Customer Reviews

South Shore Furniture, Cakao Collection, 5 Drawer Chest, Chocolate

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My daughter is moving into our bigger spare bedroom, she's 8, and I wanted to get her some bedroom furniture that wasn't too expensive because we are on a budget and something that would hopefully last her until she goes to college (I know that's pushing it), I think this dresser is it! It took about 3 hours to put together by myself, but I also have a household to take care of so it was not an uninterrupted 3 hours (I am kind of a control freak so that's why I did it by myself). After I finished I was totally pleased! It was sturdy, good size drawers, and the color is a perfect match with the picture. I ordered the full headboard and bed also but have not had time to put it together yet, hopefully this weekend, I am excited to see how those turn out also!

This is by far the worst piece of furniture I have ever assembled. It took forever, and the parts are very ill fitting. I will never buy another South Shore product again. I will say that it is heavy, and will more than likely last a good while. Also South Shore has very responsive customer service. But this is the second SS product we have assembled, and both are a pain to put together and both have poor fit and finish, even for the low price.

I got this a few weeks ago and must say the design of it looks way above its price. People always compliment me on my furniture, thinking I spent so much on it, but I guess thats just between me and you now. Now some other reviewer said that their granddaughter or someone was able to set this up alone. I don't want to recommend anyone voiding their warranty, but I built mine with a power drill (they say it doesn't require it and may damage wood, but I didn't have any problems) and yet it took me around a week to getting around finishing it. The drawers were a PAIN to assemble, it requires a bit of force, and at many times I was worried I was going to break the drawers. All in all, everything did fit and come together. When you complete the chest though, you might notice it sways side to side easily, if you haven't nailed in the back panel that will happen so watch for that. Filling up the drawers will also keep it stable. It comes with a hook thing to keep it nailed to the wall so that it doesn't tip over atop your curious 3 year old.

Once assembled its pretty fine and functional, I guess I'd be happier if the drawers were a bit longer, since the way it is now I can fit three piles of boxers next to each other, but there is space for a half pile of boxers behind, which doesn't cut it. The drawers won't fall out if you accidentally pull them to far, they have a sort of lock on them that keeps it from coming completely out.

One thing of note, this thing ships weird. This is the first product I bought that hasn't come on time according to the amazon delivery estimate. It didn't even ship at that point. Two days after the delivery estimate (5 days after I placed my order) the Fedex tracking number still had no information, and when I called them they told me it was in Canada, so if your in a rush for this don't order from south shore, it takes around a week and half to arrive. The packaging was heavy too.

As other reviewers have said, this dresser is a pain to put together. The thing that is most puzzling to me, though, is that it took about 5 hours to assemble and I didn't have to backtrack, nor did I mess up on any of the steps. I guess my point is, the instructions are clear, there are just a lot of them, and they all seem to be pretty time consuming. There are steps that require you to put screws in places that don't seem to serve any purpose. For the most part, the body of the dresser went together quickly enough, it's mainly the drawers that take a long time. There must be a much faster way to put this together, and if I'd been bold maybe I would tried, but I just assumed that the reviewers saying this took a long time to assemble must have been more amateur than myself. Not so, unfortunately.

That is pretty much the only con, and now that's out of the way, I should say what is good about it. Pretty much everything else, actually. Once put together, the dresser (with drawers) is very heavy and sturdy. No wobble (for me at least, maybe I got lucky), all of the holes seemed to line up with all the hardware (a common problem in cheaper furniture), and it also arrived without scratches or marks of any kind.

The box it arrived in was pretty compact, but extremely dense. I am no weakling, but I was only able to drag this. I definitely needed a second person to help me carry the box up the stairs to my apartment. The screws and assorted hardware was all packaged neatly, however there was so many individual packages it may feel a little overwhelming. I ended up just tearing all the packages open and sorting the hardware right on the carpet. I think it was easier, but maybe I'm wrong.

Overall the dresser looks nice, is sturdy, and the price is right. Assembly seems to go on forever, and the bottom drawer required a bit of jimmying to get it in the dresser, but once in there is not catch or problem opening and closing it.

