Screwed by IKEA

IKEA sucks, IKEA sucks, IKEA sucks.

My new Fusion table and chair set is missing a screw. I though, no big deal, I'll just call and they'll send me a new one. After all, it's just a screw, not an entire piece of furniture.

Problem is that IKEA won't do anything unless I have the original customer receipt. I paid by credit card, but they can't do a credit-card lookup. They told me over the phone that if I drove all the effing way to Frisco I could maybe get a replacement ordered, but they wouldn't bet on it.
So I hung up and dug through my purse, and actually found the receipt, and called back. They took my information, and said they would have a case worker call me back.

What the fuck!!!??? I have to have a callback on a screw??

I don't give out my phone number, and when I told the representative she said she couldn't help me without a phone number. I reluctantly asked what their privacy policy is, but the representative couldn't even answer the question.

If this circus continues I'll call the credit card company and stop payment. I think *that* gesture can serve as a sales receipt, don't you agree?

I like IKEA's products and prices, but I'm never buying another thing from IKEA. Too much fucking hassle for a freaking five-cent screw.

Cleans Up Good

So much for a relaxing Thanksgiving. The day itself was a huge rush of activity from start to finish, so I spent Friday recovering in bed. Then I spent Saturday frenetically shopping. And today I've been recovering from all the shopping, in hopes of being somewhat able to function at work tomorrow.

The Easy-Bake party went well. The kids enjoyed every second of it. Thanksgiving itself was fun, even if we did have technical issues that muddled some of our plans. I think my sisters and I needed this -- a Thanksgiving so laid back that everyone started eating while I was making a quick trip to Wal-Mart. I loved how informal everything was, and how no one stressed anything.

Saturday started off at Fair Park, looking through their usual overcrowded antique show. I bought my iPod, and that kept me from going into shopping withdrawal quite as quickly. I was looking for a chair for my bedroom, and I noticed a nice white vinyl mid-century chair in a booth on the very first row, but I didn't even ask about it. Didn't really want white, and I thought maybe I could do better. Later, after I had crawled the entire show and came up empty-handed, I went back to the booth and took a second look. It was a Milo Braughman chair, and while I recognized the designer's name I couldn't pair it with any particular design. It was a little dirty, and possibly discolored, but the price was right -- $60 -- so I bought it.

At the end of a very long day Dad carried the chair into my house and dropped it on the living room floor. Mom and I both exclaimed "Ooooooo!" That Cinderella chair just needed the right environment to really shine. Wow. It looks fantastic in my living room. A little Tilex cleaned up the vinyl, and this lovely beauty is now sitting pretty in the corner, decorated with a bright green cushion.

My ultra-comfortable brown chair is now in my bedroom, where it will stay until I upgrade to something else.

I am laughing about one aspect -- this chair, upholstered in poor-white-trash vinyl, makes the rest of my furniture look cheap. Of course I know vinyl was really the thing at the time, and it didn't really get its cheap rap until the late 60s, but still . . . vinyl? A sophisticated vinyl chair?

Also talked Mom and Dad into going to Ikea. I love that store, but it's super-exhausting. Mom has never made it through the entire sales floor. She always gives out after the children's section.

I spent about two hours on the showroom floor, and then spent additional time in the "marketplace" area. I really over-spent, but I know it would be at least another year before I could get anyone with a truck to go through this experience, and I fully intended to take advantage of the truck!

I walked out with

• Table and chairs for the breakfast room (finally!!!!)
• Six different light fixtures
• A set of orange curtains
• A pair of turquoise blue funnels

And a considerably lighter debit card.

I'm going to hopefully put the table and chairs together tomorrow. I just didn't have enough strength today.

I'm throwing a small dinner party/meeting for my adjuncts after finals so we can talk about what happened this semester with the new curriculum. This will force me to clean house for the next two weeks, something that needs to be done, but which happily won't be the cleaning endurance race my last party was.

My weekend goal was to clean the living room, but that didn't happen. I'm settling for finding a permanent location to store my Easy-Bake stuff. And to maybe start moving R's stuff off the top of my bookcases. Maybe. After all, it's 10:25 now, and I still have to go to the grocery store.