Ikea, You Just About Lost Me

While finishing up Jules' room, I remembered I had a floating shelf that I purchased from Ikea awhile back.

"This will be perfect in his room."

And now that it's up, it is perfect. But it didn't come hassle free.

I purchased the shelf when we were still living in Las Vegas. (Not IN Las Vegas, since there aren't any Ikea stores there.) Obviously, we've moved and I'm pretty sure I threw the receipt away - without even opening the package. Can you see where this is going?

So, fast-forward one year later and I wanted to hang it in my sweet little Jules' room.

Justin informed me that the shelf had a crack on the edge. I would have just gone with it, but it was on the front and very noticeable. I should have known better than to just buy something and not open it at the store. If you've ever been there, they have an area outside the checkouts where you can inspect your items. I think it's even called "Inspection" something. What the...! Seriously, to have an inspection location before you go home screams low quality items. But! I don't learn from my mistakes easily and love Ikea, and I've always just taken my purchases home without inspection. It finally backfired.

We took the shelf back to Ikea without the receipt and they informed that "No, we can't take it back without a receipt. We don't know if you purchased it off ebay or craigslist."

What difference does it make where I purchased it (YOUR STORE!), I just want to exchange it! Non-passive-aggressive Minnesota lady wasn't budging.

So we bought another one, kept the receipt and returned the old one using the new receipt. Trickery, I know. But I haven't bought anything from Ikea on ebay or craigslist.

Other stores don't seem to worry about this problem that apparently happens with Ikea products (I've sold USED items without packaging on craigslist - we still had the box for the shelf). All I'm saying, Ikea, is maybe you should either re-evaluate your products or your return policy - or both. New parents on little sleep don't need to be jacked around.

I know I owe you a picture of his nursery. We finally got his chair yesterday, so I'll be finishing somethings up today and will show it off tomorrow, or the next day, or whenever. But here's a preview including the shelf.