Based on the fact that they also sell a 36Wx18D and it looks like you bought a 36Wx36W, I think they literally took two separate 36Wx18D tables they had and connected them.
You might be on to something. That’s exactly what this looks like. As a table builder myself I would never even think of putting such contrasting colors together like that. But I guess not everyone has an eye for quality.
Look, I get that white oak can’t always be consistent and that if you buy rough stock, you won’t be able to know the color until you mill it. But you break up colors and if something is out of whack you switch it out or do your best to mask it. That third board could’ve been switched out and you’d still be able to work with three of those four boards.
If they just layed it with a”every other color” would have been a better pattern…dark, light, dark light and then alternate the bottoms to contrast and you have a nicer piece
With a little planning, these could have been set up with top and one side light, and bottom & other side dark so you could flip the table for a tone change. Instead this really screams they just grabbed to smaller tables and slapped them together without a care.
Not everyone, but supposedly they do /s… directly from the website in their about me:
“DETAILS MATTER
We are obsessed with making sure everything is just right. We do a quality check at each stage of the manufacturing process and reject any pieces that don't meet our quality standards.”
Lies or strange corporate narcissism. Either way its pretty awful
If they would have switched the 2 tables around the other way the grain would have blended instead of a contrasting line. Might have looked almost natural
Without even knowing they sold a 36x18 version that was my first impression - they just took two identical sized tables and stuck'em together, that's why the grains are wildly different between the two.
You might be onto something. It really does look like they just slapped 2 tables together. They matched the individual tables pretty well but completely botched matching the two together.
That’s exactly what it looks like. They didn’t even try to match the colors.
Looks like the last order on a Friday,glued up and boxed at 4:50, when the shop closed at 5:00 and the happy hour started at 5:15.
If it was, I would unscrew them and flip each section 180’ and drill new pocket holes and reattach, then fix the new exposed sides. At least that way it would appear as a gradient instead of a hard color change. I would also pursue at least a 50% refund and you get to keep the pieces to fix them yourself. Otherwise, they pay for the shipping going both directions on an exchange.
Same. I thought it was two different tables that you were comparing until I read the comment. After reading, I still had to look back at the picture multiple times before I believed it was one table.
That’s not acceptable.
Yeah. My first thought was "oh, they book matched it," and that made it halfway explainable. Nope, that's four separate pieces. There's no excuse for that because you'd either go every other or sandwich the different colors.
It's like they had to try to make it look that bad.
Agreed it's not acceptable, those are all colors in the white oak spectrum, though. As a custom furniture maker, I would not be as lazy as this in board placement, but I can understand why this might have happened in a more fabrication focused woodshop. 700 is a lot of money, but in order to pay for machinery, employees, time and material the general rule of thumb is: cost of material x 6. On the east coast, for the highest grade, most uniform white oak is $12a board ft, the lowest quality, $3. A 3'x3' table top would cost $250 in material and hardware for the highest grade, 50 for the lowest. The only way to make your 700 table worth it for the business would be to purchase the lower grade and cheap labor.
This is all to say you can avoid high shipping fees and lackluster results if you seek out a customer furniture maker in your area. Oftentimes they can give you a fair price for a piece you truly love, rather than an expensive piece you kind of hate. For a waterfall coffee table in white oak I would start around 1000, and depending on complexity, size and thickness of material I would adjust the price. But I'd deliver it myself, work with you in a design and send you pics throughout the process.
Dude, you paid good money to get something that looks like what was advertised. The cruella deville-ass table you received doesn't look like what was advertised *at all*.
You should absolutely return it, take the money, get a custom piece made.
This unit looks like it was meant to go into the failed qc bin and painted or something.
I'm fairly new to woodworking, I have to go to a lumberyard and dig around for pieces that match okay.
For a place that makes a bunch of furniture, wouldn't it be reasonably easy for them to match the wood better? Put light with light and dark with dark?
This table looks like they got to the bottom of two piles and threw them together, it's baffling.
