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Wherein nothing goes right
So when I left you on Monday, we were waiting to hear back from IKEA within 24-48 hours from Sunday morning. Well, Tuesday came and went, and that evening, while Shamus was finishing up with making dinner, I called them to find out what was happening. First off, turns out that the person that Shamus was talking to on Sunday had recited the reference number wrong, so the poor girl on the other side of the country (she was in Eastern Time) had to take about 8 minutes to track down my case. She gave me the correct number, and then, after trying to figure out what was going on, she transferred me to the actual East Palo Alto store since it seemed that the case had been sent there. She had originally told me that SHE was going to call them, so I was a bit shocked to find myself talking to someone there and explaining what was happening, especially when I was told "well, I'm not in front of a computer now. I'll have to see what's going on when I get downstairs. I probably have an availability Wednesday evening between 5 and 9, but we may not even have the item in stock" I responded that as soon as possible was great, and I just needed to know when to be home. She confirmed that she'd call me back in about an hour, and that I should expect a "drop pick" for it, which meant that they would take our old couch, and just give us a brand new one.
Yeah.. no phone call...
So during all of this, my cat Sprite is running out of food. Smudge is eating it too, though he's no trouble, since he'll eat anything he can get at without stomach upset. Sprite is a delicate flower, and she eats a hypoallergenic food or else she vomits all over the house multiple times a week. It's lovely, really. When we arrived in California, we were unprepared with her food, and we ended up switching her quickly to another hypoallergenic food by the same company, this one made of green peas and venison, rather than the duck based food she had been eating before. Well, this stuff is just excellent for her. She has not had an allergy related upset since we started feeding it to her, so that's wonderful! Not so wonderful is the fact that the brand is not exceptionally popular here in California, so I ended up calling no less than twelve veterinary hospitals, plus the Royal Canin customer service line to figure out what Smudge should be eating as well. Finally I found a place on Wednesday morning (with about 1.5 feedings left in the old bag of food) that had the venison food, and offered to quick order the food for Smudge's weight loss possibly arriving as soon as next day. Only trouble was that they were about 5.5 miles away. Didn't matter much to me, honestly, that's close to what Shamus and do for our weekend bike rides, so away I went and gleefully picked up the food. Seriously, before this person told me they had the food, I had tears coming to my eyes about trying to figure out how to feed my delicate kitty. Problem solved, though my knees are sore from my bike seat being too low.
So I got back from the bike ride near 1 or so, and sat down and called IKEA to find out what was happening with my couch. Again, the guy answering the phone was helpful, but he said that the case had been padlocked by a supervisor, which meant that they were in there now and currently working on it, and I should receive a call within 2 hours, or else I should call back. I went about my afternoon, and two and a half hours later, around 3:30, I called IKEA. Still padlocked. Again, helpful, friendly customer service, trying to assure me that I wasn't just being given the run around, since they needed to have everything ready and organized on their end before they could call me, and I would hear from them soon.
Cue gnashing of teeth.
Through all of this, I was keeping Shamus updated, and we assumed at this point that there would be no couch delivery that evening, so we didn't need to take the covers off the cushions we'd been using on the floor. He got home a little late, and it was hot out, so I suggested that we go out for dinner at this little pseudomall down the road. We were about a block down the road outside of the apartment complex when my phone rang.
"Hi, this is Jamal from IKEA?"
"Yes, hi Jamal."
"We are here with a delivery for Miss Penney?"
"I'm sorry?"
"We are here with a delivery and also a pick up?"
Well, frig. Shamus and I jogged back to the apartment, and threw the cats unceremoniously into the bedroom (poor Smudge was quite startled about the whole ordeal), then I went down to find the deliverymen while Shamus said he'd get the couch ready to go. I went down and apologized to the delivery people, telling them that no one had told us they were going to show up. When I got back upstairs, I was terribly impressed to see a naked couch cushion assortment but for one. Shamus worked very fast. I think they were a little put out when they saw the couch not boxed up at all, but Shamus and I were apologizing, and moving quickly to help and work things out with the pick up, so by the end of the delivery I think they understood what was happening. We ended up dumping the new couch pieces onto the floor and using the new boxes to toss the old couch into, and the delivery driver came up with some packing tape, so we managed to not end up giving them a million pieces of couch.
After they left (and we wished them a relaxing and well organized evening), I looked at Shamus and said "so, I'm thinking ice cream for dinner." He agreed, and released the cats and started to figure out what was happening with the couch while I "made supper" and gave the kitties some treats to make up for their harrowing ordeal. Shamus got the new couch together quite quickly, and we put the covers on again. It is much better than our cushioned seating area was.
