Yes this is a plug - but there is a reason for the plug :-) I wanted to take a moment to thank Sheila from www.ComputerTamers.ca for helping me get rid of leftover program files and horrible spyware from my computer last week.

She logged on remotely to my computer, asked questions, had me “drive” at times and essentially after 2 hours had my computer cleaned right up.

Before you waste another day trying to get rid of viruses, spyware, defragging, etc. please consider giving Sheila a call to do it for you - use your time on you, not your computer!

Recently my colleague and I purchased an Ikea glass table top and base online…err…over the phone because you can’t actually complete a transaction online - something to do with calculating shipping.

We had an Ikea home installer come to the office and assemble this and other furniture that we purchased for a recent tradeshow - he told us that we were missing a piece. I called Ikea online and they told me to go to a store to get the piece; unfortunately there are only 2 stores in Canada that carry this inventory and neither one are near me. I did call one in Edmonton but I didn’t reach the store, I reached some other warehouse or something and they did not have the product nearby to check for missing pieces that could be sent to us.

Long story short, the glass table top (Billsta) does not attach to the Billsta table base - you need to have another table top between the two of them such as a wooden table top and you set the glass table top above. After much humming and hawing, the local Ikea store returned our purchase, excluding shipping.

I called the online shopping number again to request the shipping fees be returned - after again more humming and hawing and speaking with a product specialist, they pointed out that there is a section on the website that has the headline “good to know” and underneath this headline it says “To be placed on BILLSTA table top”.

Is that a warning? It looked like an upsell to me today when I read it! Was it even there a few weeks ago when I made the purchase?

At the end of the day I have invested hours into this purchase which I no longer have and simply desired my $45 in shipping to be refunded. A big fat no is the answer, even when I told them that it meant losing my future business, that of my colleague and our designer - three unhappy customers all for $45? Give me a store credit - think of the big picture here - customer service!

I guess Ikea doesn’t have to… but eventually they will…there are other stores that sell cheap furniture, both online and off, and will hurt Ikea’s reputation and bottom line.

At least one can hope *sigh*

I always say there is a lesson to be learned from this and my lesson today is that I desire to provide good customer service to all of my customers all the time.