I thought we were judging the grain matches on the left table and the right tables or if they were close enough for a pair of matching tables. I’d be very disappointed in that as a single table depending on price
I’ve got plenty of grain matches white oak boards already that I had earmarked for something else that fell through… I’m just going to glue them up nice, then groove cut them on my cnc and then joint them together wouldn’t be a hard project by any means plenty of profit
Damn, Mr. Hucknuts here was a stranger not a moment ago, and now this man has fully convinced me to purchase a table when I never had a need or want for one (I carry a plate and utensils with me wherever I go, eat on the ground)
I feel like $700 is waaaay too cheap for that if it’s solid like OP says but on the listing someone posted down below it looks like it might not be solid because the description does not say that anywhere.
Yeah we might have to - just looked at fine print says we have to pay return shipping and a 15% restocking fee which I’m hoping they can waive that for this situation.
UPDATE 6/24: can’t figure out how to update the main post. spoke with support today they offered two solutions. Keep it and they’ll refund 25% or they’ll ship me a replacement one. I asked for them to send a replacement and they said they will coordinate getting the other one shipped back to them. I asked for a picture of the replacement table before sending and they said they will send one over. So looks like the company has held true to their word! I will update again if anything changes.
My guy (or girl), you shouldn’t be paying shit. They fucked up. It looks like shit. You didn’t get what you paid for. It’s their mistake to eat the cost of fixing. Absolutely roast them on every available avenue if they don’t immediately correct it.
Restocking fees are supposed to cover the company for people changing their minds on a purchase, or realizing they don't need it. Not for when the company fails to deliver the product as described.
I wouldn't let them off the hook, make them pay return shipping and get a full refund or a new item with photos before they ship it to guarantee this one is good.
This, you do not have to pay return shipping if what you receive does not match why you ordered. Every place seems to have some law that says something like “item received must match description” because of companies screwing people over, hell in the past companies used to send people stuff they never ordered and then send a bill for it 3-6 months later so there should also be a law that says you do not have to pay for something you did not order. Now this does not mean you get to keep anything shipped to your house because accidents happen but you 100% do not have to pay anything to return it or jump through a bunch of hoops or bullshit.
You will have to fight with the company, because screwing customers over is a core component of late stage capitalism, and may have to contact your credit card but often the threat of this is enough to get the company to operate in an honourable and legal way.
Credit card company have also gone to shit and will do whatever they can to screw you over and side with companies, so you may have to escalate or get a bullshit “merchant letter” stating that this table is shit and does not match the item description. You may however be able to find someone in this sub who can write this for you.
Now after is is your bank or local ombudsman or Apple if you paid through Apple Pay and then I think it goes to small claims court which should be a default judgment in your favour because it would cost to much to send a lawyer to represent them.
Had to learn all this shit to help my mom who bought an LG linear fridge which failed under warranty and they refused to replace it for 6 months…but they did in the end.
Something similar actually happened to me and my credit card covered me- was like a $1,000 office chair from some company working as just a middle man. I’d inform my credit card company if I were this person.
If they don't take it back you post that shit all over their website and make sure people know what they're getting. I would be pissed because that's not a quality control issue that's an IDGAF issue.
Correct. No one who has spent hours and hours and years and years to learn their craft would let that go out with their name behind it because that’s not a blemish that results from wood being naturally variant.
They misrepresented the product and must make you whole. Deducting 15% does not make you whole.
Insist that the cover shipping and give you a full refund, including any shipping that you paid for.
Whoa whoa whoa! Easy! My god! You’re pulling out a Sherman tank when all you need is some communication. OP hasn’t even heard back from the maker yet.
Call, explain, ask for an exchange since it’s clearly not like the [picture on their site](https://www.urbandi.com/collections/coffee-tables/products/white-oak-square-coffee-table?variant=43250066063559). If they agree, no harm done. Enjoy the replacement table.
