new blinds and desk chair and hating Ikea

Today I got some new blinds installed by my desk. Before, there was a disgusting set of 70′s brown curtains. After, there are now beautiful modern blinds.

The real eventful part of my day was buying the desk chair from Ikea:

• At 9:20am, I sat down to do some marking.
• At 9:30am, I decided that this broken chair was going to annoy me, so I popped down to Officeworks to buy a new chair.
• At 9:50am, I decided to pop down to Ikea to check out if I can get a bargain compared to Officeworks.
• At 10:25 I finally find a carpark in the Ikea carpark after 5 minutes of driving in circles.
• At 10:30 I find the entrance to the showroom of Ikea, and by about 10:40 I found the deskchairs.
• At 10:41 I decided I wanted a particular chair, but was confused about the lack of display of the ‘optional arm-rests’.
• At about 11:00 I finally get to ask a staff member about what the deal is, and by 11:05 they found a display model of the arm rests.
• At 11:15 I finally find the pickup area, and by 11:20 I found the pickup area for the chair and arm-rests.
• By 11:30 I was in the car and drove home, for a 12:00 lunch.
• At 12:10 I discovered the arm-rests were not the ones they showed me in the store, and not adjustable, so would not fit under my desk.

• At 12:30 I leave back to Ikea to swap them over, and by 1:20 I have a park. (I was on the motorbike this time, notice the difference in travelling time!)
• By 1:25 a nice lady gave me a piece of paper to say they owe me $20 for the arm-rests, and by 1:30 I had made it back to the display area, and noticed that I got the pickup area for the armrests wrong, so I go to the actual pickup area.
• By 1:35 I discovered there are no arm-rests in that area, and I was conned.
• By 1:45 I found a staff member back in the display area, who explained to me that the ones on the display chair are for a different chair, and the arm-rests for the chair I was after were not on display, but there are ten sets of them down where there wasn’t, where I had just been.
• By 1:50 I’m asking a sales person in the pickup area to find them for me (very kindly of course) and by 2:00 after being convinced to give them my surname and mobile phone number they gave me a piece of paper to allow me to pay for them before they have even found them.
• By 2:10 after a queue for paying for stuff, I paid for this piece of paper using my first piece of paper, which the young girl found very amusing. I complained about the bureaucracy of paying for chairs these days and she giggled.
• By about 2:15 I made it to the merchandise collection area, and by 2:25 they gave it to me.
• By 2:30 I made it back to my bike, and by 2:40 I was home.

Basically, Ikea stole almost five hours of my life, and I only saved $50. What really pisses me off is now I’m starting to think the first pair of arm-rests I got for the chair were more comfortable, even if they don’t fit under the desk. My summary of Ikea, is don’t shop there if people walking really slowly in front of you pisses you off, like it does for me. I got really pissed off with having to walk around in their snake like showrooms just to get out of the bloody store, and eventually found these shortcut doors which were put there so people in a hurry can’t complain, but to steer browsers into spending more money. I’m hating Ikea, but can see it’s defnitely an awesome store if you want to refurnish a room on the cheap. Dedicate an entire day to it though, and get there early!