Day 74: Shopping for furniture.

Today was a day earmarked for blogging and getting the paperwork ready for tonight's second trip to IKEA. Because it was after closing time, we didn't get our VAT forms completed by IKEA to safe the 19% German taxes. We'll do that tonight when we go to IKEA again.

Ted finally sent me our insurance claim forms for our German clinic visits and pharmacy receipts. I'm able to get those all organized electronically and sent to the insurance company in...where else...California! It's ever so much faster when you can do the forms online, print them and make an electronic copy (.pdf) and send them via email. My contact person in California is very gracious and is waiting for those forms. She will have them this afternoon!

Ted left for work very early (before 7am) so he will most likely be home early and we can have a quick dinner and leave.

At IKEA, we already had the paperwork from last night to get the rest of our order, we just had to go to the warehouse and pull the boxes. We find the table (it's in two boxes) and very heavy but we manage to get it on the cart. We find the chairs and they are light and we manage to get those on the cart as well.

Ted informs me that he thinks the barstool he bought is a little short and he wants the higher one for work. So since he knows where those are located, he picks the taller one up and puts it on the cart. OK. We can use the other one for the work table in the kitchen. It will be perfect for snacks. We'll need to get another one but not tonight. I'm sure we will be back at IKEA getting other things in the future so I'm not going to sweat it.

We get in line and pay for the items. We go to the transport desk to arrange the delivery. It appears I was mistaken there IS a delivery charge for the orders. I just wish we had done everything in one fell swoop but Ted was afraid that the items we wanted would be out of stock. When I checked the delivery sheet from last night, it did indeed have a charge on it. Too bad the guy from last night bamboozled us about the delivery charge. Although, I don't' think he understood enough English to know what we were saying. Being in a foreign country where you don't understand the language is awful!

After the delivery has been scheduled, this one for Wednesday of next week, we look around to see where we go for the VAT form. We get in line and the lady says something in RAPID German and points to an area where there are sofas and chairs. I noticed that there are a few people sitting there, in particular, a pregnant woman. She must have seen the dazed, confused look on my face and pointed to a pole and held up her ticket. OH! You have to have a ticket and get in line that way! That's what those numbers were above the clerks' heads. We walk over to the opposite side of the pole and there are three buttons with German words next to them. I look at Ted, he looks at me and shrugs his shoulders and pushes one of t hem. Out pops our number. It is 294 and they are on 292. OK. We can sit for a few minutes and wait, so we do.

Now it's our turn. Of course the first words out of my mouth are "Sprechen sie Englisch?" (Do you speak English?). Sigh again. She doesn't. I show her the VAT form and she totally understood what we needed. I held up my hand and showed her TWO forms (one for tonight and one for last night). She quickly...and I mean QUICKLY, completed those complicated 4-5 page documents, made copies of the receipts, has us sign the two forms and takes us over to the cashier. This is efficiency!

Since I'd never done this before, I was expecting that we would receive a check in the mail. Not so, IKEA gives us our money back, right then and there! I'm a happy camper.

She cuts us in line (ahead of all these people) and the cashier begins to process the VAT form. The first one we get back 65.02 EURO. OK! Almost enough for the delivery! That will work!

The second one there's a problem. The cash register says 8504 EURO! If only it were true. The cashier realizes there's a mistake somewhere (it should have been 85.04 EURO) and calls our lady back over. She literally RUNS over to the register and Ted whispered in my ear..."and she's no spring chicken, either". She RUNS the paperwork back to her desk, checks it and RUNS back to the cashier. In the meantime, the Cashier explains to the waiting customers what's going on. I guess she told them to get into another line because some folks moved over to other lines while others did not.

It appears her register is frozen on that transaction and she needs a head cashier to release the transaction. While all this was going on, we started a conversation with the guy behind us. He works on base and he's from Alabama. He said the VAT forms are a pain but why pay 19% tax on big ticket items when you don't have to?

Finally, the transaction is released and we get our money and leave. Again almost enough for the second delivery so that a good thing!

I'm ready to go home. Too much excitement for me these past few days! ;)

Thursday 06/04/09