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Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

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Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#141

Post by majewsky »

on_and_off wrote: post #114
scotth wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I'm not sure where the misconception of their furniture being difficult to build comes from. In my experience their instructions are unambiguous and well-designed.

I can't agree more, for the furniture I have bought, Ikea's instructions are pretty exemplary. Without any written words, the instructions are very clear on how to assemble the furniture. If you pay attention when reading them, it is not possible to make a mistake. On the other hand, I have also bought from other RDA furnitures and have encountered some obscure instructions.

> If you pay attention when reading them

Ah, that's the problem. We all know that users never read the manual. :)

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#143

Post by jamaicahest »

konschubert wrote: post #110
adekok wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main issue there is that Ikea isn't owning the installation process. They should be making sure that they know who's doing the work, when they're showing up, etc. And then tracking that, so if one group of contractors has consistent problems, they can be fired.

That's a problem in the logistics industry as a whole. Nobody owns anything and everybody has a subcontractor.

We have a concept here in Denmark, which directly translated would be "total contractor", which is a person who manages all the different contractors, schedules when they show up and do their work, handles any problems that arise during the project, and all the billing goes through him, so you get a single invoice at the end. I imagine every country has a similar concept, I'm just not aware of the name in English.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#145

Post by brusch64 »

limelight wrote: post #135
stephenr wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a few things I like IKEA for (the aforementioned "Grundtal" kitchen racks work really well) but generally I prefer more individual furniture (watch Friends where Phoebe responds to Pottery Barn furniture if you want to understand better), and as I'm a little older, I prefer timber furniture (I had more steel/glass stuff when I was in my 20's), which is where IKEA fails hardest, because practically all their…

Thanks for the detailed reply. Personally, IKEA fits my lifestyle pretty well as a young urban-dweller. I don't really anticipate having my furniture for more than 5-10 years and their aesthetic definitely matches my preferences. I've actually looked at some more "premium" stores and really disliked a lot of their merchandise unless it was obscenely expensive (ie. 10x the price of IKEA).

Well for quality furniture 10x the price of IKEA is not really obscene (depends on which price point of IKEA you're talking about - there are some more "high-end-ish" things there).

But in furniture you get what you pay for - but it has to work with your life (if you are changing your place to live every year or so I don't see the point in buying expensive furniture).

If you stay in one place (or at least are planning to do so) quality furniture which matches your rooms is great (at least for me).

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#146

Post by tonyedgecombe »

PakG1 wrote: post #97
robterrell wrote: post #12

This is hilarious/perfect to me personally, because I have only ever used TaskRabbit to hire someone to build Ikea furniture.

There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)

I seem to remember a survey that showed people who assembled their own Ikea furniture valued it higher than people who didn't.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#148

Post by tonyedgecombe »

mikestew wrote: post #79
justboxing wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IKEA is almost always cheaper, but the service is horrible. They outsource the build service to local contractors and it's a hit or miss, mostly miss. I bought a closet from IKEA and arranged the service through them. They sent 3 dudes who couldn't speak a word of english. On top of that, the 3 dudes got mad that there was no parking in San Francisco and left. So I had to call IKEA again and get them to come on a Sun…

I looked up youtube videos on how to fix door screw holes (you use glue and wood chips) As an aside for anyone else that wants to try this next time they strip a screw hole, I find it easier to cram a bunch of toothpicks in the hole, with wood glue, then snap the toothpicks off flush with the surface.

This works in a plaster wall as well, you could use matches if you don't have toothpicks.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#149

Post by tonyedgecombe »

aoenstkn4nto wrote: post #20

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 s…

I think you are better off buying the stuff from Ikea then finding a good local contractor to do the work. Having said that, where I live finding a good contractor is harder than finding a good programmer.

Re: Ikea has bought TaskRabbit

#150

Post by wowtip »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #146
PakG1 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are people who don't care to build their own Ikea furniture? How strange! I've always enjoyed building my own Ikea furniture! :)

I seem to remember a survey that showed people who assembled their own Ikea furniture valued it higher than people who didn't.

That is strange. Even as a Swede I would probably value a Billy more if it came pre assambled, so I was not made actively aware of low quality materials and holes drilled in not-quite-the-right places.

Maybe a cultural thing. I always got the impression IKEA is more respected in other countries, while in Sweden it is seen as cheap furniture owned by everyone.

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