I agree and disagree with you at the same time.

Some items are indeed crap, and I won't buy them (especially in their first version). But some others, including office chairs suit me well. I bought 3 of them at least, and never experienced any problem.

The lack table will surely break soon, but what do you exactly expect from a 10 bucks table ? :)

I don't know exactly out of France, but the other furniture stores are usually more expensive, and offer crappier stuff than Ikea. (As long as you don't search for a 200 euro table of course).