Ikea’s shipping prices are insane!
August 30, 2007
And their web interface is terrible. I’m surprised such a massive operation doesn’t spend more time on their online ordering system. Maybe they are trying to discourage online ordering?
For my birthday (which was earlier this month) Elf suggested we get some bookcases. I looked around and decided I wanted the five-shelf “Billy” model from Ikea — lots of space, good reputation, pretty cheap. $160 for two of them.
Well, first the ordering process is wonky and buggy as all getout. And then the order has to be reviewed by a human before you get the shipping costs. So you place an order, wait a couple of days for the shipping costs, then provide payment information.
To ship two Billy bookcases here to Blacksburg? $128, or 80% of the purchase price.
I don’t think we’ll be doing much shopping at Ikea.
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August 30th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Where are they shipping them from? Direct from Sweden? Is the president of the company hand-delivering them, accompanied by a brass band? That is just ridiculous.
Happy belated birthday, though.
August 30th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Yea, I don’t think their business model is based on catalog/delivery sales.And yeah, their site is horrible. WTF?!Happy belated birthday!
August 30th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Geez. Just come visit us and we’ll go to the actual store. You can put the stuff in your car and deliver it to yourself. For only the price of gas, which should still be cheaper than that shipping charge.
August 30th, 2007 at 11:50 am
It’s because they don’t actually ship. They use a “local delivery service” for all their shipping. That means they hire a delivery service to deliver the product to you from the closest store. It’s like hiring a moving company to shop for you.
Ikea is really about go there and get it yourself. They’re really not set up for catalog shopping. What I wish they would do is allow you to shop online and pick it up at a local store, all nice and ready to go.
August 30th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I can sort of see that, Kim, but if they’re not really going to ship reasonably to you, then they ought not even bother with this charade. And the “local” Ikea is now six to seven hours drive, so…
I still find it amazing that one of the biggest companies in the world seems uninterested in getting this right — even if getting this right just means saying “no, we don’t do online ordering.”
August 30th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
Oh, I totally agree with you that they shouldn’t even bother. It’s like someone told them they should have e-commerce and they went ahead and did it, but they didn’t really want to and just stuck their local deilvery service option online with a bad Web site. It’s definitely ridiculous and they should just have done with it.
I’m just saying that that’s why the shipping fees are so high, because they basically hire a moving company type service to do their deliveries. It’s the same thing you would get if you purchased in the store but had too small a car to get the things home yourself. Which is what Scott and I did when we bought our Bondi entertainment center, but since it was only Queens to the Bronx, our delivery charge was $99 for as many items as we purchased, which was quite a lot.
At the very least, the site should let you know up front that they’re going to hit you hard for delivery charges if you live further than an hour or so from the nearest store.
August 30th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I’m a huge IKEA fan (you’ll notice a posting or two about them on my site) — but the online site isn’t comparable to their stores. The closest option for you I believe is Woodbridge — which is a real hike and then some. You could spend a weekend in the DC area and pick up some pieces en route (not sure what sort of vehicle you have — but we’ve put down the chairs in our car and let the rest go into the folded down trunk). The thing about much of IKEA furniture though — it isn’t built to be constantly dismantled…but you might check craigslist to see if any V-Tech students are selling theirs.
(FWIW, just about everything in my apartment is IKEA.)
September 4th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
I don’t even bother to look anymore. There isn’t even a store close to me in Maine. It just makes me sad. When I was visiting some friends in England last year, they had some really lovely stuff in their home from IKEA that I wanted when I bought my new home here, but clearly it was all a horrid hoax by God. And there’s nothing at all trendy around here. Everything is cottage-this or lighthouse-that.
September 9th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
I sympathize with you. But going to the store is frustrating too. We have been 2x now to get a certain crib for them only to be out of stock. They get them in, then they go back out of stock 2-3 days later. Going on a weekend is not an option b/c of the insanity. But by Monday they are sold out.
I figured, I’ll order the crib online. The cost to ship it was 125$ for a $99 crib. INSANE!!!!! And the cost to ship a little chair cover (i had one already it weighs about 1 lb) is $20.
So… I can’t get it in the store and I can’t get it online. The problem is we already bought the rest of his furniture from there, and i love it and now i want the matching crib dang it!!
I know they are not shipping from the store because I called my store (it’s about 30 mins away) and they don’t have it in. Sucks.
I guess i will go back to checking stock everyday and driving down the minute it says ‘in stock’.
If you really need anything from Ikea, start your project way early! I will never be ordering anything online from them!
January 29th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
those Swedish bastards. What I can’t understand about this whole situation is that the company friggin’ invented mail-order furniture shopping (seriously). That is also (supposedly) the reason why they were so bent on the ‘efficiency’ of selling “some-assembly required” furniture — because it was vastly more cost effective to ship flat-pack items than it is to be shipping “air”.
It just doesn’t make any sense. Maybe they will add a “delivery by carrier pigeon” option next.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
This is so funny and true !!!! I just ordered online for $139 and my shipping cost are $187 ,, lolllllll They must be joking….. I agree with the lady from Maine,, nothing trendy here….Very hard to keep up with shipping cost like that !!!