Went into Dunfermline town centre today, for a walk in the rain. While it wasn’t what we’d planned on doing, it turned out OK.

After checking out the newly-opened Kingsgate Shopping Centre, we headed off to Pittencrieff Park. It’s one of my favorite green spaces, so we usually try to visit whenever we’re in town. I didn’t know they had a greenhouse!

We didn’t meet any free-roaming peacocks, but we discovered parts of the park we hadn’t walked through before.

As we were leaving, I spotted a wee squirrel running up a tree with a green conker in his mouth. He’s well-hidden up there..

Then it was off home via the shops to buy a few things (including a corander plant, yay!), and a yummy celebratory dinner.

I love IKEA. I don’t even mind having to run the maze with 234823489234 other shoppers, because I know there’s usually a yummy Swedish meatball dinner waiting for me at the end of it.

After a cringeworthy experience dealing with DFS sofas and the way they treat customers, we decided to check out the sofas at IKEA to see if we could find one we liked. We visited the Edinburgh branch a few times, testing each display sofa at least half a dozen times before making a decision.

June 6 2008: We placed an order for a 3-seater sofa and a footstool. The salesperson was very helpful, and explained to us that there was a bit of a delay at the moment with the sofas, but gave us a 2 week window where we could expect delivery of our sofa. She said that the earliest we could expect to receive a call to arrange delivery would be the July 21 2008. Not a big deal, as we’ve got a couch now so it’s not like we’re sitting on the floor at the moment. On IKEA’s order forms, the actual colour choice you decided on is right on the order form, which is reassuring!

July 21 2008: No phone call from IKEA, which is OK because this is the absolute earliest date they might have called.

August 4 2008: This is the end of the 2 week window in which we were told to expect a phone call from them.  Since we hadn’t heard anything, we called IKEA Edinburgh to find out what was going on.  We spoke to L, who said that her system showed that the order had been postponed by the Ikea Distribution Centre in Peterborough. Why? She told us she would check with Peterborough and get back to us.

August 5 2008: 5:06 PM Got a voicemail from someone named Natasha or Steph — they were speaking so quickly in the message that hubby and I are still debating what she said her name was! She said she was calling about our sofa, and that “the only say they could do” is October 27, and if this was alright for us, that we should call the number for the Edinburgh branch, quoting our customer ID number.

The only day they could do? Like WE were the ones being difficult about the delivery date now?

August 6 2008: Called the Edinburgh branch, and spoke to L again. She said that she had looked into why the order had been postponed. When it came time to process our order, and the IKEA Distribution Centre in Peterborough saw that there was a delay on them, instead of calling us to ask us if we were alright with the additional delay or giving us the chance to cancel our order right there, without the usual £50 cancellation charge, the nice folks in Peterborough agreed to the delay on our behalf.

What makes things even more irksome is that Natasha (or Steph?) was calling from the Peterborough warehouse, but left the telephone number for the Edinburgh branch for us to call. Since it was Peterborough that delayed the order, NOT Edinburgh, why shouldn’t we have called Peterborough directly? How nice of them to take it upon themselves to postpone an order placed at the Edinburgh branch without our consent, and then direct us back to the Edinburgh branch — who did nothing to cause this mess in the first place — to sort it all out.

August 7 2008: Called the IKEA Edinburgh branch, and said that while we weren’t happy about the delay, we really wanted the sofa, so would wait until October to have it delivered.

Seriously, Peterborough, instead of picking up the telephone and taking a couple of minutes to communicate with a customer about a delay on a sofa that’s already been paid for, you decide to assume that we’d be alright with an additional 2 month delay? Have you forgotten that saying about what happens when you assume?

August 8 2008: 4:00 PM Received a call from V at the Ikea Distribution Centre in Peterborough. He had looked into the order and said that it could be split to get us the sofa sooner. We had ordered a 3-seater sofa, a footstool, and an extra cover for the entire thing. Apparently all they are waiting on to ship our order is the frame for the footstool, so if we were happy to wait for that, he would get the rest of it delivered to us. Fantastic! We agreed to this, and he said he’d call back to confirm.