If they refuse, I wouldn’t even *threaten* a chargeback. I’d call my credit card company, file the dispute, and once your claim is approved, I’d then reach out to the seller if you haven’t heard from them already. At that point, I’d inform the seller that they can send you a pre-paid shipping label and you will have the product returned to them.
I can absolutely agree with this. The biggest version (54” x 54” in the drop down menu) is $1920. Simple box table isn’t worth that *to me*, but I don’t begrudge anyone else their tastes. It’s their money and their house.
Well…. Let’s not turn up the heat on them so quickly. I agree with you. But to go straight to the BBQ pit is harsh don’t you think?
Obviously their QC sucks ass. Even the person building it should have stopped and said “umm this doesn’t match” at least to management.
>Well…. Let’s not turn up the heat on them so quickly. I agree with you. But to go straight to the BBQ pit is harsh don’t you think?
I uhh... well. Perhaps we...
\*looks at pitchfork and torches in hands\*
...may have overreacted a tad.
Agreed. I would have sent a picture to the buyer and asked if this one was fine. If they said no, then you send another. If it doesn’t look like the picture in your advertisement, it’s not the product that the buyer purchased.
Thank you!! This is clearly not the same table as advertised. I could see the maker being able to sell it, but it has to be displayed properly showing this distinct contrast on the website.
They have very strategically not shown the table top very well in any of the marketing pictures. I wonder if they mass produced them and are trying to hide the mismatches.
4th pic shows a very good view of the side though, and it appears like one continuous piece of wood, no obvious material divide in the middle like OPs table.
I could easily be classified as a 'Maker'....and I wouldn't let that out of my shop. Of course, I also wouldn't have had that much tone mis-match in the first place. Tone variations from one piece to another is normal. That's why you look at the material you have and figure out what goes together before getting out the glue and clamps :)
That is for people returning things they just changed their mind about or just ended up not liking. This isn’t that.
This is a ‘defective’ or ‘inferior’ product and its return is covered by the company 9 times out of 10 and if it’s not, that’s a big deal and generally not legal in practice if I understand correctly.
This thing is **garbage**. I'd spend some time with a CS rep, and reverse the charges if you can't get resolution.
This isn't "changing your mind", this is returning a defective piece of furniture.
I'm guessing that you paid close to $1,000. Perhaps you can find somebody local who actually understands wood to make you one.
I don't expect mass market furniture to be as nice as a one-off, made by a skilled craftsperson. But there's no excuse for this crap.
If they insist then you initiate a charge back through your credit card company. You shouldn’t have to pay ANY money to return an item listed as one thing, but shows up looking completely different. Maybe they should have let you see it before shipping, sounds like the sellers problem (if I were you).
That looks like dogshit. A big part of custom furniture building is working *with* the grain and color of the wood to make something beautiful, not just slapping random boards together just because they are technically from the same species.
Exactly! If i got that i would return immediately... the first thing that put me off is the color. The marketing pic looks "matt" and more "desaturated" in color. This table looks varnished and dark/bright yellow. I obviously know nothing about wood and carpentry but i know that the product you sell should match the marketing pictures.
Yeah- it’s not representative of the product they sold you.
That’s kind of the definition of product fulfillment. You’re well within every type of “right/correct” to raise a stink about this and get what you paid for.
I agree 100% with the others- their restocking fees should be applied to products returned because of a change of mind- sure- not because what they shipped you looks nothing like what you ordered.
They should be covering 100% of the return and replacing the product for you.
The issue here is I don’t think this is custom. I think this is still mass produced, albeit likely a smaller scale, but still mass produced. Carpenters are not putting this together, assembly workers are. Maybe they’re given instruction about stuff like this, but I highly doubt it.
Edit: this is still not acceptable, regardless of who’s making it.
I looked up the company you bought from up and found the product page. That's a lot of wide, thick white oak boards to make that table. Near me that's $400-$600 worth of rough sawn/raw material, before labor and overhead to turn it into a table. The price point seems low for something with this much solid white oak. They don't have much margin to produce high end product and finishes that 2" thick solid white oak deserves.
