Back in April, I decided I was ready to transition to a sit/stand desk – sitting all day isn’t particularly healthy, but neither is standing, so I wanted a desk that would do both. I found one I liked and decided the discount (10% or so) was worth ordering the repackaged one that had been returned. After all, they guarantee that it has been checked for damage and all of the parts are included.
Narrator voice: This was not the case.
Due, among other things, to slightly delayed delivery and my work travel, the box sat unopened for over a month. That was my fault. When I finally opened the box, the first problem I noticed was some damage on a couple corners of the desk pieces. I could have worked with that.
The second problem I noticed was the absence of assembly instructions. Fortunately my order email included a link to a PDF for those… except that part letters and numbers on the PDF didn’t match the pieces I received. It did get me to the point where I could at least check for all the parts, which led to the third problem… they weren’t all in the box. Specifically, I was missing the wheels and the metal bar (in 2 parts) that connects the motor to the legs in order to switch the height.
After some back and forth with Customer Service (a couple people, the AI chatbot couldn’t help me because of the 30-day window), where I made it clear that I only needed the missing parts and accurate instructions… they issued a full refund and said I could dispose of or keep the desk. By that point, the desk was assembled – the damaged corners notwithstanding – so I tried reaching out to the manufacturer to order replacement parts. Alas, I received no response.
So I ordered the same desk again. I skipped the repackaged option this time, and made sure to open the box the day after it arrived.
Assembly instructions: included! And with part labels that matched the stickers! (And for the record, that metal bar… was one piece, not two, making the mismatched instructions for the first build that much more frustrating.)
But… why aren’t there wheels? Not in the box, and not on the instructions, but the desk is listed on the website as having wheels.
Back to the website, then, where the AI chatbot apologized for the inconvenience and placed a replacement parts order.
Several days later, I received an email stating that the replacement parts order had been cancelled (no explanation of why), and they were sending me another “unit” instead. Yes, really, they were sending me a third desk.
By this point, I made the assumption that the third desk would be packaged identically to the second – without wheels. I went elsewhere and ordered a dozen wheels, which is enough for all three identical desks. The wheels and third desk arrived the same day.
I am happily relocated to my new desk, am working on clearing out my old one, which is destined to become our garage workbench. The two spare desks – one slightly damaged, and one unopened in its box – are going home with a friend soon to his new apartment. With wheels. All for the cost of one desk and some extra wheels.
