I'll take that criticism. It's difficult to dispute the charges when I did receive a table, I'm attempting to get warranty work done, the company was claiming to work with me, and that much time elapsed (payment was in March, warranty repair started May). I posted my note as only a cautionary tale.
Here are pictures of the old table. One showing the damage upon receipt, the next with the hinge supports all splitting at the same time from simply closing the table, and a third showing a weak joint near the strut and nailing into the edge of plywood.
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On the same day that I posted negative reviews, I also contacted the company about these negative reviews. The next day I had a table being shipped and it arrived yesterday. The company cited "design changes" as their reason for delays twice. After a very thorough review of the construction and comparing the two with a tape measure, I can find no design changes. Unfortunately I did find a couple of paint issues and a dent in the plywood. Very disappointing to see that on my replacement. I also noticed that both tables must extend down a bit too far because my carpeting was rubbing away.
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On the new table, I decided to void my table's "warranty" and fix what I could. Instead of having bolts that simply get screwed into the wood (lots of wishful thinking there - my bolts pulled out of the wood), I replaced them with slightly longer bolts and added nuts to help with the shear force that the hinges exert. My belt sander also took down the bottoms of the hinge areas by a quarter inch to help preserve the carpeting.
Edit: The right side strut just pulled out of the table. I didn't put any weight on it and merely tested opening and closing the table a couple times.
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I
really like the design and how it is intended to work.
- Installation is a breeze.
- The solid back covers up the unsightly area where the smaller plastic part was removed from the tailgate.
- The one-handed operation is wonderful.
- It holds a decent amount of weight.
Removing 1/4" from the bottom, using slightly longer bolts and adding lock washers (with internal teeth) and nuts seem to be the major fixes that are needed. I might need to reinforce the strut area with sheet metal. The high-stress areas seem to align the stresses with the layers of plywood, which is the weakest part. Plus there's the top of the strut that's nailed into the edge of the plywood - I don't know of anyone who thinks that attaching plywood at the sides is a good idea.
Edit: Looks like I will be drilling through the table where the screws hold the struts in place so I can put more bolts in.
However, the turd in the soup is the
terrible customer service.
- The initial order took weeks to leave their facility.
- Their email address stopped working and started bouncing.
- The online chat was non-responsive half of the time, even though it clearly said that someone had read my message.
- They never reached out to me to explain a delay or to let me know; all of the communication was initiated by me.
- They appear to have lied about the product redesigns.
- The replacement table has defects.
I don't think that the company realizes that terrible customer service means your company tanks due to reputation, but amazing customer service can get customers to still be happy even when there are issues.