Based on the products and images on their website, I think this company specializes in "rustic" style pine furniture (some seriously questionable pine staining IMO), so it's not too surprising to see something like what you got,[ or this](https://www.urbandi.com/products/white-oak-box-side-table?variant=43667242451143). My guess is this table was built to order, and they probably don't have thousands of dollars of white oak lying around to grain match so you got what they got from their supplier. Grain matching white oak is pretty time consuming and expensive for a low volume built-to-order table like this.
All that being said, when working with solid woods, if you have a specific design/outcome in mind, you either need to buy in person so you know what you get or work with someone who will build custom to images you provide/discuss, which will be at least twice the cost of these.
appreciate the response... as a note the price in the second image wasn't what I paid it was closer to 1300 1100 + 200 in shipping. But I do agree still a great price for solid oak I just was not expecting two separate colors split down the middle.
I just sent you a chat. We're in RI and desperately need a carpenter/handyman for a small project. No worries if it's not worth your time or you don't want to reply. Thanks!
The company in question is going to be out $800 by the time this is finished, so maybe not quite the inspirational story to draw from. I used to work in a low margin industry and it is so high stress because any issue can devastate you.
> I used to work in a low margin industry and it is so high stress because any issue can devastate you.
It's an absolute business killer. If you don't think you can ask enough to make margins to absorb issues like this, need to never start the business in the first place. Honestly, I see nothing on this site that looks like it's worth what they're asking for. Seems like someone who had success on FBM and tried to take it nationwide without factoring in the extra costs involved with operating at that scale.
>Seems like someone who had success on FBM and tried to take it nationwide without factoring in the extra costs involved with operating at that scale
That suddenly makes this business make sense to me.
That was actually the industry I used to be in. The business ended up going under in large part due to a simple mistake where the slightly wrong sized template was used. Company had a $1.2 million reserve fund built up over 10 years. That one job completely wiped it out. They never recovered.
It’s seriously a tough business and the margins suck to stay competitive. Last year almost killed me and then a fire forced my hand to close my storefront. Otherwise I’m stubborn enough to keep digging the hole deeper. I restructured and skinny-fied and things are smaller but better finally. You summed up the risks well.
Agreed. I make high quality solid wood furniture in the US and this is a LOT of material alone even for $1100. I’m guessing that table is 3’x3’x 1’6h and they started with 8/4 white oak, which I get from a supplier for $7.07 / boardfoot lately. With a 25% waste coefficient they’re at almost $500 just to get the wood on a truck. We haven’t yet included finish materials, consumables, hardware (feet?), packaging and LABOR (the most expensive component by far). At $200 they’re very probably eating some of the shipping costs, freight is insane right now and I usually do that or people balk at how much it costs.
Not saying you should keep the table, more just a commentary on how they must have zero profit margin and aren’t leaving any fat to do things like pick through the woodpile for just the right piece.
From their website it is obvious the photoshop the same piece in a listing to show different finish options.. I’d beware of anyone doing that, furniture or otherwise.
Folks always want a good deal, but something has to give.
That said, I would not send that table out like that. Though I’d also be charging 2.5x what they did..
Just a side note: Buy direct from makers, and use an electronic check or check or cash if possible. When you go through Etsy, 1stDibs, or a showroom, they’re paying a huge commission off the top. If you paid by a card, they’re paying 3% right away to the card company - ie this $1300 transaction may have cost them $40 just to take your money. It adds up fast.
> At $200 they’re very probably eating some of the shipping costs, freight is insane right now and I usually do that or people balk at how much it costs.
I'm thinking they have *some* freight costs baked into the cost to cover transport in their general area, but aren't realistic about the costs to go more than a few hundred miles and way undershot here.
>From their website it is obvious the photoshop the same piece in a listing to show different finish options.. I’d beware of anyone doing that, furniture or otherwise.
