I decided to buy a new sofa. I actually put a little bit of money into it. It is yet to be delivered but yesterday I got the bright idea that I might need an end table; a resting place for my tub of popcorn, glass of wine, and TV remote as I reclined on my sofa. I saw some decent looking end tables on the internet at Affordable Furniture... well, at least the photos were decent looking. I went to the store and it was then I found out that the end table I liked was made by Sauder and needed home assembly. I asked a woman salesperson if the furniture was difficult to put together. She informed me she has assembled some furniture and she was confident that I could put together a simple end table. I already had the required screwdriver and pliers.
I bought the unassembled end table, drove home and slid everything out of the box onto my living room floor. The first thing I did was locate the directions. Step #1 was the attaching of one mechanical part to another. I think the parts were for the table's sliding drawer, but I'm not sure. I'm not sure because I could not get one of the pieces to connect into the other. I stared at the illustrated directions closely. I definitely had the correct two pieces, but it was no good, I simply could not figure how the one piece could possibly attach to the other piece. After about ten minutes of trying to figure out the puzzle, I gave up. Annoyed and frustrated, I dropped all of the panels, table legs, etc., into the box, tossed in the screws, bolts and sundry hardware, and quickly tapped the box closed with about fifteen feet of Scotch tape. About a half hour after making the purchase, I was back at Affordable Furniture returning my unmade end table.
It would have been nice, or at least a bit consoling if I had at least gotten beyond step #1. On the other hand, it is nice that I did not waste two hours putting things together only to get stymied on Step #6, or worse; step #14. It looks like if I'm going to have a decent, new end table at the end of my new sofa, I'm going to have to spend more than $59.95. That's okay, I'll pay it if nothing else; to avoid the agony.
Sometimes the time and effort is worth more than the money.
ReplyDeleteI found a Youtube video that showed how the parts were to be joined (a dow and a cam). It apparently involved joining two of the wooden sides of the table through holes that had already been drilled. I had no idea. The instructions, including the illustration, made no mention of the sides or the holes they allegedly fit in.
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