I arrived at IKEA just after six. Clutching my folders I made the long and twisting walk to the kitchen section, secured an English speaking assistant (Alex) and finalised the plans and quotation. We picked delivery and fitting dates and I just had a nagging doubt that it was all going too well. Then I went to pay and after queuing at the only ‘manned’ till for fifteen minutes I got to the front, but she didn’t speak English.<\/p>\n
I managed to explain that I was paying for a kitchen, she pushed all the relevant buttons and swiped my Spanish debit card. ‘Rehusado’ (refused), she said. ‘Try again’<\/em>, I sheepishly suggested, already feeling a little embarrassed. She did and again it failed, she suggested I might not have a large enough limit.<\/p>\n Panic set in.<\/p>\n I asked her to ‘try for \u20ac4,999’<\/em>, thinking my limit may be \u20ac5,000. ‘Rehusado’<\/em>. ‘Try \u20ac3,000’<\/em>. ‘Rehusado’<\/em>. ‘\u20ac2,500’<\/em>, all the time\u00a0trying to work out\u00a0how I was going to be able to pay the balance. ‘No funciona Se\u00f1or,\u00a0\u00a0lo siento’<\/em>.<\/p>\n The queue behind me was getting impatient. I turned and announced my apology in my best castilian<\/a>, red faced, and starting to perspire and panic.<\/p>\n I moved through the till and\u00a0resorted to calling the number on the back of the card. The first number spoke no English, and gave me a second number. The second number spoke no English\u00a0but kindly\u00a0put me through to someone who could. I explained the situation to\u00a0the man on the other end of the phone, way beyond the scope of my Spanish, and\u00a0went through endless security questions before he told me that my daily limit was just \u20ac1,200.<\/p>\n I asked if it could be increased. He checked the account and found we’d more than three times the cost of the kitchen in our building account and\u00a0suggested that\u00a0it would be no problem, he just needed to clear it with my branch manager and his supervisor.<\/p>\n After what seemed an age, me on a mobile phone with unknown credit remaining and in fear of being cut off any second, he came back and told me that my branch had been closed since lunchtime (I could have told him that!) and that the best that they could do was double my limit to \u20ac2,400. I’d already spent \u20ac75 on it that day so my daily limit was now \u20ac2,325. Resolved to defeat I thanked him and asked him to ‘make it so’<\/em>.<\/p>\n It had never crossed my mind that there would be a credit limit, especially one so low. I have three active UK credit cards, all of which would have covered the cost of the kitchen without breaking into a sweat. It was one of these which would now\u00a0take the brunt of the transaction, at some shocking conversion rate, and be treated as a cash withdrawal accruing interest from that moment until I settled the bill.<\/p>\n Paperwork stamped, but still stunned, I left IKEA for the two hour drive to the house to check the staircase (see last blog), and then on to our long suffering friends Stephen & Kay for sustenance, sympathy and a soft bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The only real reason for my brief visit to Galicia last week was order and pay for the kitchen that we’d chosen, and for which we’d had our measurements confirmed, from IKEA in A Coru\u00f1a. Landing just after 14:00 at … Continue reading ![\"kitchenikea20121116\"](\"http:\/\/www.visitgalicia.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/kitchenikea20121116.jpg\")
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