Re: OT: Ikea a Retraction. It's ***

On Jun 20, 10:49 am, "michael adams" <mjadam...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Sofa - Spud" <comfyso...@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in messagenews:g3ekcr$m5b$1@xxxxxxxxxxx



michael adams wrote:
Previously I posted on here, how wonderfully well designed Ikea
stuff was, and how much thought went into designing it all.

It now appears I was talking through my arse. Certainly where
plastic components on things like lamps are concerned.

Last December I bought two cheap halogen lamps from Ikea.

In the first one, the adjustable arm is secured to the base
by tightening a bolt which passes through two plastic flanges
behind the arm either side. The flanges close up and the arm
is secured. Except being made of brittle plastic, if you overtighten
the bolt one of the plastic flanges may well crack. Rendering
the design useless.

Having broken that one, I fetched the other one from another
room. It came wired to the transformer which you plug in the
socket.

It had been off for eight hours but the transformer was still
warm to the touch. So I first switched off the socket. When
I went to pull it out, the back of the transformer casing
cracked in two, and half came away in my hand exposing the
plates. It was made of very thin plastic and looks as though
it had melted inside.

<Esther Rantzen>

If this had been a toddler, they could have burned their hand on
the transformer, then got a massive electric shock and then choked
to death by putting bits of the casing in their mouths.

</Esther Rantzen>

I can't be arsed taking them back as they were only £25, its a long way
and I don't have the  receipt in any case. The second one seems to have
been withdrawn in any case, as its no longer in their online catalogue.

And I don't want to get into any more arguments or fights in shops.
And start the shouting again. Both have been fixed with black Duck tape
to a fashion. Shed fashion rather than living room fashion, unfortunately.

But as a result of my experience with the 2 lamps, Ikea's reputation
including all the *** about product testing, has taken a real nose-dive
in my estimation.

I'm never going to look at my Ikea bookcases in quite the same way again

I had trouble with Ikea lights a while back , a three 30watt ceiling
spotlight cluster with a frosted glass base/top, the problem was we had
a load of them all over the new ground floor after an extension. When
one went pop we couldn't just put something else up. I went back several
times as one after another they failed. They knew there was a problem
but wouldn't admit it - it became a bit of a joke after a while. Good
job I *always* keep receipts. Now one by one they've been replaced -
they look the same but the transformer inside is smaller but obviosly
works better.

As I discussed with the delightful but hopeless people on the returns
desk Ikea like to portray the place as being full of stuff made by
little men in lederhosen living in Sweden whereas they source the stuff
in the backstreets of China!

...

Yup the plug-in transformer that nearly melted is made in China or
somewhere. I'm just hoping the Duck tape I've stuck it back together
with, doesn't catch fire instead, and burn the house down. I think I'll
sling it and look for another one at the weekend.

Having a bit of a think about it, with stuff that cheap - one lamp was
around £16, this one about £8 they must have to cut corners for that
sort of money. It's just surprising they're not inundated with returns
really and stories in the papers.

The lamp was switched off for 12 hours, although the socket was
switched on i.e live., and the transformer was quite warm. Maybe I
need to do some research on this as I always leave the transformers
in the (live) sockets.  I thought the circuit was broken and so
there was no current flow in that situation.

...



The Ikea shuffle makes me laugh - only one way round the store

...

I did a big recce before I bought the last big load of furniture
as I wanted to be in and out within 2 hours (you have to pick some stuff up
from another warehouse 2 miles away ) as I needed the van for other things
as well.

There are supposed to be "secret shortcuts" known to the staff. I thought
I had them all sussed after one or two visits except you're often walking
in the wrong direction to the arrows, can end up getting lost and have to
go back to the beginning and do it the "proper" way.

michael adams

...

and
everyone gets a big blue bag and grabs 3 for a £1 CNUT candles only to
dump them when they find 5000 at the checkouts!

...

So much cheap electrical stuff these days is rubbish. I got a usb
modem from t-mobile recently. Looks like something you might find in a
lucky bag. It got so hot when I used it that it would stop working. I
had to unmount it then leave it for a while to cool down before I
could use it again. I ended it up canceling the contract (after
getting the run-around from the shop first). I expected more than a
crappy Chinese import.

.

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