My Horrible Day

Yesterday went OK until I got off work and stopped by IKEA. Jake and I purchased a drawer on Sunday and found out it was missing a couple of screw/fasteners so I decided to pick up the missing pieces on my way home.

I went to furniture pick up and waited for about 5 minutes wondering who I could ask for help since no one was coming over to help me. Finally someone saw me (and another guy) waiting and told us we had to talk to the girl working in home delivery. So me and the guy went and waited for her to help us while she explained to the couple in front of us that they would have to pay $10 a day if their things weren't delivered by a certain date. The couple were discussing returning all of their merchandise and coming back later to purchase it again so they would not have to pay the $10 per day fee. The girl finally had to call a supervisor to help her and then turned to me and the guy behind me.

I was directed to the return/exchange area where they had some drawers on the wall with some common missing pieces inside. Of course, my drawer was empty (along with quite a few other drawers). I tried to see if anyone was around to help me out and noticed that numbers were being called. Just as I was going to get a number, another lady who had just walked in took a number. I said "Oh, I didn't know we had to take a number" thinking that maybe she would kindly let me in front of her since I had clearly been there first, but she was an evil *&!$@ and ignored me.

After waiting for another 5 minutes I saw Home Delivery girl walking by and asked her if she could get me my screw/fastener thingies. Home Delivery girl asked Return/Exchange girl who said that I would have to wait in line. I waited for another 15 minutes while they went through everyones returns and Return/Exchange girl knew that I was waiting impatiently. I have to admit I didn't sit down but stood where she could see me.

She had another guy working with her, and when it was time for my number to be called he closed his register and started putting returns away. And when it was finally my turn, Return/Exchange girl went and did something else before calling my number. I truly believe that she purposely went as slowly as possible because she didn't like my impatience and wanted to make me mad. I truly believe that. When she came back after the 15 seconds it took her to walk 10 feet into the back where I watched her get my two fasteners, it took all my will power not to yell at her for making me wait so long for such a simple thing.

I would also like to point out that I was THEIR fault that I was missing pieces of my IKEA purchase, and it was THEIR fault that there was not enough people working there to help me quickly. I was so unbelievely mad that I started to try to think of something I could do for revenge. Since I couldn't think of anything that wouldn't have security sent after me, I took a piece of paper out of my purse and ripped it into confettii which I then threw onto the ground on my way out. Yes, I know this is such a pitiful revenge. It was extremely unsatisfying. I got into my car, slammed my door closed, considered peeling out of the garage and realized that I was only hurting myself if I treated my own things badly.

I can't even begin to describe how mad I was at that point. I finally decided to call and talk to a manager but didn't have the phone number. I tried calling Jake who didn't answer so I actually called 411 and paid to get the phone number which just made me madder that I was spending money to try to be satisfied.

I called the store, navigated through their menu and waited on hold for about 20 minutes while I finished driving home. By the time I got home, I was ready to blow up. I wanted to tell Jake about my horrible experience but he was on the phone so I tried calling IKEA again so that I could talk to a manager.

Jake (who is on the phone) waives me over to follow him into the other house. I follow not knowing what he wants to show me and he brings me into the bedroom and points to the cat pee on our new down comforter and Cal King mattress. It turns out the cat had been locked in the house for over a day and had used our bed as her litter box, and it smelled BAD!

At that moment I wanted to hurt something. I screamed, hit the bed, hit the wall, screamed again, and walked out of the house so upset I didn't even know what to do. I went into the bedroom, flopped down on the bed and hit it a few times, was unsatisfied, walked into the living room trying to figure out what I could break and finally sat down on the couch, put my head on my arm and did deep breathing exercises. I thought of how miserable my day had been and started to tear up. Jake actually came over to rub my back and I had a pretty good case of the sniffles although I wouldn't call it full out crying.

So there it is, my horrible day. I'm hoping to keep my anger long enough to write a letter to IKEA, but for now, the best I can do is boycott their store. And believe me, I will not be returning to the West Covina IKEA. As for the cat, if anyone wants her, let me know.