Not worth your time or money! (Oxford Small Sideboard)

Member Name: tobymummy

Product:	Oxford Small Sideboard
Date:	19/02/08 (144 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good instructions!

Disadvantages: Everything else!!!!

When you have a child with an ever increasing number of toys, books and puzzles, you need somewhere to store everything. My husband and I started looking around for something which would fit snugly in the corner of the room: not too wide, (to block the door,) but not too high either or it would sit too high above the window sill.

We searched in Ikea, our local shops and Argos and found the Oxford small sideboard. (From Argos.) With dimensions of 78.8cmW x 38.8cmD x 74.1cmH, it would fit nicely where we needed it.

The unit is an Antique pine finish, with bun feet, and matching pine timber knobs, as you can see from the picture above, there are two drawers and a cupboard with two doors, inside you find a removable shelf.

We used the internet to reserve the item, and collected it the next day, I couldn't collect it on my own as it was too heavy too carry, we got it home and started to build.

The unit comes flat-packed, (like most things nowadays) which I don't mind, I am someone who likes doing this sort of thing!! Everything was there, and the instructions were very clear, one thing we were surprised at though, was the wood was not solid, it was made of chipboard and badly laminated, where edges didn't match properly. I had some worries before we started about the quality, but carried on with the build.

The main frame was put together, we attached the back board with the small nails, stood the unit up, ready to insert the drawers and add the doors. The drawers didn't fit!! I couldn't believe it, I had made them properly, but no matter which way round you put them, them never sat flush with the unit, one was always overlapping the other, they didn't even slide properly, to pull them out you had to use your whole body to support the unit; which is not ideal, when this unit was going to be for Toby's stuff. I am going risking him pulling the drawers and the unit falling on top of him!!

Whilst I had been sorting the drawers out my husband had done the inside shelf, which was only half the depth of the main unit, not worthy of holding anything. He also fitted the doors, and no matter how he adjusted the hinges the unit looked twisted. There was nothing we could do to make it look half decent!!

You can probably tell, from what you have just read that I was not happy with my purchase!!! We paid £60 for something that was not even worth 10, if we had paid £10 or even £20, then I would expect poor quality!

We phoned customer services, who told us to take the unit apart, package it up and return it to the store for a full refund, (well I should think so!!)

We must have wasted at least 6 hours of our Saturday, collecting, building, dismantling, and returning this item. I am writing this to save you from wasting your time with this style of products from Argos. I'm not saying that all their furniture is bad quality, as we have bought stuff from them before with no problems. I often buy stuff from Argos, as they have several large stores nearby, and a good range of products to choose from. With their furniture you can't see the product before you buy, compared with smaller items which they display around their store, so spend time looking around and think twice before choosing what you want.

We have to keep looking around for something suitable, if any one out there can recommend a unit, then any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading

Nicola x 19/02/08

Summary: A useless, twisted piece of wood.