I've read the reviews here (and did so prior to my purchase), but was not really worried when I placed my order. I purchased this desk, as well as the Monarch Specialties White/Grey Hollow-Core Bookcase, and a small ottoman. I liked the look of the white furniture, and thought that it would work well in my home office.Packaging - The desk arrived in typical flat-pack fashion, with a light cardboard box, Styrofoam sheets lining the interior of the box on all sides, and the occasional piece of foam sheeting on the inside to protect individual panels. There is a plastic and cardboard tray of hardware. The Styrofoam takes a decent amount of abuse in shipping (from Quebec, I think), and so it's a little bit of a mess as you unbox the pieces. Everything was intact, but there was a tiny bit of surface finish damage to a corner of the desktop (only noticeable if you are looking for it).Assembly - Quick assembly is easy to achieve if you lay out the parts in advance (which is easy to do when inspecting the pieces for damage), and have sufficient space to both stage and assemble everything. Due to the lack of strength of most flat-pack furniture, I think it's always best to assemble the item wherever it's going to be long-term. The process of assembly went pretty quickly. All holes were indexed properly, and all of the hardware was sufficient to the task. It took me about 45 minutes to put together... while you may be able to save some time by using a power screwdriver, I really don't think it's worth the risk (regardless of the clutch options on the device). Do not skip (or skimp) on the glue... I coworker got the same desk, and the assembly results were not as favorable without the use of the glue. I assembled the desk per the instructions, and I have absolutely no racking from side to side or front-to-back.Appearance/Quality - It's good to keep your expectations realistic here, as this is not a $2000 piece of Steelcase or Herman Miller furniture. That said, I find the desk to be of a level of quality that I would expect from a desk costing twice as much. Judging from pictures, it's hard to tell what materials are used where, so I wasn't sure exactly what to expect with the leg assemblies and the riser pieces (between the drawer boxes and desktop). I was happy to find that they were painted metal, rather than some lesser material. The color is somewhere between bright aluminum and gunmetal. The drawer pulls are painted plastic, and are substantially brighter than the metal pieces. The drawer assemblies aren't as bad as others have noted, but the action of the slides isn't very refined. It can be rectified with some lubricating grease if it really matters to you (it's smoothes the motion and dampens some of the plasticky noises). The depth of the slide on the hanging file drawer is not ideal if you use legal-size file folders (I'm using it on letter, so it's not an issue for me).Value - I wanted a simple desk with some mod-type style, and this fit the bill at a modest price. For the quality, I would have been willing to spend more.