Recipe for absolute disaster. And why not send the client photos of the finished item BEFORE shipping so it saves everyone money, time, and headaches? I think this is a garage business that just got out of hand.
I have had boards cut from the same stock - so from the same tree - react completely differently during finishing. A completely uniform unfinished panel that looked like a single slab of wood that turned into OP’s table once the oil hit it.
Wood is *weird*.
I just read their “About Us” section on their website. Among other things it’s a brand promise. How they react and rectify the situation at no additional cost to you will tell us all we need to know about their sincerity. I am surprised that left the shop. If they hesitate to fix this, make them listen to you read the “About Us” section back to them out loud. In my mind, they should 100% make you satisfied and do it with a smile on their face.
The customer review section shows products with grain variations, but they’re perfectly reasonable in my mind. They should spend some time reviewing the topic, for their customers though your table is still too far out there.
A couple of other thoughts. The pricing seems reasonable, though the shipping must be a killer. The designs are nice, the execution looks decent.
There is a lot of unhelpful reactions/advice here, but it is the internet. Your measured response seems appropriate. Good luck and let us know update.
Looks shit. Completely mismatched grains. I’d send it back and find something off their website that mentions how oak is premium due to the beautiful aesthetic to justify their prices, and tell them it looks like shit so doesn’t justify the price.
1 - looks nothing like the sale photo. *nothing*.
2 - it looks like 2 *shitty* tables sandwiched next to each other.
I wouldn't expect $50 for this and I'm a piece of shit.
I work for a manufacturing company that uses white oak extensively, we would never send something out like that and if we somehow did, I would expect it to be returned. If the advertised photos showed a similar amount of variation it would be different but you have all the right in the world to not like what you received.
Pretty sure I found the Etsy store for this ( or there are copyright issues with their photos). Another customer was very happy with theirs and I can see why.
https://preview.redd.it/9qxv4sv6ks7d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebe9cb665a337709b220c73ef3d3b17adc3284dd
Idk, I don’t hate it personally. But I’m not very picky. I’m a plumber first tho, and a novice woodworker second so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I might’ve tried to put the pieces in a gradient. 2, 1, 4, 3. To see how it looked. The third piece is the most interesting to me, but doesn’t match at all with the second.
Actually I’ve changed my mind. I like it. If you rotate it, you get a beach scene. Two light pieces the sky, the dark piece the water and the final piece the beach. I could live with that.
Nope. And you shouldn't have to pay for return shipping either, that is terrible quality and not at all what the ad represents.
Did you buy that off Etsy by chance? I'm pretty sure I saw that exact listing when I was looking for furniture.
It's really sad when good woodworkers pushing for quality get ignored in favor of margins. It's so shortsighted, terrible product will ruin a company so much faster than spending a little more to make it right. Build what you would want in your home.
That is 100% unacceptable, unless you ordered a two-tone table..
There is no excuse for that. You couldn't convince me in 100 years that it slipped past QC. They know exactly what they sent.
After looking at their display photos for that product, it's not even close and they can't hide behind: "wood is a natural product and every piece is unique...blah blah blah" excuse.
I'd immediately call them, ask them when they will cross ship a replacement and pick this one up, at their expense.
This is poor design judgement on the builders part. I make custom furniture for a living. Unless the client specifically picked and layed out the wood like this it would never leave my shop. My guess is they ran out of a similar grain/ tone of white oak and used whatever they could find. Unacceptable!
That’s not two tables? I really thought you got two separate tables…
Saw your other post saying you paid over a thousand dollars, full refund baby. That’s horrible. Leave review as well to protect others.
I work for a company that specializes in custom solid wood products.
1. This must be the lowest quality white oak available on the market, if it’s truly even white oak. I work with a LOT of white oak and maybe it’s the lighting in this photo, but I have suspicions.
2. We would never send anything that looked like this out of our facility. If we received lumber that looked like this, it would be either scrapped or returned to the provider.
