FALSE ECONOMY! not that cheap and not that cheerful (Argos Auckland Bedroom Furniture)

Member Name: forestgateaux

Product:	Argos Auckland Bedroom Furniture
Date:	21/01/09 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: would be useful in a small bedroom

Disadvantages: bad quality and not much space

My landlord allowed me to choose some new bedroom furniture for the new year.

I had been shopping around for about a month before finally deciding on a 3 piece set from Argos. The Auckland set seemed very good value at just under £200 for a wardrobe, chest of draws and bedside table.

It was easy to order from the Argos website and the items were delivered within 3 days.

However, on receiving the good I was fairly disappointed.

The wood they are made from is not at all good quality. It is a lot darker than the photograph shows, almost black.

Although it has a glossy finished look there are areas of unfinished wood, scratches and even a large indentation in the top of the wardrobe door.

The backing to all the furniture is a piece of that flexible mdf chip board - the sort you expect to get on a cheap bookshelf. I think it's fine for the bedside table but you would expect a wardrobe to have a wooden back. It is unlikely to last for more than a couple of years, and I imagine it will be very annoying when it finally falls off!

It was also frustrating to put together. The screws provided were made from bad quality, soft metal. This meant that our average quality screwdriver was made from a harder metal and destroyed the 'X' in the top of the screw. This made it very hard to work with. One of the screw holes was also in the wrong place and we had to drill a new one in.

My final criticism, which I mention more as an observation (as it was my fault for not checking) is that furniture is a lot smaller than you'd expect. Argos obviously provide measurements before you buy, but it's hard to invision how big something will be just by using a tape measure in the space it will end up in. The 3 door wardrobe is only the size of an average 2 door wardrobe. The draws in the 5 door chest are very shallow, so that you can't really fit much in each one.

Now that it's finished and set up it does look acceptable, or even good, but if you examine it up close you can see the imperfections.

If I had bought this with my own money I would not have been happy with it and would probably have asked for a refund.

My recommendation is to go to Ikea for flat pack furniture. I know they have nightmare stories associated with them but from my experience it is much better quality than Argos.
Even better still though - go to your local salvation army or other charity shop, and pick up a gorgeous antique set for half the price.

However, if you have a small bedroom these could be a good idea, especially if the furniture is to be a temporary solution.

Summary: This is not the best value for money, you can probably do better at ikea!