****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I purchased this file cabinet because it has the functionality and look that I wanted. Assembly wasn't all that difficult but I do wish they'd publish a better instruction manual. The drawers were and adventure to put in the assembled frame. Push, back out, push, back out push again and it goes in. It almost felt as the frame was too small for the drawers but once they are in they work fine. Now it is completely assembled and I would be 100% pleased if the unit wasn't so wobbly. I hope it stands up to some use for a while before it collapses.The bad: My experience started off poorly, as I unpacked the pieces to discover that several of them were damaged. Most were purely cosmetic, but three in particular were cracked badly enough that I worried about its stability. I also noticed that the product had a very strong chemical smell. I aired it out in my garage for a week (more on that later), but I can still smell it faintly, almost three weeks later.The good: To their credit, Winsome made it very easy to get replacements for my broken pieces. I just filled out a quick web form, meaning no long hold time on the phone. The parts were shipped the next day and arrived within a week. So I was rather pleased with that (and besides, it gave me time to get rid of the noxious smell from the other pieces).More bad: Unfortunately, one of my three replacement pieces was cracked in the exact same place as the original, albeit less severely. Since it was packed quite differently than the entire product was, this seems to suggest a quality issue in production, rather than damage during transport, but I guess I don't know that for sure. At that point, I suppose I could have requested another replacement. But that would have meant waiting another week, and this time the crack was slight enough that I wasn't so worried about it breaking apart. So I decided to live with the cosmetic blemish and start building.More good: Assembly was quick and easy. No issues at all with pieces not fitting together (we've all been through that, right?) The product looks very nice (aside from the visible crack on mine) and the drawers slide smoothly.Good to know: Like most furniture of this type, the backing is flimsier than the rest of the pieces, more like cardboard than wood. Whereas I'm more accustomed to the back being nailed onto the surrounding frame, in this case you just slide it into grooves on the sides and bottom. While this made assembly a little easier, I've found that even with all the cam locks tightened securely, this is still lacking some lateral stability. It wobbles a little side-to-side, which is kind of unfortunate for me since my primary reason for buying it was to hold a laser printer.The recurring damage and stability issues offset the nice looks and easy assembly to give me an overall impression of "just average."Box came damaged. Took picture of it for proof of damage.Outer box should be secured better but inner contents were fine as it was well protected with foam panels. Lay out all the parts to check for correct quantity and damage and fit. Sides and top are one piece . Install all male/female fasteners in place. Assemble all drawers. After assembling lots of these type of units using cam bolts I find that using wood glue such as Titebond easily found at Home Depot Lowe’s hardware stores where the wood joins together greatly adds to the rigidity of the piece. Especially with moving drawers and filled with heavy files. Look you are not going to take these apart again so if this was a real piece of furniture it would be glued that way anyway. Also glue the back panel. This type of assembly will loosen up in time if not immediately otherwise. This is a heavy piece and having a helper help you assemble it would make it much easier. The finish is scratched easily so be careful. The piece looks nice and does not look like a bolt it together piece of furniture when done. Decent unit for the price but a bunch of MDF with cam bolt assembly hardly qualifies as a nice piece of furniture to me just a functional unit. I assembled mine on a carpeted table and would have found it awkward and uncomfortable to assemble on the floor. Final recommendation if you have the means just buy one fully assembled frankly these aren’t worth the time and trouble.I only chose this one as its dimensions and features suited my needs. Tip: the most accurate easy to assemble units I have built are IKEAFirst, very surprisingly, the price of $112 was the lowest offered by Amazon. Second, the filing cabinet was to be delivered within two days - Amazon Prime. After about two days later, I got notifications that the cabinet wouldn’t arrive for another 5 days or so. I waited for the delivery because the cabinet looked nice, even though it’s made from pressed board - I like solid wood.Finally, my item arrived at my front door(more on that another time). I was quite miffed with the packing. I had to get my vacuum cleaner hooked up and ready, as I had to vacuum each part because the foam packing broke into tiny pieces and stuck to the cabinets. Only way to get it off was the vacuum. Anyways, as I started to vacuum each part I started to find broken parts, nicked parts, scratched parts, etc. After I found so many pieces damaged, I decided to pack it and send it back. Good riddance to bad rubbish. I hope that you’ll find the pics helpful and understand my frustrations, too.On an important note, I’m not liking the fact that when merchandises are made overseas, Amazon side steps the issue by stating “Imported”. It should be honestly stated, i.e., Made in China or Hecho en Mexico, etc. Truth is rare in our society!Not a bad product but we received two left pieces for one of the drawers instead of one left and one right. Contacted the company and haven’t heard back. Wound up fixing it ourselvesVery disappointed in this product. 2 pieces were damaged but were noticed well into the assembly process. Once assembled, we discovered that the bars were too far apart to hang a regular sized file folder, and the section to hang legal sized was extremely small and inconvenient. We ended up cutting off one of the bars in each drawer so that we could use legal files only. Whatever lacquer is used on this item is VERY pungent and made our whole house smell. This product is not worth considering.Once built we tried to get file sleeves. All sizes we tried were too small. This must be a European sized cabinet. Wanted to return the cabinet, but supplier insisted that we pay freight charges, $125.00. Kept the cabinet and it is now in the basement.Received broken A very poor quality and material for the price that you payIt arrived in good shape.... It was missing two small pc for the file folders to slide on. I emaild and was sent out the replacements fast. It works perfect and I'm very happy!Extremely disappointed in this item! Put it together only to find that the drawer and sliding mechanism were damaged and poorly fitting! Returned the item! Expected better quality than received! Would not buy this brand
