Michel Starker

Review of IKEA Portland

I just read through the comments section. Ikea is...

I just read through the comments section. Ikea is not the place where you get wine served to you while beautiful models walk around with the latest fashions and an attendant is ready to wipe the excess wine from your lips with a silk napkin when you are sloppy. It is a place, like every place you buy anything, where you must be aware of what is being rung up. It is too easy for a careful cashier to get two hits from a single bar code and their ears have been hearing the audibles for ring-ups for so long they most likely are immune to hearing it any longer.

Ikea is a place which has a central phone service desk that handles calls for the entire country. This would be bulletproof if everything in the computerized inventory of each store they have access to was correct, but garbage in garbage out.

We are a military family and have dealt with many Ikeas around the world. The only reason we got assigned here is because Fort Polk Louisiana was full. The idea of knock down furniture for frequent reassignments is very appealing combined with knowing a nearly identical store will be nearby at the new location. Being so mobile also gives us the chance to see the quality of the local work force in each area we have lived and not just by gauging the Ikea workers, but the overall attitude toward customer service in restaurants, and small shops we all visit at one time or another. I read a comment here which stated something like "the excellent customer service Portland is famous for". I was glad I was not drinking anything which could stain. Portlandia residents may think they are famous for excellent service, but they are legends in their own minds. Unless you are dealing with a business that is family run, it is a crap shoot on customer care. Often, the first line management is not trained in customer service and got promoted because they had been there the longest when the last manager got fired or quit, and sometimes they might get promoted.

Ikea is what it is and must be rated on the quality of the products as it is really a self service store. If you cannot find the aisle and bin number for what you want and cannot manage to intervene if a product is rung up twice, cannot get the items in to what ever you drove there and cannot follow the easy to follow directions on assembling the items, then don't shop there for anything more than meatballs and chocolate bars.

If you buy anything made of cloth, just like anywhere else, you need to wash it before using it. Many things with a lot of foam rubber like sofas and mattresses will give off that chemical smell for a while and generally will lose their softness rather quickly. Nothing like a sofa with what seems like a hole in it where you usually sit.

I tend to stick to wood or wood like items. Google "Ikea Hacks" and get a lot of good ideas for blending two or more items to end up with something altogether different. The lowest level stuff with drawers or anything movable are worth stepping up to the next level to get the usually stout hardware to make it all operate as you would expect.

I find the "as is" department a real boon to shopping there. You will find odd items orphaned shelves or complete assembled pieces which were floor models where you will find some have been nearly trashed and others look untouched. The prices in the "As Is" can be remarkably reasonable.

Some of the stuff is just crap, so caveat emptor.

Read the comments and find the trends of the frustrations and then be sure you never fall into those holes. And we all know there is a certain portion of the population who are just whiners and will make a federal case out of a missing screw. They are easy to pick out, so just don't read them. They are most likely professional activists and all they know is how to complain in the most irritating manner possible.