aloha2009 in general the "big" sales are far enough apart in time that they don't make any sense to wait for. If you wanted to wait for the countertop purchase, talk to a head person at that Ikea. They can make any deal they want to make; this can include a handwritten guarantee made to you that you will get store credit if you find out later that you would have qualified for a large discount by buying the cabs drawers and counter at Ikea during some future "event." If you ever did buy $1500 worth of drawers and then found out you could have saved $200 by buying months later, you have two choices. One is to say who cares it's only pennies a fraction of the total cost. Another choice is to line up, buy all the same drawers again, and then line up at the return counter with your few-months-old receipt to get store credit for that amount which is larger than the sale price of the day. Not optimal. Besides, the cabs and drawers are very low-price to begin with. They are worth buying at the moment you need them. For a countertop you might try negotiating your time+price guarantee. Hth

My understanding is that you can bring your receipt back into the store when the sale starts, and claim the promotion-after-the-fact. The family card offers 90 days or price protection. However, a salesperson noted to me to be sure the family card number is added to the sales receipt; it's not enough just to have the family card; that specific sale has to be hooked up with the family card number. I didn't ask about lighting. From what I gathered, you need everything grouped on one receipt, and at least with my local Ikea, the cabinet transaction was processed in the kitchen cabinets area by that dept's sales staff. As long as they can process items are part of the cabinet order transaction, I imagine it's included -- and if they cannot, it is not. Back when I had some in-cabinet lights on my floorplan, I seem to recall the cabinet lighting showing up on the shopping list that the planning software generates. It makes sense to me that at least those lights would be on the cabinet "side" of the operation. A small item to make sure to count, if it's relevant - ikea sells glass drawer sides and in-cabinet dividers (the white partition - things). If you'll be buying any, the codes for those items is clearly posted by the cabinet order computers. So you can definitely include those little items when trying to hit $4000. Everything I just wrote comes from things I was told or observed at my store. To be safe, I'd double check all any of these details if they are consequential.

If Ikea runs the upcoming sale like they did the previous sale, you can claim the giftcard, then turn around a use it right away. In our case, the sales lined up rather nicely: We ordered cabinets, knowing a sale was coming up. When the cabinet sale arrived, we took in our receipts and our Ikea family card. We were able to claim the 15 percent kickback to a giftcard on day 1 of the sale. We immediately placed a countertop order and applied the giftcard balance to it. Then, just inside of 90 days of our quartz counter purchase, Ikea ran a countertop sale. I again brought my Ikea receipts and Ikea family card into the store, and got almost $600 back on the counters. That one was a direct refund to my credit card, not a gift card. So, in the end, we in effect got two price reductions on the $79/sq foot quartz counters. Make sure your Ikea family card number is on all transactions, and do not lose any receipts. The Ikea can't look anything up, and only the family card purchases qualify for the 90 day price guarantees.

As for the "blame game" comment, I'll be happy to address it. IKEA has failed miserably during covid-19 and I say that due to customer service, not simply due to low stock. Try calling them. Just try. There management during this time can't even be classified as sub-par. Place an order, be given a delivery time. Call just to check on it or verify it the date. Let me know if you ever reach an actual person. It is absolutely ridiculous. I get low stock. Although, it really should be improving at this point (every store around here such as Hobby Lobby, Michaels, Tuesday Mornings, etc that had low stock issues before are near fully stocked). During all the closures, I shopped near exclusively online for awhile. Customer service has been top notch *Every* time with the exception of IKEA. They are a nightmare to deal with. In person, they are fine. But not for anything beyond that. Most companies are so thankful for your continued business during this time. IKEA doesn't seem to really care and that's a shame. I will still shop in their store in the future but never online again unless they can improve their customer service front and pick up the phone line, return emails, etc.