Star Quality Furnitue
I cannot stress this enough – do NOT purchase any Star “Questionable” Quality Furniture.
I just finished putting together their Executive Desk (from Staples), and the end result is awful.
First of all, the desk came with marks all over it. It was not very noticeable when we first unpacked the parts; but, after it was finished, the marks were hard to ignore. Below are various marks along the top of the desk (very visible when you walk into the room).
Secondly, the drawers are all off uneven even though we followed all of the instructions and put the screws through all of the marked holes. The red circles are marks to the front of the desk, the green circles are gaps in the drawer.
Overall, it was very bad quality for the asking price, and I am in the process of disassembling it to be returned for my money back. I actually ordered two of them, and I am not even going to bother opening the second box, it is also going back.
Staples.ca
I also have a warning for anyone thinking of ordering online through the staples.ca website.
Avoid it if possible. If not, do NOT rely on their quoted delivery date!
My delivery was a day late. That may not sound like a big deal; but, when you have to be home from 8am-5pm for the delivery truck – it’s a major pain when it doesn’t show up. Even worse, nobody even bothered to call me to let me know it wasn’t going to arrive. After 5pm, I called the call center asking when it would arrive, they all said they would contact the shippers who would call me. No call – ever from the shipping company. I stayed home again the next day, and the truck randomly shows up in the afternoon – no notice. See below for an update.
Now, you may think this is a good thing, well apparently the truck only has one person working, which isn’t good when it takes a minimum of two people (strong people) to lift each box. According to the instructions, each box weighs around 170lbs. I could barely lift my end into the house, and on second thought, I should have refused to help right from the beginning. My arms are actually sore today, and I am positive it was from lifting two of those 170lbs boxes with the deliver guy.
Below is the picture on the box. Notice the two people carrying it!
Updated (Sept 12, 2008) - I was just contacted by Armour Transportation, who I had originally blamed in the shipping process; however, I was informed that the delays were due to Staples. Staples was late shipping the desks, failed to call me, and then turned around at the last minute to pass it off to Amour to deliver.
Staples knew ahead of time that the desks weighed 160lbs and took two people to carry; but, this was not communicated to Armour.
Armour was very quick to respond to my concerns, investigated fully internally, and was friendly through the process. My opinion of Armour Transportation has greatly improved, and I would encourage everyone to check them out when you need to ship something.