It you look at review pics of the table, it looks like there are two pics of your size or larger, and both look reasonable with grain pattern. You definitely did not get as advertised and they should correct the issue. And be embarrassed.
Two of us at a cabinet shop in L.A. concur with your assessment. Based on the photos’ details we can see, that’s walnut, or it’s the strangest white oak grain pattern and shading we’ve (n)ever come across.
I concur with your concurrence. And it’s like a *nice* walnut piece huh?? That’s the sort of thing I’d set aside for drawer fronts or something. And they were like, let’s throw it in this oak table. So weird
The grain can get pretty wild in oak where the crown branches out. Sort of looks like a tree that was taking on staining from water and tannins. Some of the ones I pull out of my lake look similar.
That looks completely different with both finish and the abysmal grain matching, although if you are going to complain, I'd take a photo with better (more natural) lighting so you can give a fair comparison.
However as a suggestion, it might be an option to lean into the skid e.g. get a half and half wooden tray for the top and rotate (so dark tray on light oak) etc etc. I'd still be wanting a hefty discount from the company as it's clearly not what they sold, but maybe a thought to mull on.
Grainblending.
What grainblending...
Only thing I ever built is a bbq table for my green egg.
It spend a lot of time properly matching each plank.
This is just absolute bs.
Call them and be nice, but raise hell.
- doesn’t look like white oak at all
- that mating is f’ing dreadful
- looks nothing like their own photos of the table OR the customer submitted photos.
I can’t believe they’d pack that up with a straight face tbh.
The picture on the product page shows that the sample table isn't even perfectly flat on the bottom. Blending is much better on the product picture. Regardless, with the cost of the product, how are you posting pictures that aren't perfect? The lack of attention to detail on the product page gives me pause as to their attention to detail on anything I would potentially order from them.
Yeah right, that looks like shit. Not what was advertised. For $80 from Ikea, I’d live with it. For $700, no way. And make them pay for it. They’ll try to hassle you, but they ripped you off, sold you a piece of junk, and want you to feel bad and to pay for it. No way.
I would have never glued it up with that much contrast between the wood boards. I personally wouldn’t be happy with that much contrast between boards on the same piece.
I just read further down the post. 1100 plus 200 shipping is pretty cheap for that piece.
Yeah, not acceptable. This is def a quality control issue; boards with similar grain could have easily been chosen but it was probably done randomly, or out of an error. Maybe someone was rushing to get it our. If you write them explaining I’d be curious what they would say.
Not unreasonable at all. I just had an oak countertop made and when I went to the shop to decide on the species we had the conversation about grain variation and how they can obviously never match it just right, I was actually nervous for a moment imagining something similar to your table (sorry 😬), but was then shown samples and realized they were talking about just the slightest variations. I agree with others, that looks like two tables joined together. Perhaps they’ll split the difference (which I know kinda sucks), but if you pay to ship that back they’ll cover shipping of a replacement…one that you’ve seen a photo of.
wouldn't be bad if the light side was cut in half so that it went light, dark middle, light. At least then there would be sort of a pattern to it. But the way it is would drive me nuts after a while
https://preview.redd.it/z8x34c55wx7d1.jpeg?width=3044&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15fcf1a137756a67b638f1a9d76e6cf7646712f9
This looks very similar to these side tables I made out of walnut. Also, you are right to not be happy with this, I personally spend a great deal of time trying to make sure that the grains and color of the wood is very similar before using them together especially if they're not from the same tree. This is unacceptable.
Any woodworking hobbyist worth their salt would know better than to do something like this. A professional outfit doing it and then accepting payment for it is embarrassing. Make them take it back, and make them pay the return shipping, and try to get them to refund the original shipping if you can.
I work with cabinetry. This, is laughably unacceptable under any circumstances. Any quality control at all, would have prevented this from leaving. I'd just lightly sand and stain and maybe oil or varnish. Get a refund.
Nah g the that’s bullshit, they knew what they were doing and it’s okay that you don’t want to settle for quality while clearly they have no problem. Honestly it’s really scammy to do this.
