Ikea shoppers furious after waiting 'up to three months' for deliveries with 'no help' from customer services

We've seen dozens of complaints on Ikea's social media channels in the past 24 hours alone, but many say their complaints date back weeks and, in some cases, even months. Issues reported include orders not arriving on time, or being delivered with items missing or damaged, and some say they're £100s out of pocket.

Many add that Ikea's chat service or phone lines have been down when they've tried to get in touch, or that they've spent long periods on hold. Several claim to have spent hours listening to ABBA – the Swedish manufacturer's hold music of choice – with some shoppers describing the soundtrack as "torture".

Ikea admits some orders have been delayed due to its supply chain being impacted by coronavirus, while it adds that "technical issues" have resulted in shoppers experiencing difficulties trying to get in touch. It's apologised for the inconvenience.

See our Consumer Rights guide for more info on what you can do if a purchase goes wrong.

'I paid £400 six weeks ago – and I can't speak to customer services'

We've seen a deluge of complaints about Ikea's customer service on social media, with customers reporting a range of issues.

We've also heard from MoneySavers who say they've not received all or part of their Ikea orders, with one saying the firm was "uncontactable" and expressing frustration that she'd paid a £40 delivery charge only for her order not to turn up. Here are some of the complaints we've seen:

I've got a problem with Ikea – what can I do?

Here's what you can do if you're worried about an Ikea issue such as an incomplete, damaged or missing order:

1. First try to contact Ikea. Ikea offers customer service support through a live chat or phone service. You can find contact details on its customer services page, but Ikea has admitted that both its chat and phone lines have been temporarily unavailable at peak times. When we tried to get in touch online, we were shown a message saying that the web chat service was unavailable "due to exceptionally high demand".

Ikea says it's trying to resolve enquiries as soon as possible and has worked to increase the capacity of its customer services – so if you're happy to wait for your problem to be resolved, it could be worth showing forbearance.

It's worth pointing out that where an item is faulty, you're entitled to a full refund under consumer rights rules. If you purchased an item online and you're unhappy with it for any reason, you're also entitled to a refund as long as you cancel your order within 14 days of receiving it.

2. Consider claiming under chargeback or Section 75. If you have no luck getting a response from Ikea and you have been left out of pocket by an undelivered or faulty order, you may be able to claim the cash back from your bank through the chargeback scheme if you paid by card.

This is only a customer service promise though, so there are no guarantees. You must claim within 120 days of making the purchase, but remember you can only start a chargeback claim once you've exhausted all other avenues with the retailer, so you should only do this if you've repeatedly tried to contact Ikea and haven't received any response.

If you paid on a credit card for an item costing between £100 and £30,000, you may also be able to claim under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act instead, which unlike chargeback is written into law. Here, your card provider is jointly liable when you don't get the goods or services you've paid for.

There's full info on how the scheme works in our Chargeback and Section 75 guides.

What does Ikea say?

Peter Jelkeby, country retail manager and chief sustainability officer at Ikea UK and Ireland, said: "Our supply chain – and more recently the ports and goods terminals where our products are received – has been impacted by the effects of Covid-19, and our product availability has been affected as a result. This means that in some instances we have been unable to fulfil customers' orders as quickly as we would like.

"These factors combined together with a recent technical issue have put additional pressure on our systems and our customer support centre, which means it's taking longer than usual for customers to contact us.

"We apologise unreservedly for the inconvenience caused. We fully understand their frustration and want to assure them that we are working intensively to resolve these challenges as soon as possible."