There are good and bad things to say about this bed-first the bad. The shipping box was completely inadequate for the task-when mine arrived all four corners had been completely destroyed and were open to the contents inside. One corner had clumsily-applied packing tape to try and seal it up but it had already ruptured as well. Had I been home when it arrived I would have rejected the delivery simply due to the fact that much damage to the package almost always means lost or damaged contents. Since it was already here, I went ahead and opened it to see if it was ok or needed to be returned. Unboxing the contents is no small task, and if you have to return it after youve removed everything, good luck getting everything back in (if youve already bought this you know what I mean). Two parts showed some damage; Ive contacted the manufacturer for replacements. The rating I gave reflects a satisfactory resolution of that issue; should that not happen, I will revisit the rating accordingly. The second issue (and it might be a deal-breaker for some) is the height of the safety rails-unless you use the thinnest mattress you can find, they are not nearly tall enough to be of any real use. If you use any quality mattress with a pillow top or something similar, the top of the mattress will be at or above the rail and there is no adjustment for that (the rails are approximately 11 ½ inches high). I was able to address that on two sides by sticking it in a corner, but I had to improvise something along the 2nd long side to keep the grandson from rolling out. The head is still exposed but he normally doesnt do much wiggling N to S when he sleeps, just E to W.
The good? The grandkids (3 and 5) absolutely love it, especially the slide. It isnt very long, but it is steep enough (and slick enough) to be a blast for them. They will play on it for hours if I let them. As a couple of previous reviews have noted, do yourself a favor and find some thin foam padding to put between the cross member supports and the slide itself, otherwise it will sound like theyre banging pots and pans in their room (there is a small 1/8 gap or so in the middle between the support and the bottom of the slide; since its all wood it can be very noisy when they slide down. The bed frame is very stable and I dont see any normal scenario where it could be tipped over. The assembly isnt tough, but it does take a while-allow an hour if youre by yourself, probably 40 minutes if theres two. The materials (except for the damaged ones) all seem well made, and there were no real issues with fit.
I gave it a 3 star rating primarily because of the safety rail issue-they really should be taller, and the improvised fix (part of a safety gate) I was forced to use detracts from the look of the bed.
UPDATE-after talking to customer service about the status of the replacement parts, I lowered the product rating to 1. The reason for this is they informed me that it will be a very long time before they will have the replacement parts to send to me. They wouldn't even guess as to when I might see it. Although in my case I was able to put the bed together and use it with the damaged parts, if you have something so messed up that you can't use the bed, it would appear that you will be waiting weeks or months to get the replacements. In this day and age, that is completely unacceptable customer service. Do yourself a favor and buy something else. It is a fun bed for the kids but it isn't worth the hassle if you have to get replacement parts.
The kids love it but.....
There are good and bad things to say about this bed-first the bad. The shipping box was completely inadequate for the task-when mine arrived all four corners had been completely destroyed and were open to the contents inside. One corner had clumsily-applied packing tape to try and seal it up but it had already ruptured as well. Had I been home when it arrived I would have rejected the delivery simply due to the fact that much damage to the package almost always means lost or damaged contents. Since it was already here, I went ahead and opened it to see if it was ok or needed to be returned. Unboxing the contents is no small task, and if you have to return it after youve removed everything, good luck getting everything back in (if youve already bought this you know what I mean). Two parts showed some damage; Ive contacted the manufacturer for replacements. The rating I gave reflects a satisfactory resolution of that issue; should that not happen, I will revisit the rating accordingly. The second issue (and it might be a deal-breaker for some) is the height of the safety rails-unless you use the thinnest mattress you can find, they are not nearly tall enough to be of any real use. If you use any quality mattress with a pillow top or something similar, the top of the mattress will be at or above the rail and there is no adjustment for that (the rails are approximately 11 ½ inches high). I was able to address that on two sides by sticking it in a corner, but I had to improvise something along the 2nd long side to keep the grandson from rolling out. The head is still exposed but he normally doesnt do much wiggling N to S when he sleeps, just E to W. The good? The grandkids (3 and 5) absolutely love it, especially the slide. It isnt very long, but it is steep enough (and slick enough) to be a blast for them. They will play on it for hours if I let them. As a couple of previous reviews have noted, do yourself a favor and find some thin foam padding to put between the cross member supports and the slide itself, otherwise it will sound like theyre banging pots and pans in their room (there is a small 1/8 gap or so in the middle between the support and the bottom of the slide; since its all wood it can be very noisy when they slide down. The bed frame is very stable and I dont see any normal scenario where it could be tipped over. The assembly isnt tough, but it does take a while-allow an hour if youre by yourself, probably 40 minutes if theres two. The materials (except for the damaged ones) all seem well made, and there were no real issues with fit. I gave it a 3 star rating primarily because of the safety rail issue-they really should be taller, and the improvised fix (part of a safety gate) I was forced to use detracts from the look of the bed. UPDATE-after talking to customer service about the status of the replacement parts, I lowered the product rating to 1. The reason for this is they informed me that it will be a very long time before they will have the replacement parts to send to me. They wouldn't even guess as to when I might see it. Although in my case I was able to put the bed together and use it with the damaged parts, if you have something so messed up that you can't use the bed, it would appear that you will be waiting weeks or months to get the replacements. In this day and age, that is completely unacceptable customer service. Do yourself a favor and buy something else. It is a fun bed for the kids but it isn't worth the hassle if you have to get replacement parts.