I sort of like it. Some cool grain patterns. As someone who has built many things with white oak, color and grain variability is very common and I usually make an arrangement that makes the best of what I have, generally. I always think that a company that sells high end furniture with solid wood should show pictures of the actual table for sale, not a representation because of this very customer reaction. That can be difficult with made to order furniture but it would solve a lot of problems. Anyway, it has character and if well built, I’d say is a very good price. $680 isn’t much for a piece like this, IMO.
“Our white oak waterfall coffee tables are handcrafted in the USA with **meticulous** attention to detail….
Our white oak waterfall coffee tables are designed to be aesthetically pleasing”…
That’s for saying meticulous so I could put this bs quote in again (my emphasis, not theirs)
Your table has way more character than the one pictured in the ad. I love the grain on that table. The contrasts are eye catching and very pleasing. I realize things like this are very personal and preferences change from person to person but to me the single color and pattern is boring.
That’s so bad, and misleading, but I’ve seen so many products like this where they bury a line about the photo being an example and not guaranteed to look like what you receive.
At that price they should be trying harder to match, or they should be showing variations in their photos. If they are going to ship you this, then one of their photos should show something that looks like this, to warn potential customers.
I hate misleading product photos.
Hopefully they take a return, but sometimes companies just stand firm and blame customers for not finding their hidden disclaimer.
Best of luck!
I thought it was two table next to each other and you were going to complain that say one you bought now does not match the one you bought a year ago
But nope, just one properly fucked table
If you paid with a credit card, just challenge with the card company. You have good pictures showing you didn’t get what was offered. You don’t even need to send it back.
This reminds me of a time I hired a very reputable hardwood flooring company to refinish some floors. Part of the job was replacing a couple of damaged boards and they said they could perform this surgery no problem, and swap in the same species of wood. They did exactly that, but the color match was way, way, way off. They said this was because the floor's original wood was 90 years old and their replacement boards were brand new, and the two would age together over time. I said I get that but I don't have 90 years to wait and was led to believe the match would be more compatible. It really was like two random nearly white boards that lept out in a whole room of deep red flooring. They shrugged and said "well, okay, gosh I guess if you feel that way we could maybe tint the boards to match or something..." And I said yes please do that. They did. It matched perfectly. I paid nothing for this correction.
You have a really good and well founded grip on the concept of grain variation but man, there is a line.
If you go look at their website for this piece, it gets even worse. They seem to purposefully obfuscate the view of the top surface with camera angles and light reflections. There isn't a single non-obscured shot of the tabletop. Return it dude. They sold mismatched color and grain. It looks bad and I would be upset to have that when I expected a full piece.
Looks like they built your table with whatever was available vs actually giving you the piece you purchased.
It looks like shit because it looks like two tables glued together. Awful selection of product.
They should've laid it out and asked if you're ok with how it looks before they actually assembled it. Ask for this next time.
I found their etsy store page and looked at some user submitted photos of a similar (or it might be the same) table.
https://i.etsystatic.com/iap/f2a9d2/5501454119/iap_640x640.5501454119_ptvsc620.jpg?version=0
Looks like they had no problem grain matching with this one. Whoever was making this definitely knew it was dodgy.
i can't confidently say i've seen white oak before but ik that ain't it, they better take it back with a free back and forth exchange trip or thats a scam
You would still like the table pictured, within reason for grain variation, but what you got is not within reason. So it should not be a restocking, it should be an exchange.
I refuse to believe they sent you an actual white oak table unless your phones camera and/or garage lighting is really off. Also, why is one half so much darker than the other? I think they sent you a standard oak table instead of white oak.
