Ikea Sektion Remodel Part 2 - Planning, Ordering and Delivery

The following is a multi part post of the mostly DIY remodel of our kitchen with the newer Ikea Sektion cabinet system.

The Ikea 3D Kitchen Planner allows customers to input their kitchen dimensions and design their own Ikea kitchen, complete with 2D & 3D plans.  It's a nifty and infuriating program that sucked up days, DAYS I tell you, of my life. The process would have been greatly improved if IKEA would make the program downloadable so it would not crash all the time, but it does work seamlessly with their ordering system, which is great. I also spent hours and hours on the phone with Ikea Kitchen Specialists discussing details of how to make things work. The specialists I spoke with were very knowledgeable, enjoyed working their jobs and had often been working at IKEA for 10 years or more. However, typical hold time for the kitchen department was 30 minutes to 1 hour. As a whole the design process was slow, but it was free and I could do it myself, which is just my style.

When I finally had a plan I was happy with, I sent it around town to price it out with other cabinet suppliers. Home Depot KraftMaid cabinets (which were on sale for 15% off) and a local semi-custom supplier came back with base prices of $14,000 and $10,000, respectively, for composite boxes and painted wood doors. Soft close doors, drawers instead of cabinets, lights, ect. would all be extra. For comparison, I went ahead and decked out my IKEA kitchen with tons of drawers, drawers inside of drawers, and lots of lights, lights in every drawer, lights in the cabinets and on the counter top. There were soft close drawers, push to open doors, drawer organizers, pull out pantry drawers, glass front cabinets and a farm front sink. So what would these dreamy cabinets cost? $7000 plus shipping. Oh and did I mention, IKEA typically has a 20% off kitchen sale twice a year?

And so, I waited for the sale. In March, the 3 month sale was announced and I scheduled a weekend trip to my closest Ikea, 4.5 hours away outside of Dallas.  I wanted to see and touch the cabinets in person, I had a list of features I wanted to try, measurements I wanted to take and I still had to convince Mr.Underfoot. I had found lots of information online regarding minimum clearances between the island and an opening cabinet, how much overhang is needed with a counter height bar and how many bar stools will comfortably fit at a bar, but I wanted to know how it would feel in real life.

 

The IKEA store experience is unique. It is enchanting and exhausting and a the number one cause for marital counseling (Google it). The store is a series of staged rooms with price tags on EVERYTHING. Each item also has a location tag that tells where the customer can find it for purchase (mostly at the end of the store or for larger items, in the warehouse). Maps are passed out upon entry and arrows on the floor mark the flow of traffic. Following the arrows takes customers through every department, to the restaurant & bathrooms then on to the warehouse and check out. There is even an area where customers can check their kids into a play area while they shop. FYI, there is no cell reception, which I discovered when I got abandoned (I mean separated) from my party and was unable to meet up with them until we were in the warehouse. 

After our IKEA trip I spent a few more hours reviewing the order with IKEA on the phone, as they added items that the kitchen planning tool overlooked (like the correct number of transformers for the lights and a remote control for the counter top lights). And finally the order was ready. However, due to high response to the sale and the new kitchen cabinet system, $1000 worth of the stock we needed was back ordered. I had time though, I could wait, but that's not how IKEA works. They cannot hold stock. If I waited to ship until the back ordered items came in-stock, then the previously in-stock items might then be out-of-stock, leaving me in a perpetual out of stock status. Furthermore, I was originally told that the minimum delivery charge for our area was $349 which is steep for an $80 bookshelf, but for my order size and given that it would cost me about as much to travel there and back with a night in a hotel, it was a doable amount. Upon further discussion I found that, due to the size of my order, it would have to be split into two shipments...with 2 delivery charges. Ugh! Now for the good news, since there was not an Ikea in Arkansas, there would be no sales tax, so shipping vs tax was basically a wash.  I went ahead and placed the order for $6000 of stock on March 22nd with a delivery estimate of April 13th. We received good communications from IKEA letting us know the status of our shipment until it was turned over to the 3rd party freight delivery service and then it was radio silence until they called on March 31st to tell me they'd be dropping it off the next day. I briefly wondered how people with less flexible schedules than mine deal with such short notice, but perhaps they don't do insane things like DIY remodel their kitchen. The order arrived on 6 pallets, one of which had to be disassembled to get it off the truck. 

IKEA cabinets come flat packed, which means all the cabinet boxes have to be assembled. I spent the next 2 days confirming that all 296 boxes were there. They weren't. A few of the boxes were damaged and one was completely broken open. I was missing the door dampers, some hinges, a door handle, and a light. Other than the hour long wait on hold, the replacement process was relatively painless. The delivery service came back to pick up the damaged items and brought the correct/replacement items in a couple weeks.

 

I was very impressed with IKEA's packaging, the boxes had honeycomb cardboard at their edges so that even boxes where the corners were completely collapsed, had contents that were typically undamaged.

In regards to the back order, IKEA said they'd contact me when it was in, but I still called them every week since we'd become such good friends and all. Kitchen Specialists gave me the unofficial DL on product that was produced but still in transit from Europe and what have you. Every week after March 22nd I called, waited 30min-1hr on hold to hear the same thing, part of the order was still out of stock, but I could take delivery of the current items if I'd like.
And then, I got this email:

 "Hello, 

The backorder you had with us has now expired. If you are interested in renewing your backorder please call our home shopping department at 800-434-4532. We do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you.

IKEA Direct Backorder Department"

I called IKEA and they were confused. They said orders don't expire for 90 days. And they confirmed that my backorder was still active. In fact, if I'd like to take delivery, it was only missing a few door fronts and finish pieces which could be shipped via FedEx for about $90 when they came in stock. I did it, I placed the order on May 22nd and got a delivery date of June 16th. When the order arrived, I was finally ready to start demo.

Although it is out of order in the time line, here's what happened with the rest of the backorder:

In early August I got an email saying my backorder was canceled. I called IKEA to discuss the obvious misunderstanding. But it was true, I'd somehow missed the email that stated I had 24 hours to pay or the order would be canceled. OK, fine, but the items were in stock now right? Well, no, they're not. Some of my order was now out of stock and to make matters worse, I was at the bottom of the wait list. Through tears I begged, Was there anything they could do? After consulting with management, they would hold the stock of the 2 items they currently had and confer with other distribution centers around the US to see if the items I needed were available, and if so, ship them to my distribution center and then call me to schedule payment. And so, about 2 weeks later, I had all of our IKEA order.


To follow the remodel journey, be sure to check out: Part 1: Before and After, Part 3: Demolition, and Part 4: Features.