Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

recode.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 205 posts

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#11

Post by mLuby »

stcredzero wrote: post #6
ghaff wrote: post #2

I find it interesting how some types of personal service companies seem to resonate with people but a lot don't. I suspect TaskRabbit never really made it big because of some combination of transaction costs associated with one-off only somewhat standardized tasks and the fact that, presented with a bill to assemble cheap Ikea furniture or to pickup their laundry, most people will decide they'd just as soon do it the…

I suspect TaskRabbit never really made it big because of some combination of transaction costs I was a TaskRabbit user. I'd say that they had a problem with quality control and maintaining a really good user experience. Too many of their workers were kind of meh. This was especially apparent with moving. I would be unpacking and something from storage and think to myself, "She did that!? " I also made the mistake of…

When you say interface to you mean app UI/UX or more generally what TaskRabbit does?

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#16

Post by 24gttghh »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #7
ghaff wrote: post #2

I find it interesting how some types of personal service companies seem to resonate with people but a lot don't. I suspect TaskRabbit never really made it big because of some combination of transaction costs associated with one-off only somewhat standardized tasks and the fact that, presented with a bill to assemble cheap Ikea furniture or to pickup their laundry, most people will decide they'd just as soon do it the…

My personal theory is that TaskRabbit is too general purpose for people to think to use it. When I am at a bar and want to be at my house, it's really easy for me to think of an app that will solve my problem. If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay some…

Why are people so damned busy they couldn't build a train set with their kid? That would be fun as all hell.

I am not trying to blame you specifically, as I'm guessing you meant it as an example.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#17

Post by jacquesm »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #7
ghaff wrote: post #2

I find it interesting how some types of personal service companies seem to resonate with people but a lot don't. I suspect TaskRabbit never really made it big because of some combination of transaction costs associated with one-off only somewhat standardized tasks and the fact that, presented with a bill to assemble cheap Ikea furniture or to pickup their laundry, most people will decide they'd just as soon do it the…

My personal theory is that TaskRabbit is too general purpose for people to think to use it. When I am at a bar and want to be at my house, it's really easy for me to think of an app that will solve my problem. If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay some…

> If I don't have time to assemble the elaborate toy train set I bought for my kid, it will probably never occur to me that I could pay someone to drop in and do that task for me, even if I would happily pay someone if they offered.

That's the kind of problem nobody should ever have in the first place. The whole point is to work together on it, not just to give it. To have some stranger put it together defeats the purpose.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#18

Post by giarc »

IKEA needs to solve the problem with distance to store or shipping. More than just the "Collection Points" they are building.

They need to partner with a physical brick and mortar store to ship and store product. Similar to what Amazon is going to do with Whole Foods. IKEA needs a partner like Whole Foods where users can pick up their product.

Currently buying anything on IKEA and having it shipped is super costly, and even the collection points don't service small towns/cities.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#20

Post by aoenstkn4nto »

I hope this improves IKEA's absolutely awful installation experience. I recently did some kitchen cabinets, and while the people who did the actual install were great, everything about the experience was awful. IKEA contracted it out to Traemand, who sub-contracted it out to a local company. The local company was really hard to get ahold of and kept losing paperwork and not scheduling things. Once they did schedule something, they sub-sub-contracted it out to yet someone else. The workers would arrive and I'd repeat the instructions I gave to the super contractors, and they'd get this panicked look and say, "Uh... I gotta call the boss about this. They didn't tell us X, Y, or Z" despite me repeatedly making sure that they understood X, Y, and Z. It was a nightmare. Once everything was installed, it was great, but I will never shop at IKEA again because of this experience.
Post reply on HN