We had 3 items outstanding, needing multiples of each: tall Sektion cabinets, toekicks and decor strips. All were supposed to be available at our closest IKEA within 2 weeks. Then, on Wednesday morning I checked again, and the cabinets were once again pushed back to 5 weeks.
So I went looking and found out that all 3 items were now available at an IKEA 4 hours away. I had been checking occasionally, and the cabinets had always been in stock there, while we've been waiting for stock to arrive at the store 1.5 hours away from us. Although both locations are in Quebec, I suspect that the location 4 hours away is supplied from the same distribution point as Montreal, whereas Quebec City, I suspect, is lumped in with Eastern Canada (ie, Halifax).
So, we decided on a road trip, not wanting to risk waiting 5 weeks and have it pushed back again. We did a 'Click n Collect' order. This is a GREAT service. You show up, key in your code, and your order is ready and waiting on a cart. No having to navigate the whole store to get to the warehouse section to pick up your items.
Our Kitchen & Bath order is now complete!!! 🎉 🎊. We have everything on hand. It took a total of 7 orders and included road trips to 3 different locations, but it's all here.
Part of the issue for us was that, for some reason, when we placed our order, delivery of large items was not available for our area. This persisted for a number of weeks. Parcel delivery of smaller items was always available, but not for bigger items. That delivery service has recently been resumed, but for 'large orders only'. Not really sure what's going on there...
When we placed our initial order, our best option for the greatest number of items all at once involved a two-hour road trip. We rented a truck for that pickup, as it was WAY too heavy for our vehicles to manage. While we incurred costs for that trip, and the two others, and the deliveries, that has been counterbalanced by the fact that our chosen door style went down in price between verification and ordering. In fact, we have actually come out a little bit ahead. IKEA did help out by crediting us the shipping charge for our large order. We had hoped for more, but we'll take what we can get.
And today, we finally took a couple steps forward: we found our 'high point' and were able to see where we would have to install some backing for support of the suspension rail, and we installed a mantlepiece on the LR side of a Kitchen/LR wall that needed support through the wall, so now we can close up the Kitchen walls.
