Three of the four stools have dents straight out of the box, and one of them was missing the plastic caps on the ends of the legs. Because these are removed and discard for assembly, it didn't end up mattering, but that's another issue: these caps are actually quite hard to take off, and you literally just throw them away once you do in order to put the legs together. This is wasteful and sort of a stupid step to have to take when putting them together. Tip, though: Twist and pull up while standing on the underside of the seat, being careful to not position yourself such that you punch yourself when the caps finally pop off after much strain. If they feel particularly tight and unwilling to budge, use a blow dryer or heat gun to warm them up and soften the plastic enough that they are more pliable and flexible.

These are adequate stools, but arriving with dents gets them three stars. It would be lower if these weren't puchased to be industrial-style bar seating where a bit of banging up adds to their character, but I'd rather have had the choice of whether or not to distress them myself. I am also already noticing the particle board seat on one of them seems to be suffering from something small trapped in between it and the metal, so this rating may fall further if the particle board cracks or chips.

I truly wish I could give a higher review, but I ordered an adjustable stool. What I got was a fixed stool with extra legs and had to use a hammer and screw driver to pry the caps off the end of the legs. THEN I could put on the additions. It is a decent stool, but a bit too much work.

BEAUTIFUL STOOL!!! Just like the ones from HS science classes... I did not need to use the leg extensions that were provided, as the stool fit my height perfectly right out of the box.... No assembly required unless you choose to use the leg extensions, which only entails popping off the rubber feet and inserting the extension rods... A superb product at a very fair price...

Sturdy, solid stool, just like the ones in every college lab. I thought the other reviewers were just being wimps when they complained about how difficult it was to get the plastic leg caps off, but I ended up having to drill and cut them off - those things weren't budging.

I remember sitting on similar stools in high school chemistry class. Ah the memories! This is not as sturdy but it's pretty close. What do you expect for under $40? Putting it together was a snap. Four Allen head bolts and it was done in less than five minutes. For all those people that said the rubber caps were hard to get off,get a pair of channel locks. They made easy work of them. I'm probably going to buy at least one more of these. If you have ever walked past the tool section at Lowes you can put this thing together.