A businessman's home has been left with around £1,500 worth of damage after a handyman fitted shelves in the dark.
Dave Kirk, who is in his 40s, completed on his home in Heswall in August 2022. The LA-style mansion was listed for £1.25m and has 'incredible' views. He told the ECHO the property is "perfect" however, the damage caused after work carried out by a handyman, which he enlisted to fit some shelves via IKEA service Taskrabbit, has been "disruptive" for his family.
He said: "The whole experience was a bit of a shambles. IKEA had the shelves in store in Warrington, but no brackets, so I ordered them online. There was an option to get them fitted so I clicked it."
READ MORE: 'Normal' house hiding bar and golf simulator goes on the market
Dave added said one shelf collapsed hours after being fitted with the screws coming out 'cleanly' and causing minimal damage. However, when the shelves were fixed to the wall a second time and collapsed they left the whole wall needing to be re-plastered. Dave has since had a quote for £1,350 for repairs and a further £225 for repainting.
He told the ECHO the first "warning sign" was when Taskrabbit's handyman - who turned up a day later than expected - didn't lay a dust sheet down and smashed the light bulb when setting up his ladder. Dave added: "He was operating in the dark.
"The second day he came back I actually gave him a sheet to use, but when he moved to another area of the house he didn't take it with him. I'm trying to run a business with all my stuff laid out on the floor because I've got no shelving."
Taskrabbit was founded in the USA in 2008 to match freelance handymen to customers needing help with everyday tasks. IKEA parent company Ingka Group acquired the business in 2017.
Dave attempted to tackle his problem by emailing the chief executive of Taskrabbit and said he failed to find a UK address for the company. The ECHO can confirm Taskrabbit and Dave are now in contact with each other and aiming to get the issue resolved.
A spokesperson for Taskrabbit said "reliability and safety are of the utmost importance". They added: "Taskrabbit’s Happiness Pledge is in place to cover certain damages up to £10,000. Unfortunately, in this case the client did not contact Taskrabbit customer service. We’re grateful to the Liverpool Echo for bringing this issue to our attention, and for connecting us to the client in question.
"We are now able to work to resolve this issue and are in the process of reimbursing the client for the damage caused. It’s clear that this task fell short of the standards we expect, and we apologise unreservedly for this experience."
Dave is hoping to raise awareness of his experience with IKEA and Taskrabbit. He said: "I suspect there's a a trail of other issues across the Wirral . I want to raise awareness for people who might be in the same position as me and need to get their problem fixed. This could be older people who don't have a great deal of money. I also want IKEA to take responsibility.
"There's a lot of people put off by flatpack furniture, but if your company is saying we can put it together for you, it's part of their strategy for buiness growth. And it's causing chaos. In my business, if I had a customer with a problem I'd jump all over it to make sure they're happy."
An IKEA spokesperson said: "We naturally want all our customers to be happy with the service they receive - when things do go wrong it is important that we try and get them right. As we do not have the details of the customer or the complaint, we are unable to investigate and therefore comment on this matter."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
Teen walked free from court for bottling ex then shot 15-year-old a month later
Cabbies helped snare taxi rapist in biggest manhunt in Merseyside history
Pregnant women living among cockroaches as Liverpool hits crisis point
City centre restaurant manager caught with £60,000 cannabis farm in his loft