One note, though, to anyone set on buying this: One of the final steps in the instructions tells you to put two screws into each drawer, one on each side, through the plastic pieces that will fit into the dresser body in order to make it slide in and out. It then says to use 6 or 8 nails or whatever to hammer into the bottom of each drawer to hold it in place. Instead of doing all the hammering I just used the two screws it tells you to use in the plastic (the plastic pieces are already very firmly set anyways), and screwed them into the back of the drawer through the fiberboard bottom. It feels just as secure, and saved me an additional half hour or so. The drawers are not terribly deep, and there is no worry whatsoever that four pairs of pants or 12 t-shirts are going to put anywhere near the amount of strain on the bottom of a drawer to break it.

see my review of the dresser from this collection. I would recommend this items and the others in this set as a great value for the price.

This dresser looks good...its very well priced...however it is cheap made. The dresser shelf bottoms are held by card board...if you try to stuff your drawer its gonna break. It is gonna take some time to put together took me about 3 hours but nothing I didn't expect and the directions were simple to read. It does seem sturdy enough to hold everything in it as long as you put it together properly, I would not recommend buying this if you plan on keeping it for a long time this is a cheap and nice looking dresser nothing more.

The directions state that it requires two people, a hammer, Phillips head and flat head screwdrivers. The two people is probably due to the 81 pound weight to bring it to where you will assemble it. However, with a hand truck, I was able to handle it alone. The assembly itself was also accomplished without any assistance. There also is no need for a flat head screw driver. The packaging is quite substantial and protects the pieces quite nicely, but leaves a lot of packing material for disposal.

Some tips for assembly:

Unpack all items, identify and separate them by part numbers. Unpack all hardware except the drawer hardware and check it for quantity against the inventory list. (The drawer hardware comes in separate packages and is not needed until the cabinet is assembled). You should study the instructions so you have a clear idea of the assembly process. As suggested in the instructions, the layout and assembly should all be done on a carpeted surface to avoid scratching the finish. The instructions are primarily blueprints and will require you to identify orientation of the pieces to the hardware. If you do, you will not make any mistakes or have to disassemble anything. If it feels you must force a hardware item into the unit, you probably have misidentified the correct one. All the holes and hardware aligned without problem in my assembly; therefore, don't come to a snap decision to get out a drill. After installing the drawer guides on the side of the drawers, assemble each drawer separately. Skip ahead and notice that the small O rings attach to the top of the drawer guides that are inside the cabinet and install these after assembly of the first drawer. Then, as assembly of each drawer is complete, install them from bottom to top. The drawers should go in fairly easy and I put a drop of gun oil on the guides to facilitate their smooth operation. The entire assembly took about 2 3/4 hours (with time outs for coffee and to get up from laying on the floor).

A few words about the construction and material of the unit. This is not a family heirloom and you should understand that, in daily use it will probably not last more than 5 to 10 years. I purchased this for a very seldom used guest room. I would also not call it an "easy assembly." However, common sense and patience will go a long way to making it manageable. It is made of composite material and has a very thin finish which will scratch easily if you are not careful. Two-thirds of the back of the unit is nailed on cardboard. The bottom of the drawers are also a cardboard composite. However, they are held securely in place and are sturdy enough that they will not bend or sag unless you plan to store your gold bullion in them. (But than again, if you had gold bullion, you probably wouldn't be buying this to begin with).

The unit looks exactly like the picture and as long as you understand the assembly and what you are getting, you should not be disappointed.

I happily read reviews that said "arrived quickly". My experience was the opposite: the 1st one was damaged in transit, and I received an e-mail telling me so. I asked them to send another one. They didn't--instead they sent FedEx to "pick up" the original dresser--which had never been sent to me. When that was finally straightened out (2 weeks later), they said they'd send a new dresser. They didn't. When I e-mailed "WHERE'S MY DRESSER?", they suddenly shipped it that day. It took me MANY hours to put together, but in the end, I think it's a good product. I would not order from this company (Cymax) again though.

The finished product looks great, but it took me 5 hours to put it together. It seems kind of cheap, I think the price is too high on this.

My package came on time instructions were simple. I bought this item and the matching bed book-headboard and nightstand it is really sturdy and great for the price. I took about 3 hours for each things the drawers are a annoying to build but simple enough its really just the same task over again. I used a power screwdriver after the first one it helped alot. I definatly would recommend.