By Netterbetter
Customer Service
Last weekend I went to the Whitby location after googling wardrobes and finding one on their site that looked great and was on sale. All of the sale staff was 20 or younger as far as I could tell. Ordinarily I wouldn’t mention age but I think it relevant as they were huddled in small groups chatting instead of asking customers if they required assistance-which we did. That was my first impression.
Stock Availability
When I finally broke up social hour to get someone to help I learned that they were out of stock on the colour that I wanted so I had to wait to weeks or settle for the other colour. I settled. Even though it made me less happy about the experience I wasn’t prepared to wait two weeks. So off to the cashier to pay where I am told to drive around Petsmart at the east side of the building. After arriving I realized that driving around the west side of the building would have been much quicker so I am not sure why I was told to go the long way. Pick up was uneventful but I did ask if any tools were required as this was a two box build it yourself project. I was assured that none were necessary.
Build It Yourself:
2 Door Wardrobe was the item. I have to start by saying that most of my furniture is from Ikea so build it yourself is not new to me. Open the box to find a sheet of lettered stickers fall out. I guess the first step was to determine from the instructions which sticker went on which board. I skipped that step as it annoyed me. The quality of the “wood” was disappointing but not surprising given the price. The build was ridiculous. I wasn’t prepared for loose dowels which caused boards to separate. There was a small bag of glue and I assumed that was what it was for as the instructions made no mention of it’s purpose. There were screws and a tool that did not function well with them. After ten minutes of having the tool slip out of the screw repeatedly as if something was stripped I gave up. I have a tool box full of standard screwdrivers and other assorted tools and was disappointed to find that the screws included with this wardrobe were far from standard and required a trip to the hardware store to buy a new screwdriver that I have never seen or known existed. I am not sure why JYSK chooses to not use phillips, flat head or square screws but it was annoying. The build took far longer than any Ikea build as a result of the gluing (I like the ikea lock nuts) and the odd screws (I like the Ikea standard allen key). For all of the reasons listed about I will not be going back to this store to watch sales associates socialize and I will not buy furniture which is annoying while building. Ikea is the better choice when looking for frugal furniture.