4:10 PM V called back and said apparently the issue isn’t with the footstool frame, it’s with the sofa frame. They could deliver the covers for everything now, but sales of the model we selected have been halted because there is a problem with the sofa frame. He said sales of that model have been stopped until October, but that they might be pushed back even further than that, and again said that they would waive the usual £50 cancellation fee if we wanted to cancel the order because of this delay. He said he’d give us a chance to think things over and ring us back tomorrow morning.

August 9 2008: 9:10 AM True to his word, V called us again — except Ploes had left his phone on silent so we missed the call. Doh! He left us a voicemail saying he would call back later.

3:30 PM V from Peterborough called again, just like he said he would. We told him we would keep the order pending, and understand that the date of October 27 2008 is a very tentative date on when they hope the sofa will be available for delivery. He said he would put a note on the system for us to make sure we get a phone call around the beginning of October to give us an update on the expected delivery date.

Take note, DFS and Virgin Media: The above is what we call customer service. Some unknown person dropped the ball and accepted the delay on our behalf when they shouldn’t have. Fine. Mistakes happen, everyone is allowed to make a few.

However, look what they have done to make up for their error: Employees saying they will call back — and then really calling back?! Whoa, leave it to those innovative Swedes to come up with such a revolutionary way of addressing and handling customer issues, hm?

Sure, mistakes shouldn’t happen. But when and if they do, how a company works to overcome and fix any mistakes made is a true test of their determination to satify customers.

Thank you, L and V. We appreciate your efforts to get us that sofa sooner, but if we have to wait a bit longer, so be it. We look forward to getting our sofa this autumn.

Update:

August 26 2008: 10:33 AM S from Ikea called, left a voicemail on both our land line and my mobile, to let us know that there is a recall on the range we ordered, and there are major delays in fulfilling customer orders because of this. She said she checked with a supervisor and they confirmed they don’t expect to get any sofas to deliver to customers before November. Left her # for us to call her back to discuss our options at this point.

August 28 2008: Called S back, told her we were OK to wait until November. Tentative delivery date for the sofa to arrive at IKEA is Nov 12.

October 31 2008: Ploes was in IKEA Glasgow, and decided to see if we could get an update on the situation. The sofa frames are at the warehouse in Edinburgh, and the covers are still en route. He was told we should expect a call about delivery sometime around Nov 24th.

Some UK grocery stores are now selling milk in bags.

There is no need to panic. Canada has been selling milk this way for ages, and it really isn’t as complicated a concept as some people would have you believe.

You will need to buy milk in bags, and a milk bag pitcher:

That funny writing you see is French. You might recognize it from your holidays in France where you made every attempt to avoid interacting with the locals.

Don’t panic, the example in the photo has English & French writing because it’s Canadian milk in a bag. The bags sold in the UK have English writing, and the pitchers will more than likely be available in more than one colour.

Next, you will need to open the bag of milk, removing the tie. It’s like a bread tie.

No, a ‘bread tie’ is not a tie made out of bread any more than ‘fish slice’ is an actual slice of fish that you use to flip pancakes.

These are bread ties:

They are also known as ‘bread clips’ in some places. Canadians, Americans and even Australians use them to keep bread bags sealed, instead of those ineffectual little pieces of sticky tape that you seem to be so fond of.

The same sort of plastic clip will be holding your milk in bags closed. Remove it, and open the bag. Inside, you will see 3 transparent plastic bags containing milk. Remove one of the clear bags, and place it inside the milk bag pitcher you have purchased, like so:

Do not open the bag of milk and pour it into the plastic pitcher. This is wrong!

Now that you have your bag of milk in the milk bag pitcher (or holder), you will need to open the bag of milk. You can use scissors, or get one of these handy little milk bag snippers.

They’re magnetic, so you can stick them on the fridge so that you can find them quickly in any milk-related emergency! Pour the milk.

Glass of milk: done.

Next time: The Importance of Guarding Your Groceries On the Conveyor Belt