Thank you, IKEA, for my new West Elm Table

In, what I hope is the final chapter of acquiring a table for my home office, I wanted to thank IKEA for being so impossible to deal with, for such a long time, that I found a much better table at a very reasonable price. My objective has been met.

As you can see, here are some pictures of the dining room table I bought from West Elm, which serves as my second work space in my home office. West Elm was having a close out sale on this model, for a mere $300. Including shipping and white glove delivery (people assembled it, set it up and took away all the containers), the table cost me $500.

Actually, when I discovered this deal in a West Elm catalog, while eating breakfast and reviewing the previous day's mail, I first called IKEA one last time. It was about 9:30 am on a weekday and I got through all the pushbutton calisthenics required to get to the specialty group in charge of the table in question and then I got an answering machine!!! I couldn't believe it!!!

The message said something crazy about being busy and that I should leave a name and number. In the way that a deer at night is caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, I left my information in a stunned monotone and hung up. And then I went to my computer, looked up the West Elm web site, clicked the picture of the table, entered my information and AMEX card number and wha-la, I had a very nice table on the way.

If only it had been so easy to buy the IKEA table, I would have had it two months ago - but then I would never have gotten such a good deal on the West Elm table. Thank you IKEA! I love my new table!!

P.S. The people from IKEA never returned my phone call. As one Marketing Strategy participant pointed out, "They're self service. Maybe they wanted you to call yourself back."