We did end up going out for dinner afterwards, at a place called Minerva Cafe. This is an Indian restaurant that has a spectacular lunch crowd, though it is relatively quiet in the evenings. Shamus had some wonderful butter chicken and naan, while I went for the chicken biriyani and reminded myself what a spice-wuss I've become. I ended up with leftovers easily for another whole meal, and even though Shamus and I both had mango lassi with our meals, the bill came out to $22.something. I think the only places we've ever managed that were fast food restaurants, and never with leftovers. Aaaaand, their phone wasn't working for us to pay for the meal by debit. The nice lady was stuck, and said we could come back tomorrow to pay for it.
So Thursday, I went up to get groceries (coming the closest yet to overfilling my pannier bags due to a delicious pastry purchase) and cash (the closest branch of our bank is IN the grocery store we patronize), and at about 5:30 I went down to pay for yesterday, as well as feed myself since Shamus was at his D&D night at work. SO I try the door, and the cook is sitting next to it, saying that they're not open until 6. Well, fine. I had been wanting to try the Jamba Juice smoothies, but hadn't gotten around to it yet, so I killed half an hour down there. I had something mango-y, and sat there examining the menu for future purchases while I waited.
It wasn't quite 6 when I walked back up to Minerva, but their door was open, so I sauntered in like I owned the place. I sat at the same table, only this time facing the tv so I could see this crazy Indian game show that I only vaguely understood while I waited for and ate a second serving of biriyani. I managed to eat even less this time, due to the mango smoothie that was involved in waiting for the place to open, but that made for a nice dinner when Shamus came home extra late on Friday. I paid for both meals, leaving a pretty good tip, and came home.
Nothing really happened on Friday or today. We've been giving our couch adorations, and Smudge love to sleep under the end of the chaise. Sprite prefers the more civilized location of the sitting area, though she does enjoy the armrests as well. We went to the farmers market this morning, coming home with nectarines, plums, cherries and german pastries, and we also popped up to the bike shop a couple blocks from the farmers market to see what they had. Turns out they're a dealer of our brand of bicycles, and they had all manner of frame and floor air pumps. I picked up a pump for our bikes, and we struggled to get it seated properly to take it home, but now we don't have to pay 50 cents to a dollar to use the air pumps at gas stations. Shamus received his DVDs that he ordered form Amazon, and everything else we've ordered is on the way for possible delivery for Monday or Tuesday. I was going to drag Shamus to the yarn store with me, but he didn't go to bed last night until 4:30, and then I went and rooted him out of bed at 8 or so, so he wasn't much in the mood for wool.
Hopefully after all that we won't have much else going wrong. We're annoyed at IKEA for the way they handled this whole fiasco, but our couch is comfy and delightfully red, and we realize that it's only one experience, so we're not going to write them off yet.Still, it would have been nice to have some communication about what was going on through all this, especially since we were still sitting on the floor without a couch until Wednesday evening. Oh well, no use dwelling on it now.
Yeah.. no phone call...
So during all of this, my cat Sprite is running out of food. Smudge is eating it too, though he's no trouble, since he'll eat anything he can get at without stomach upset. Sprite is a delicate flower, and she eats a hypoallergenic food or else she vomits all over the house multiple times a week. It's lovely, really. When we arrived in California, we were unprepared with her food, and we ended up switching her quickly to another hypoallergenic food by the same company, this one made of green peas and venison, rather than the duck based food she had been eating before. Well, this stuff is just excellent for her. She has not had an allergy related upset since we started feeding it to her, so that's wonderful! Not so wonderful is the fact that the brand is not exceptionally popular here in California, so I ended up calling no less than twelve veterinary hospitals, plus the Royal Canin customer service line to figure out what Smudge should be eating as well. Finally I found a place on Wednesday morning (with about 1.5 feedings left in the old bag of food) that had the venison food, and offered to quick order the food for Smudge's weight loss possibly arriving as soon as next day. Only trouble was that they were about 5.5 miles away. Didn't matter much to me, honestly, that's close to what Shamus and do for our weekend bike rides, so away I went and gleefully picked up the food. Seriously, before this person told me they had the food, I had tears coming to my eyes about trying to figure out how to feed my delicate kitty. Problem solved, though my knees are sore from my bike seat being too low.
So I got back from the bike ride near 1 or so, and sat down and called IKEA to find out what was happening with my couch. Again, the guy answering the phone was helpful, but he said that the case had been padlocked by a supervisor, which meant that they were in there now and currently working on it, and I should receive a call within 2 hours, or else I should call back. I went about my afternoon, and two and a half hours later, around 3:30, I called IKEA. Still padlocked. Again, helpful, friendly customer service, trying to assure me that I wasn't just being given the run around, since they needed to have everything ready and organized on their end before they could call me, and I would hear from them soon.
