IKEA Reading Reviews Summary

Parking

Pros:

• "Ample parking space and clean and visible markings, you can't get lost."
• "It has a massive multi-storey carpark, though be warned on the weekend."
• "Car park wasn't busy and managed to park on level 1."
• "Cars were guided to available spaces in the car park."
• "Parking so easy. Right next to motorway and the most helpful staff."
• "Absolutely huge, loads of parking, good access."
• "Multi story parking which is free even without purchase."

Cons:

• "Parking was atrocious. Took over an hour to go down one floor."
• "Been stuck in car on 07.01.23 for almost 2 hours and still on the 3rd floor."
• "On a busy Saturday we got caught in the garage for 1.5h!"
• "Shocking, hours stuck in car park to get in and out, didn’t even get in to the store, just arrived and hours later left."
• "It’s a nightmare to park and equally frustrating to get out!"
• "The car park that greets you is like a labyrinth of passages, mostly full all of the time."
• "Terrible service, long queue in store to pay and car park hell."

Customer Service

Pros:

• "Went to IKEA Reading around 6pm on a Saturday... Also got all the bits I needed and checkout was quick."
• "Staff members that stood out were Teresa and Dan. They were very customer friendly and never stopped rushing around."
• "I was served by Isobelle in this dept. She was great! Really knowledgeable and helpful and friendly!"
• "Had a wonderful experience with a staff member named Farah."
• "The staff is knowledgeable, friendly, and always ready to assist with any inquiries."
• "Staff were always on hand to help in any department with any queries and knew their stuff."
• "The staff are very helpful."

Cons:

• "Terrible online service. Really a shambles."
• "The staff acted in an unprofessional manner (without name badges on), long waiting time without any communication or an apology for the wait."
• "Really appalling customer service system."
• "They have over 10 customer service tills. And they only open one for returns."
• "The worst customer service experience… they clearly do not know what they are doing!"
• "Terrible (or no) stock management, items missing (no lids, but still sell containers), misplaced, mess almost everywhere."
• "The After Sales service is rubbish and a discredit to IKEA."

Store Layout & Stock

Pros:

• "IKEA is always a fun place to visit. This one is no different. It's huge! It's very well laid out."
• "An excellent example of IKEA."
• "Really like visiting IKEA and see what they have on display."
• "The store layout was well-organized, making it easy to locate and browse through different product categories."
• "All the products are well labelled."
• "It's different to a normal shop as its set out like a home would be."
• "Obviously product choice is very varied and good."

Cons:

• "The main problem here is the parking lot coz the lifts are always busy and when you have a baby pram with you.....u have to wait like crazy."
• "The whole place felt very unsafe."
• "There were quite a few items out of stock that I wanted."
• "Many great products disappeared sadly, what we used to use and wanted to replace (certain cookware, kitchen stuff)."
• "The new layout of the children's section is too cramped and causes congestion."
• "Both the market place and the self service area feel smaller than some other stores so you probably want to carry out a stock check online before visiting."
• "This ikea is badly laid out causing massive groups of people in choke points."

Food & Restaurant

Pros:

• "Still managed to get a hot drink and a bacon roll for 95p so can’t complain at that."
• "Nice IKEA breakfast at only £3, vegetarian finger, beans, mushrooms, half a tomato and 2 hash browns."
• "The food is good too. Vegan options are nice which they now sell too at the exit."
• "The food was very tasty, I forgot to photograph, but I had chicken schnitzel, and my guest had Swedish meatballs."
• "Food always decent and well priced."
• "We ate in the food hall, hubby loves the meatballs, I love the salmon."
• "The food here is also surprisingly cheap and also very good too."

Cons:

• "The food queue was huge, as only one side of the fridges were stocked."
• "The hygiene level in the food area was really disappointing.. dirty cups, dirty cutlery absolutely below standard."
• "Restaurant was chaos and there appeared to be no sense of health and hygiene."
• "We were stuck in a non-moving queue over 20 mins for the restaurant to be served by unhappy staff."
• "Restaurant was the biggest disappointment! Very small selection of dishes, no cold salads (used to be salmon and shrimp) or salad bar."
• "Food was cold by the time got serviced, the cutleries were dirty."
• "Restaurant a huge disappointment; food on the floor, spilt drink on the floor, wet soiled magazine with food on the floor, soiled trays, soiled food covers, soiled tables!"