Buying Our Kitchen Part II -or- That Time I Threw A Grown Up Temper Tantrum

So, when we spent the big day at Ikea, we purchased a substantial amount of kitchen items.  We left with a small list of items on "backorder".  One cabinet box, a few fasteners, odds and ends...and the farmhouse sink.

In my state of Ikea fatigue, I thought I could call my friendly College Park store a few days later, see if the items were available yet, add them to my order and have them shipped along.  NBD.  I called a few days after our epic trip.  It was about 8pm on a really awesome work day (you know, the kind where you are too busy to go pee).  The person on the phone informed me that most of the items I needed had been restocked (excuse me, most?) but they couldn't add them to my shipment, nor could they ship them at all (still baffled by this), nor could they hold them for me to pick up later.  My best bet was to head to the store rightthissecond, pick them up, then try again in a few days for the rest.

Okay.  At this point, we hadn't bought our car yet, so this was a less than ideal situation.  Ikea is far away.  Going out there for the first order was a BFD.  We were only able to get there because Henry was in town with his car.  I was tired, cranky, hungry and needed to pee.  So I acted friendly and confused and a little passive aggressive to the person on the phone.  It didn't help.  The sales person was firm - she couldn't add it to my shipment or hold it until the weekend, when I could secure a rental car with more warning.  So I bitched and whined.  No help.  Then I remembered I was at work, surrounded by my hungry, cranky, tired, full-blattered team, and hung up defeated.  I would just try again another day and everything would be fine.

Fast forward a couple weeks.  Getting these back ordered items has been no small feat.  Henry ended up getting most of them for us at he New Haven store (you know, since we couldn't add to our shipment).  We are still missing a couple things we will have to figure out later.

And the farmhouse sink...is back ordered until at least September.  And there is no sort of wait list of anything.  My online research tells me it is available in South America, but that would be a very expensive Uber.  So, the thing I was most excited about will have to hold the dishes of another budget minded thirty-something.

Lessons Learned

• Ikea is a great deal, but their ordering process makes you work for that savings.
• If you have one must have, can't live without item, make sure you confirm it's actually available for purchase.
• Cars are helpful things to have.