IKEA mails the piece free
IKEA will mail you the broken piece for free.
The order form takes one thing, a six digit spare part number.
One little metal screw snapped, and the bookcase is perfectly good otherwise. IKEA will send you a new screw for nothing. This is IKEA's spare parts tool, on a phone, signed out. Screws, knobs and hinges go out at no cost. The piece on the screen is a cam bolt, the long metal screw that pulls two boards together. People throw out a whole bookcase over a piece like this, because they cannot say what the piece is called.
The number is printed in one place
Every little piece has a six digit number, printed in one place.
Page 7 of BILLY’s 16 page assembly instructions, sideways, in receipt-sized print.
The tool has one box, and that box takes a spare part number, the six digit number IKEA gives every little piece. There is nowhere to describe the piece in your hand. That number is printed in one place, the parts list page of the assembly instructions, the booklet that came in the flat box. The bookcase here is the BILLY, IKEA's tall white one. In BILLY's instructions, the parts list is page seven of sixteen. Four pages in front of it are tip-over warnings in more than thirty languages. Page seven carries nine parts, each one a small line drawing, a quantity, and a six digit number turned on its side, printed as small as the print on a receipt.
Photograph the piece, then the furniture
Photograph the broken piece, then the furniture it fell out of.
Both pictures go in one message.
Free ChatGPT in the phone browser, signed out. The plus is labelled Add files and more.
Photograph the broken piece on its own, on a plain surface. Then photograph the whole bookcase, or just say its name if you already know it. Open ChatGPT in your phone's browser. Tap the plus on the left of the box, the one labelled Add files and more, and tap Photos. Both pictures go into one message. Signed out, with no account, ChatGPT took both photographs.
Assembly and documents
The assembly instructions live on the product’s own page on ikea.com.
Scroll to More information, then open Assembly and documents.
The page spells it Assembly and documents, under the heading More information.
ChatGPT named the BILLY off that room photo. Now go and get the page with the numbers on it. Open the BILLY page on ikea dot com, scroll down to the heading that says More information, and tap Assembly and documents. Open the instructions inside it and swipe along to the parts list page, the one covered in little drawings.
It read 118331 off the page
ChatGPT read part 118331 straight off a photo of the parts list page.
Asked cold about BILLY’s plastic shelf pegs, with no photo, it answered 101532.
101532 is a real IKEA part and the spare parts tool takes it. BILLY’s page lists nine numbers, and 101532 is not one of them.
Screenshot that parts list page. Add it to the same chat, and ask which of those numbers is the piece in your first photograph, reading it off this page only. ChatGPT reads it back. Part one one eight three three one, the leftmost fastener, twelve of them. Now, the sensible move looks like skipping the photographs and just asking ChatGPT for a number. I tried that twice. First I asked for the number of the plastic shelf pegs in a BILLY, and said just give me the number. ChatGPT answered part one zero one five three two. Six digits, nothing else. That number is a real IKEA part and the spare parts tool takes it. BILLY's page lists nine numbers, and that number is not one of them. So the order goes through and the wrong piece turns up next week. Then I asked about the cam bolt with no photo, and ChatGPT got that one right, off the web. ChatGPT also warned me, on its own, that BILLY has had several generations with different hardware, and asked what year I bought mine. A number off the web is right for a BILLY. The parts list page in your own box is right for yours.
Type this
Type this.
The exact words that produced the replies in this episode.
Here are the words to type, and you can screenshot this card. With the two photographs: this metal piece broke off the furniture in the second photo. Which IKEA product is that, and what is this piece called? Then, with the picture of the parts list page: this is the parts list page from the assembly instructions. Which of the numbers on this page is the piece in my first photo? Read it off this page only. That last line keeps ChatGPT on your page instead of on the whole internet.
Order the piece
Type the six digits into IKEA’s spare parts tool and order the piece.
Free, and about seven to ten business days to your door.
Type those six digits into IKEA's spare parts tool. Part one one eight three three one. Up comes IKEA's own drawing of the cam bolt, a quantity box, and Add to cart, all of it signed out. Free covers small pieces like screws, knobs and hinges. Bigger parts you collect at the store, and appliance parts go through a partner you pay. This is the US site, and about seven to ten business days, so the bookcase is fixed next week.
Two photographs, one order
Two photographs turned a broken screw into an order.
Every number here came off IKEA’s own page.
Every screen in this episode is a real capture. ChatGPT read part one one eight three three one off the parts list page. Then IKEA's tool took those six digits and came back with its own drawing of that cam bolt, with Add to cart under it. The piece on your floor now has a name, a number and an order, and it cost nothing.
Try this tonight
Try this tonight.
The part ships next week. Naming it takes two minutes.
The part arrives next week. Naming it takes two minutes tonight. Photograph the broken piece, photograph the thing it fell out of, and ask what it is. That is how the cam bolt got its number. Then go and find page seven.
