This is an unfortunate situation. While I agree that it is totally Ikea's fault, the only thing I can recommend for the future is to never purchase furniture so far away from home again. Obviously, you're not going to open up a box of furniture before you leave the store because everything is supposed to be in there. I purchased 2 bookshelves from Ikea once and noticed the second one was missing half the hardware when I put it together. Luckily I had extra of the same kind on hand at home, because I didn't even feel like driving back a half an hour to go pick up the missing pieces. I have tons of other things from Ikea though and never had any other problems. Good luck to you.