Cue gnashing of teeth.
Through all of this, I was keeping Shamus updated, and we assumed at this point that there would be no couch delivery that evening, so we didn't need to take the covers off the cushions we'd been using on the floor. He got home a little late, and it was hot out, so I suggested that we go out for dinner at this little pseudomall down the road. We were about a block down the road outside of the apartment complex when my phone rang.
"Hi, this is Jamal from IKEA?"
"Yes, hi Jamal."
"We are here with a delivery for Miss Penney?"
"I'm sorry?"
"We are here with a delivery and also a pick up?"
Well, frig. Shamus and I jogged back to the apartment, and threw the cats unceremoniously into the bedroom (poor Smudge was quite startled about the whole ordeal), then I went down to find the deliverymen while Shamus said he'd get the couch ready to go. I went down and apologized to the delivery people, telling them that no one had told us they were going to show up. When I got back upstairs, I was terribly impressed to see a naked couch cushion assortment but for one. Shamus worked very fast. I think they were a little put out when they saw the couch not boxed up at all, but Shamus and I were apologizing, and moving quickly to help and work things out with the pick up, so by the end of the delivery I think they understood what was happening. We ended up dumping the new couch pieces onto the floor and using the new boxes to toss the old couch into, and the delivery driver came up with some packing tape, so we managed to not end up giving them a million pieces of couch.
After they left (and we wished them a relaxing and well organized evening), I looked at Shamus and said "so, I'm thinking ice cream for dinner." He agreed, and released the cats and started to figure out what was happening with the couch while I "made supper" and gave the kitties some treats to make up for their harrowing ordeal. Shamus got the new couch together quite quickly, and we put the covers on again. It is much better than our cushioned seating area was.
We did end up going out for dinner afterwards, at a place called Minerva Cafe. This is an Indian restaurant that has a spectacular lunch crowd, though it is relatively quiet in the evenings. Shamus had some wonderful butter chicken and naan, while I went for the chicken biriyani and reminded myself what a spice-wuss I've become. I ended up with leftovers easily for another whole meal, and even though Shamus and I both had mango lassi with our meals, the bill came out to $22.something. I think the only places we've ever managed that were fast food restaurants, and never with leftovers. Aaaaand, their phone wasn't working for us to pay for the meal by debit. The nice lady was stuck, and said we could come back tomorrow to pay for it.
So Thursday, I went up to get groceries (coming the closest yet to overfilling my pannier bags due to a delicious pastry purchase) and cash (the closest branch of our bank is IN the grocery store we patronize), and at about 5:30 I went down to pay for yesterday, as well as feed myself since Shamus was at his D&D night at work. SO I try the door, and the cook is sitting next to it, saying that they're not open until 6. Well, fine. I had been wanting to try the Jamba Juice smoothies, but hadn't gotten around to it yet, so I killed half an hour down there. I had something mango-y, and sat there examining the menu for future purchases while I waited.
It wasn't quite 6 when I walked back up to Minerva, but their door was open, so I sauntered in like I owned the place. I sat at the same table, only this time facing the tv so I could see this crazy Indian game show that I only vaguely understood while I waited for and ate a second serving of biriyani. I managed to eat even less this time, due to the mango smoothie that was involved in waiting for the place to open, but that made for a nice dinner when Shamus came home extra late on Friday. I paid for both meals, leaving a pretty good tip, and came home.
Nothing really happened on Friday or today. We've been giving our couch adorations, and Smudge love to sleep under the end of the chaise. Sprite prefers the more civilized location of the sitting area, though she does enjoy the armrests as well. We went to the farmers market this morning, coming home with nectarines, plums, cherries and german pastries, and we also popped up to the bike shop a couple blocks from the farmers market to see what they had. Turns out they're a dealer of our brand of bicycles, and they had all manner of frame and floor air pumps. I picked up a pump for our bikes, and we struggled to get it seated properly to take it home, but now we don't have to pay 50 cents to a dollar to use the air pumps at gas stations. Shamus received his DVDs that he ordered form Amazon, and everything else we've ordered is on the way for possible delivery for Monday or Tuesday. I was going to drag Shamus to the yarn store with me, but he didn't go to bed last night until 4:30, and then I went and rooted him out of bed at 8 or so, so he wasn't much in the mood for wool.
Hopefully after all that we won't have much else going wrong. We're annoyed at IKEA for the way they handled this whole fiasco, but our couch is comfy and delightfully red, and we realize that it's only one experience, so we're not going to write them off yet.Still, it would have been nice to have some communication about what was going on through all this, especially since we were still sitting on the floor without a couch until Wednesday evening. Oh well, no use dwelling on it now.