I Love You Ikea...but...

I spend the majority of my afternoon yesterday building the small six drawer ALEX storage unit from Ikea. Now Ikea prides themselves on their simple process for building their furniture that uses no tools other than the allan key provided and takes no time at all. Or so they say, my experience was not quite like this. After opening the box and sorting out the various parts, i started to assemble. I quickly discovered that i needed not only a flat head and phillips screwdriver but also a hammer and a drill.
Now i have been known in the past to be quite handy with assembling various Ikea items, ask my uncle who gave up after a 5 hour attempt and passed off his L shape office desk to me at which point i managed to assemble it in a mere 2 hours. Or my mum who watched me work away at my 7 foot loft style bed (that ended up being too tall for my room, but none the less was a successful build). However this little unit just wouldn't go together. As i sat in the corner of my office trying as quietly as possible to build the unit while not interrupting my colleges conference calls and internal meetings, it came clear to me that Ikea has definitely gone down hill with the design of their products. Look and Feel may still be there, however when designing, the Sweeds have evidently forgotten to prioritize the customer experience when building various Ikea units.
I love you Ikea but you nearly killed me yesterday.

Why I Hate Hewlett Packer

Monday December 11, 2006. Woke up not looking terribly forward to work, suffering a bit of a sinus headache and not anticipating staring into the depths of a computer screen all day, however i was still doing all right. Upon arriving to the office after my glorious three day weekend (took Friday off to attend Nathan's christmas party) I noticed a big blue bag sitting on my desk. I quickly learned that our projector had died on friday and i was responsible for having it serviced. Not only that but the back up HP projector we would be using as a temporary needed a new remote. Easy enough i figure, go online find the remote process the order done... that was what i thought... in my first google search for the projector its self i learned that this particular model had been discontinued a few years ago and the parts are no longer available on line... no big deal just call the number on the site. So i called and let me remind you no 1 800 # is ever a direct line... after being on hold for what felt like forever m(really about 15 min) i was greeted by a sales agent who informed me i was connected to the wrong departnemt... this became the pattern over the next few hours as i was directed to 4 different departments up which i all found myself waiting on hold... after learning that all of my waiting was a waste because i had been talking to US agents instead of Canadian ones i started the process all over with the Canadian HP personel... to my great relief i finally talked with someone who found the part i needed, the price filled out all my information processed the order... and then told me that this part is currently not available in Canada... yes it's 2:04 I have a terrible pain in my neck from holding the phone for so long, sinus headache ever more strong, and my search has failed... This is why i hate Hewlett Packer