A “funny” customer journey – and some minor signs IKEA may have problems with some of their IT systems
Three weeks ago, I had an IKEA FAMILY membership card. Now I have three in my hand, and supposedly two more on the way in the mail. How did this happen?
By the way, this is in no way meant to complain towards IKEA. In my view, they have good value products at quality that is really good for the price you pay. And the customer service is good (even if it does not always manage to solve your problems). Weird system issues can happen to the best of us, I know. The post is merely meant to share an unusual experience as a customer.
Two weeks ago, I visited one of the big IKEA stores in Sweden. I found a discount offer for IKEA FAMILY members for LED lighting for the kitchen. Remembering that I became a member many years back, but had my card somewhere at home, I tried out the SMS service IKEA provides to fetch your membership number, if you give your SSN. It responded that I could apply for a membership, implying that I was not a member. Interesting, I thought, assuming that I had probably not used my membership for such a long time that my membership had automatically been ended.
And so my quest to find my membership begun. I tried to use the form to register a new membership. Got the unspecific error message that “something went wrong”. I tried to use IKEA’s iOS app to register. It claimed I was already a member. I tried to use the app to reset my password. It claimed I was not a member. I tried to use IKEA’s in-store kiosk computer to register a membership. It claimed I was already a member. I tried to use the kiosk’s function to recover my membership number. It claimed I was not a member.
Frustrated and clearly in need of professional help, I called IKEA’s customer service department. They couldn’t find my application or membership. After a lengthy call trying to get help there and then, they managed to register a membership for me, and e-mailed me the membership number. Happier, I went to the cashier, paid for the stuff I had picked out (at the discounted price), exited the store and thought everything was fine now.
Lo and behold when I a few days later got two snail mails from IKEA with two separate membership cards! One of them bearing the number I had received in the e-mail before, and one with an entirely new number. Trying to log in or recover my password using any of the membership numbers I had received failed, with the error message that the “membership number is incorrect”. I even tried to log in with the oldest card that I had now found at home, to no avail.
E-mailed IKEA customer service again. Their solution: Register a new membership for me. My fourth membership. I tried logging in using the number and password they e-mailed, and suddenly, it worked! That was the end of that, I thought.
Until two days later, when they e-mailed again, and said that “something had gone wrong” with their IT systems on the day of the registration (Friday the 13th, by the way) and my new number was not working any more. Their proposed solution: Register a new membership as soon as their problems had been fixed.
I’m now eagerly awaiting my fifth membership number, and two more cards in the mail!