We wish to report a similar problem to other readers with our Ikea kitchen, which is less than five years old. The doors are all off-colour and peeling and splitting. We complained to the Edinburgh Ikea store, where we bought it, which said it would send out Ecomaster – a furniture repair and restoration company – to view them. The technician was in the house for all of five minutes before leaving.
About three weeks later we received a letter saying the damage was a cleaning issue and that the age of the kitchen was the problem. As a result the company would be taking no action.
We asked for a copy of the report, which was eventually emailed to us, and to our surprise it appears to have been signed off with my name – though it is definitely not my signature. TL, Livingston, West Lothian
We have covered numerous complaints about Ikea fitted kitchens and readers’ difficulties getting satisfaction through its much-lauded 25-year guarantee. The retailer uses Ecomaster as its inspection company – a third party firm, not part of Ikea – which makes us wonder how much control it has over the outcome.
Ikea would not engage with us over the detail of your complaint, but simply says: “We naturally want all our customers to be happy with the service they receive, and we have been in direct contact with the customer to apologise and have resolved this to their satisfaction.”
I understand it has agreed to replace all the kitchen doors and unit frontages free of charge, but it would not enter into the debate about Ecomaster.
We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number
