Ben H.

I booked an IKEA delivery and assembly service in London. The original quote was £150 pounds in excess of other quotes I got. However the company looked more professional and I decided to ask for a £30 discount and eventually appointed the company. I also paid the company upfront for all IKEA items worth in total £2611.
Some items worth £822 in total were not available upon pick up at IKEA and consequently not delivered nor assembled.
I have repeatedly asked the company to provide me with a copy of the IKEA receipt to check myself which items had not been collected. The company kept evading my query for a couple of days.
When I finally got the receipt I realized one small and cheap item was missing which forced me to spend 3 hours to go back to IKEA by public transport. I found myself that this item was missing simply reading the receipt which the Company did not mention to me.
I later realized that one drawer was not operating correctly despite the Company not mentioning it to me when doing the assembly job which they could not have possibly missed.

The company committed in writing to refund me on the next day and before xmas for the items that could not be collected. 17 days later the refund was still not done (although it is to be acknowledged that xmas break was in between). The Company invoked personal reasons for not actioning the refund (sic) but did not let me know initially.
I repeatedly enquired in writing and through phone calls about the status of the refund but could not get the company reply to me although my emails were read and partially answered. I was eventually told the refund had been actioned and would take a few days.
Despite me having pointed out in writing exactly which items were missing, I had to spend half an hour arguing about items that I had paid for and that were not picked up which I found very unpleasant. This is shocking given that the IKEA receipt was clearly showing what amount had been spent indeed at IKEA by the Company.
It turned out eventually that the Company had not actioned any refund at this point in time and that their claim it had been done and that it would take a few days was untrue.

I finally asked the Company not to be liable for the assembly cost for the items that were indeed not assembled which is totally fair. The Company declined to do this and keep arguing I was liable to pay £440 as originally quoted for labor that did not occur. (In contrast other companies have quoted around £300 for all the assembly job.)
I found this argument very unpleasant and felt fooled by repeated attempts to make me believe the refund was underway. I spent hours writing emails, checking receipts, leaving voicemails and chasing the Company.

I was originally happy to pay extra to get a good service with a team I could trust and rely upon. I now believe this was a mistake.
I went since through another company to pick up and deliver the missing items which they have done to my satisfaction for a fraction of the price (30% cheaper). I was due a refund which they actioned straight away without me having to argue endlessly.
How would I rate my experience? Poor. I felt I have been cheated and overcharged for a substandard service.