-one rung me back.  I tried again at @ 5.30pm.  They were very sorry, they couldn't help me and someone would ring me back.  The delivery men eventually rang to let me know that they were half an hour away at @ 7pm. 

I didn't and don't blame the delivery men.  They had been on the road all day (from 6am, apparently) and had got an earful at every stop as their van broke down early on.  They looked absolutely exhausted but still got the heavy furniture up the steps and in the right rooms, despite some very narrow gaps.  One lad that looked far too young for this said that we were the only ones that had been sympathetic. 

IKEA furniture has always been awesome and I suspect that this lot will be too.  The delivery drivers did their best despite looking ready to drop.  The people in the office seemed very pleasant.  However somewhere in the mix there is an information gap.  The moment the office learned of the van breaking down someone should have sat down with a list of names and rung and explained before any deliveries were missed.  An update every two hours should have been possible - we are in an age of work's mobile phones and 'find my phone' technology.  The stress levels on the office, the drivers and the customers would have been significantly less.  It would have probably taken up less admin time than fielding a series of calls from irritated customers.  It shouldn't be that hard. 

Deep down, I'm good in an office setting.  I was a good legal secretary and a good PA.  It hurts to see basics like this getting missed.  Still, I've found so much that needs sorting while moving furniture around that I suppose I need to sort out my own sins before wringing my hands over other people's omissions.  So I'm off to clear the backlog of knitting projects.  I may be some time.