An Ikea customer has complained about her experience of buying a fitted kitchen from the Bristol store, claiming the model she chose was "inadequate" and "dangerous".
Vania, who did not want to give her surname, responded to the recent court battle between Stewart and Bridget Wilsdon - who sued the retail giant over the poor fitting of their kitchen.
Vania has said she has been going through a similar experience lasting nearly three and a half years, Gloucestershire Live reports. She claimed the kitchen she chose from Ikea's Eastville store was "inadequate" and had been "fitted dangerously" by a now-defunct fitter.
READ MORE: Couple successfully sue IKEA after buying kitchen from Eastville store
According to Vania, Ikea's approved fitter at the time - also the ones who fitted the Wilsdons' kitchen - left Vania's oven with the ability to slide right out of its slot. She also listed other issues, such as her kitchen counter top not being sealed properly, meaning moisture had seeped in and created a bubble effect, as well as two electrical sockets in the wrong positions.
She said: "Ikea's Kungsbacka kitchen model has a sleek black matt finish but mine looks like it's been used for years. It looks stained now and it is absolutely impossible to clean. I have no kids or pets and I cook infrequently. It looked great in the showroom but I don't think it's fit for purpose. The units haven't been aligned properly."
Vania said she had battled Ikea since the kitchen was installed in September 2018 but found the company to be very unhelpful and also said it wasn't willing to send someone out to inspect the kitchen. She did receive emails from Ikea every few weeks, but she said these emails failed to give her a timescale as to when the problem might be fixed.
The 41-year-old added: "Covid was used as an excuse for the delays but the issue started before that. There was no timeline, no plans."
According to Vania, the closest Ikea ever came to offering her a possible solution was when she was told she could get another fitter in to correct the problems and Ikea would pay for the work. But she said she had no faith in Ikea when it came to the company paying her the money if she were to go ahead with the work and she felt it was Ikea's responsibility to fix the problem, so she rejected the idea.
She, instead, pointed out that Ikea offered a five-year craftmanship guarantee for installed kitchens. Like the Wilsdons, she said she had trouble communicating with Ikea and said she was refused a direct or alternative email address or telephone number when she asked for one.
'Mental impact'
She said: "They were effectively blocking me from speaking to those I needed to, including Ikea's head of kitchen installations and the legal team, on GDPR grounds which is ludicrous.
"Ultimately, I'm prepared to go to court if necessary and especially if Ikea do not agree to a reasonable cash compensation figure. Ikea have been terrible.
"Every time I get another holding email from them, the anger and frustration overwhelms me. It has had a mental impact on me and I now wish I had never opted for an Ikea kitchen or its fitting service.
"The lack of care, understanding and action has been absolutely astonishing and my view is that Ikea hopes that some of the disgruntled customers will just quit trying. I have refused to. I also feel they tried to absolve themselves of any responsibility which I don't think is right."
She added that, upon reading about the Wilsdons' court battle, she felt it was at least good to know that she wasn't alone in her conflict with Ikea and that her journey had been very similar.
Ikea's response
A spokesperson for Ikea told Gloucestershire Live: "We apologise unreservedly for the significant inconvenience caused to Vania and acknowledge her complaint shouldn't have taken this long to be adequately addressed.
"We have now reached out with a view to arranging an inspection by Ikea Kitchen Services and resolving this as a matter of urgency."
ALSO READ: Anti-vaxxers hold protest outside Bristol Ikea
READ NEXT: Every Wetherspoon pub in Bristol ranked from best to worst
Get the best stories about the things you love most curated by us and delivered to your inbox every day. Choose what you love here.
