Jun 3, 2009 11:00 pm US/Eastern
3 On Your Side: IKEA Overcharges Customers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―
We're always looking for ways to get the most value for our dollar especially in a tough economy.
For many, that means doing home repairs or renovations ourselves. But Your Money Team exposes a nationwide problem that could have left some shoppers at a popular chain paying more than they should have. 3-On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan explains.
Mix and match em' any way you want! Select a color, choose the handles, they say they're easy on your budget. So when Don McComb was renovating a kitchen for his son, he bought the cabinets at IKEA.
"They had a variety of cabinet sizes and styles that we can work with," says McComb.
It was an interesting experience to say the least. The product names are in Swedish and the pricing was confusing too. The catalogues list a single price for each cabinet but on the receipt the stores price out every component. Doors $15, hinges $5, damper $4.99.
McComb says, "you kind of lose track of where the entire dollar amount is."
But after examining his receipts, McComb says he knew one thing was for certain.
"They were charging me more than the catalogue price."
When he complained, the IKEA store in Conshohocken gave him a partial price adjustment, and acknowledged the problem. But they didn't fix the errors in their computer system. That's when McComb called 3-On Your Side and we went shopping with our hidden cameras.
We too found cabinet pricing errors at both the Conshohocken and South Philly IKEA stores.
For example, a $77 dollar cabinet rang up as $85, we were overcharged $8, a difference of 10 percent. In fact 3-On Your Side has learned that over 150 cabinets were being rung up at the register for a higher price than what was being advertised in the brochures and catalogues.
Customers were being over-charged anywhere from a dollar or two up to a staggering $70 dollars for a single cabinet and it was happening all across the country.
"This is an error and we want to correct it," says IKEA spokeswoman Tracey Kelly, adding that the problem was due to a combination of inputting errors and a glitch in their computer system. "If it was priced one way in our printed material, the store system could have priced it a different way," says Kelly.
Even after 3-On Your Side notified IKEA of the problem, it took weeks for corporate management to take action.
Kelly says, "it took us too long and we should have acted sooner."
IKEA is now posting signs in its stores and advisories online about the problem. It will refund people who were overcharged and says it's fixing the pricing errors in its computer system.
"We are going to fix it nationwide," says Kelly.
In the end, Don McComb received $63 dollars back that he over paid. But he says most people would never have caught the mistakes in the first place since the way purchases are listed on IKEA receipts is so confusing.
McCombs says, "I think that they do it to try to give customers flexibility, but at the same time it just makes for a very messy system and it makes for a system that is prone to errors."
If you or someone you know has purchased IKEA cabinets as far back as August 1, 2008, you may have been overcharged and are entitled to that money back.
Click on the link below to see if your cabinets were involved in the pricing mistakes. If they were, bring your receipt into IKEA so they can issue you a refund of the difference.
RELATED LINKS:
IKEA (Customer Service)
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Openly Gay Celebrities
Stumble It!
Reporting
