This gazebo looks great now that we finally got it assembled. The box arrives in a MESS. The box was intact, but the really substandard way the item was packed almost led me to believe it had been returned. The hardware (endless nuts and bolts) were supposed to be shrink wrapped onto cardboard and labeled. Instead most of the cardboard was ripped, and almost all of the parts were scattered throughout the box - UNLABELED. This made assembly a nightmare. There was a big sign posted on the outside of the box reading "If there are missing parts, please do not return. Order replacement parts at (phone number". There was also a sheet inside to order replacement parts. Which translates to "we have such little faith in our ability to package our product appropriately, we just assume you will be missing something". The instructions are also useless. If my husband was not an engineer, it would have taken weeks to assemble this in the condition it arrived and because of the poor instructions.
Have said the above, we ended up buying pieces that were missing at the local hardware store. It is up now (total of 7 hours to assemble).....and.......It looks GREAT! it is very pretty and we are putting it to good use.