Welcome to WriteBrand’s first Public Service Announcement. At approximately 11:30 Friday morning, Janelle’s tempered glass-top Ikea desk exploded. Not cracked, not shattered, it actually exploded. Kaboom.
Fortunately, Janelle was working elsewhere at the time and no one was in her office. We heard a loud bang and, after running to check all the occupied rooms, unlocked her door to find the entire room covered in broken glass. After ruling out anything falling on it or (we hope) paranormal activity, a quick Google search revealed that this is not unheard of. (Are you backing away from your glass-topped desk yet? Good. Keep reading.)
Apparently tempered glass is easily “compromised”, and once compromised can spontaneously explode at any time. The good news is, tempered glass is made to break up into chunks not shards. (Note: chunks of glass can still cut you, but it is slightly easier to clean up.) The bad news is, um, it explodes!? Doesn’t this seem like something that deserves a warning sticker at the very least? You know, like, “Careful – coffee may be hot!” Or in this case, “Heads up – desk may be explosive!”
After contacting Ikea customer service (don’t even get us started on the guy in the remote call center who asked us to help him get a job in LA – after we told him our desk just exploded), we were told by not one, but two representatives to collect the 25 pounds of shattered glass, put it in a box, and return it to the store with our original receipt in order to get a replacement. (Wow, just wow, Ikea. We’re making a list of things you can do with your meatballs right now.)
Four and a half hours later, the cleanup continues. We did manage to get hold of a manager who offered to ship out a replacement desk, without us having to return the shattered remains to the Burbank store—a real peak moment for customer service.
Which just leaves us wondering what to do about the other three tempered glass-top desks in our office. Are we now playing Russian roulette with every keystroke?
Well, we’ve always said we chose careers in marketing because we liked danger…
One Comment