The Crib Fiasco

Last month sometime, I saw a crib (Diktad) at IKEA, and, after consulting Baby Bargains to ease my guilt about getting an inexpensive crib, I borrowed my mother-in-law's station wagon and returned to IKEA to buy it. Husband helped me bring it in, and we left it in the box since there is no room to set it up yet. My one concern about the crib is that the floor model in the store had the mattress set to a very low setting, and I couldn't tell from pre-drilled holes whether there was a middle setting to make it easier on our backs, hauling baby in and out.

Less than three weeks later I was at IKEA again, and they had a new crib (Leksvik) that I liked better, and that was set up with the mattress level in the middle rather than at the bottom. Since I had to borrow a big car to get a dresser anyway, I decided to return the crib I got and get the new model.

Three days later, my husband and I were there, with borrowed station wagon, and returned the Diktad crib. We went upstairs to get the new crib, and it was gone! The saleswoman I spoke with told me that they sold out completely a few days ago, and they wouldn't be restocking until NOVEMBER. The two other IKEA locations, each a few hours away, were sold out.

So, with visions of my infant daughter sleeping in a cardboard box for the first two months of her life, I went back to returns to track down the crib I had just returned. I found out where it was located, and told my husband (who agreed to do the heavy lifting). I waited at the car.

Turns out, when he got there, he got help loading the crib from a guy who had mentioned that the crib was about to be moved to the "as-is" department, since it was the only crib of that model in the store. Smart hubby mentioned this to the cashier, and managed to swing a deal where we bought back the crib we had just returned, for 50% off. I will remember this as an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" lesson, although getting $80 back for our troubles wasn't a bad deal.