I really hate the idea of companies sending everything in pieces, for the consumer to put together. I especially hate it when I don't read the comments beforehand. Given that I had no room in my office for the books that I refer to often, I ordered a couple of metal bookcases to replace a couple of the small pieces of furniture that I had been using as bookcases. Looking at the pictures on Amazon.com, it looked like it would go together like erector set pieces and since the shelf details stated that it was capable of holding up to 750 pounds, I figured they'd be rigid pieces of metal. I was wrong on both counts. Although the process of assembly is that of an erector set, these shelves are made unnecessarily difficult. Being able to hold the pieces of metal in place so that the holes line up, while simultaneously screwing the nuts into the screws is very difficult. Nearly all the comments indicated this, but I didn't read them. One person headed his comment with, "This is the Second Worst Thing That's Happened to Me Since My Grandmother Died." There were far more one-star ratings than all of the others put together, and most of them had to do with the difficulty of assembly. The other problem is related. If this thing is capable of holding up to 750 pounds, this is on the basis of more physics than I could muster because the shelves are very flimsy. Since the corners of the shelves aren't rigid enough to maintain their form, I have to hold the corners of the shelves together in order to fit the screws in with one hand, place the nut on with a second hand, hold the nut in place with a third hand holding a needle nose pliers, then tighten it all up with my fourth hand, all the while my knees are hurting from the hardwood floor. My wife wants me to send it back, but I kind of want to together so that I can begin the process of putting my room back together without having to wait for another kind of shelf. I don't have a lot of patience with assembly to begin with, and this seems to be the worst kind of it. Had they simply sent me erector set pieces, only bigger, I wouldn't need instructions or four hands.
@Ken Anderson can relate to your frustration. Assembly and ridiculous packaging are on my list of pet peeves. However, I was pleasantly surprised a few years ago when I ordered a drying rack and (just like the description said) it came folded in a rectangular box and I only had to snap the top section on, which was easy.
...always read the bad reviews on Amazon, it will save lots of anger and frustration.. Confucius Say... Asking a stupid question is better than repairing a stupid mistake.
I read the comments for the TV console I bought from Amazon 3 years ago. Time to assemble was 3-4 hours depending who's comment you read. My son said that was ridiculous, he'd have it done in 20 minutes. It took him just over 4 hours, with a 15 minute coffee break. I strongly feel that things requiring full assembly ought to be labled as kits and sold as kits. You actually have to build the things!
I am really bad at spatial tasks, so I always read the comments, specifically to see how difficult things are to assemble. I know you're not near a city, Ken, but I've heard that some of the 'task' and 'gig' sites offer ones where (or you can post one) people will come assemble your items like the bookcase. I'd probably be upset, but would probably toss it back in the box and return it, since it sounds pretty flimsy. Otherwise, you may end up with a collapsed mess in a few months or a year, and have to start all over, with no recourse, since the return period will have expired.
For Christmas, we bought my wife a nice office/computer chair. It had to be ordered and when we picked it up, it was in pieces in a box. Could have paid the store to put it together, but I had put a small one together before and didn't have much of a problem.........of course, that was 13 years ago! I put together our desktop computer stand and done fine doing that, but again.......13 years ago. Anyway, got the chair home and the next day, while wife was at work, proceeded to put it together. My patience were starting to wear pretty thin as I tried to screw on an arm while trying to align the holes with the holes in the seat. Finally got the whole thing together, or should I say "Mission Accomplished" I pretty much always read Reviews for any product I buy online. Also, read Reviews about hotels that we might consider staying at on a trip. I also give online reviews of products I've bought from wherever. Also a member of TripAdvisor.com and give reviews of different places we been.
I'll post a link to my review once they approve it. I did manage to get one of them together but I sent the other one back. It took me more than nine hours and a lot of screaming to get one of them together and, even then, I went down to the hardware store to buy some extra brackets because it didn't seem very sturdy.
I was looking for a cabinet that would fit a small space in the kitchen that's only about 10 inches deep. I found one the perfect size at 7th Avenue and my wife really like the looks of it. When it came it seemed so simple to put together, and it would have been, but the holes on half of it were in the wrong place. I tried for a couple of hours turning it every which way. Nothing fit. I gave up and sent it back.