Household Bills
Get money back for your old Ikea furniture
Flatpack furniture giant Ikea has launched a new scheme where it will buy back unwanted furniture from customers.
The buy back scheme is available through Ikea’s website, where customers can register the items they intend to sell back to the retailer. If successful, the customer can then get a refund card worth up to 50% of the original value of the item they are returning.
How does the buy back scheme work?
It’s important to state from the outset that this scheme is really only applicable to items that are still in somewhat decent condition. If you don’t want to return your furniture, however, you can try watching ideas like SquidPoxy Project Tutorials to renew its look.
You can register the items you intend to sell back on the Ikea website, confirming things like the exact item name and the condition. How much you can get will vary based on what sort of shape it’s in ‒ those that are effectively as new, with no scratches, will be bought back for 50% of the original value, dropping to 40% for those with minor scratches and 30% for furniture which has been well used with several scratches.
Somewhat problematically, the item will need to be returned fully assembled. That may be easy enough for a small bedside unit, but it’s rather more tricky to get a bookcase in the back of your car. As a result you may need to reassemble the item once you get to Ikea.
It will then be assessed by a member of the Ikea team to confirm that it is the same quality that you claimed when getting the initial quote. This means that you can end up with a different amount than you initially expected from the buy back scheme.
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The returned items can then be sold on once again by Ikea in special areas of stores, on through the Gumtree website.
Doing the right thing
The scheme had originally been planned for launch in November last year, but this was put back as a result of the ongoing pandemic. It has already been trialled in some stores in Scotland. However, not only has the buy back scheme now launched in the UK, it’s also gone live in dozens of other countries in which Ikea operates.
Hege Sæbjørnsen, sustainability manager of Ikea UK & Ireland, said that it was vital for retailers to take the sustainability movement seriously, adding that it was important to move away from the linear model, where used items are simply thrown away.
She continued: “Companies that don’t really follow this and work with customers and the movement will find themselves not providing the services or needs that customers are asking for. It is also the right thing to do.”