Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We very quickly received our gazebo. We put it up that weekend. The package says it takes 20 minutes to assemble. The instructions say it takes 30 minutes. It took us 2 hours. The package arrived damaged in three places. I'm not surprised that UPS damaged it. The box weighed 80 lbs and was probably very hard to handle. The damage to the box sadly resulted in damage to the contents inside. Two of the main bars for the roof were bent and dented. We decided to go ahead and put the gazebo together and see what happens. The bends in the beams made them very difficult to put together in the corners. But we did it. We spent the rest of our Saturday afternoon sitting in our bug free gazebo and we had dinner in it. It is beautiful and you could feel the difference in temperature immediately. On Sunday I emailed the company and asked them to send me two replacement beams. I filled out the enclosed order form and sent them pictures of the damaged box, close up pictures of the dents and pictures of the bent bars. By Tuesday I received an answer. They requested a copy of my receipt. I didn't have a receipt, as such, so I sent my confirmation order form email from Amazon. They sent an email that night saying the beams were on their way at no cost to me. They were very professional and prompt when dealing with them. By Friday UPS notified me the package was on its way. I was very pleased with their response. Now for the gazebo. The day after it was set up we had a very heavy rainfall and strong winds. We decided to leave it up but watch it carefully. The gazebo was assembled on our deck. As it rained the holes in the roof allowed some water to drip through as it was designed to do. Except for the panels where the bent beams were. It appeared that the canvas wasn't tight enough in that section so it was sagging and started taking on water. We decided to quickly pop off the canvas and let it hang from the middle. It weathered the storm very well. The next day I went out alone and was able to reattach the canvas. We've decided this will be protocol for when we are gone or if storms are coming. It is very easy to put the canvas back on. The netting does a good job of keeping the bugs out but it does not keep the sun out when the sun starts getting low in the late afternoon to early evening. So we went out and bought a cloth shower curtain from Walmart and hung it on the bar the netting hangs from to keep the sun at bay. This looks nice and works well. The plastic netting hooks that attach the netting to the gazebo are cheap and flimsy. It was obvious they are not going to last and we were shorted a few in the box. I went to Walmart and for 97 cents a package I bought five packages of metal shower curtain rod hangers. They are sturdy and glide nicely over the netting bar. With a few homemade upgrades and improvements we have a wonderfully covered deck. We are going to screw the gazebo to our wooden deck so it will be sturdier in storms. We are realistic about the canvas roof and don't expect it to weather storm winds. But letting it hang loosely in the last few storms we've had seems to work well. I'd definetly recommend this gazebo. The corner pieces are much more sturdy than the poles you get with most tents. The corner shelves are nice for plants and stabilize the corner pieces nicely. 06/27/2016 - one year later. Well we have had our Gazebo now for one full year. Here is what we learned...in order to really protect the roof you need to let it hang down in rain. The grommets are placed too high on the canvas roof to allow water that is collected to drip through. As a result the canvas stretches and the seams start to tear. I wish they would use Velcro along the seam instead. This way, as soon as it starts to rain I could rip open the Velcro and allow the water to pass through without having to undo the entire canvas every time the weather looks bad. It won't be water proof but I don't care. I've added a photo to show what we do when it rains. Be careful about gathering them and allowing pockets of water to accumulate as they will quickly become heavy and could rip the canvas or bend the frame. I generally keep them loosely tied if the wind is going to be strong or just hang like in the picture if the wind is gentle. We added another shower curtain to the gazebo because we liked the way the first one worked. It is nice to have some shade protection when needed. I also added Christmas lights all around the frame and even fashioned a dead branch into a chandelier hanging from the center with more Christmas lights on it. Last week I went out and bought a small solar pump and made a little water fountain that sits next to the gazebo. We screwed the frame to the deck and left it up all winter. It did fine. No issues were found from this decision. I loved the gazebo last summer and love it even more this year. We keep coming up with more accessories to buy for it as it has become our new favorite place to sit and watch the birds we never knew we had in the yard. After eleven years at this house, we finally have a deck we can use and have grown to absolutely love. I keep hearing, "This was the best thing you've ever bought on Amazon." I think it is one of the best things, period, I have ever purchased.