Looks like dog sh*t, if they don't respond or want to charge you for the return, tell them you ordered what was shown on the website and this is not that. If they want to charge you, you can always dispute it on the credit card
https://preview.redd.it/s7matfpzit7d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0e8fcadec6388c5e4ccfac2df747f9eb1522c37
From the manufacturer... Meticulous attention to detail?! I'm afraid I have to respectfully disagree, bud! Designed to be aesthetically pleasing?! Also, I fully disagree! This looks like a high school shop student made it on the last day of the semester in order to get something made and not fail the class! 🤦🏻♂️🤣💯 The company is 100% in the wrong here and needs to pay whatever they have to in order to make it right or expect the internet to do its thing until they do! Cyber bullying a company is sometimes the only way to get them to do the right thing and that is just an unfortunate truth
Based on the fact that they also sell a 36Wx18D and it looks like you bought a 36Wx36W, I think they literally took two separate 36Wx18D tables they had and connected them.
You might be on to something. That’s exactly what this looks like. As a table builder myself I would never even think of putting such contrasting colors together like that. But I guess not everyone has an eye for quality.
Agreed, this is low quality and the intent of the picture of the item on the store was to deceive.
Look, I get that white oak can’t always be consistent and that if you buy rough stock, you won’t be able to know the color until you mill it. But you break up colors and if something is out of whack you switch it out or do your best to mask it. That third board could’ve been switched out and you’d still be able to work with three of those four boards.
If they just layed it with a”every other color” would have been a better pattern…dark, light, dark light and then alternate the bottoms to contrast and you have a nicer piece
With a little planning, these could have been set up with top and one side light, and bottom & other side dark so you could flip the table for a tone change. Instead this really screams they just grabbed to smaller tables and slapped them together without a care.
yep! shadow is right over the connection point “conveniently” now that u mention it
Not everyone, but supposedly they do /s… directly from the website in their about me: “DETAILS MATTER We are obsessed with making sure everything is just right. We do a quality check at each stage of the manufacturing process and reject any pieces that don't meet our quality standards.” Lies or strange corporate narcissism. Either way its pretty awful
…or lousy (let’s make a buck) standards.
That's not even "doesn't have an eye for quality", it's well into DGAF territory.
If they would have switched the 2 tables around the other way the grain would have blended instead of a contrasting line. Might have looked almost natural
Hahah as two separate tables they work perfectly grain wise
Wow you nailed it. That’s 100% what happened.
I don't think he nailed it. It looks more like they glued it.
Without even knowing they sold a 36x18 version that was my first impression - they just took two identical sized tables and stuck'em together, that's why the grains are wildly different between the two.
You might be onto something. It really does look like they just slapped 2 tables together. They matched the individual tables pretty well but completely botched matching the two together.
That’s exactly what it looks like. They didn’t even try to match the colors. Looks like the last order on a Friday,glued up and boxed at 4:50, when the shop closed at 5:00 and the happy hour started at 5:15.
And it probably joined with a few pocket holes
If it was, I would unscrew them and flip each section 180’ and drill new pocket holes and reattach, then fix the new exposed sides. At least that way it would appear as a gradient instead of a hard color change. I would also pursue at least a 50% refund and you get to keep the pieces to fix them yourself. Otherwise, they pay for the shipping going both directions on an exchange.
I really thought that was 2 tables with different species of wood at first glance. It’s a weird “design” if that’s intentional.
Same. I thought it was two different tables that you were comparing until I read the comment. After reading, I still had to look back at the picture multiple times before I believed it was one table. That’s not acceptable.
One side is white, the other side is “oak”.
Yeah. My first thought was "oh, they book matched it," and that made it halfway explainable. Nope, that's four separate pieces. There's no excuse for that because you'd either go every other or sandwich the different colors. It's like they had to try to make it look that bad.
Agreed it's not acceptable, those are all colors in the white oak spectrum, though. As a custom furniture maker, I would not be as lazy as this in board placement, but I can understand why this might have happened in a more fabrication focused woodshop. 700 is a lot of money, but in order to pay for machinery, employees, time and material the general rule of thumb is: cost of material x 6. On the east coast, for the highest grade, most uniform white oak is $12a board ft, the lowest quality, $3. A 3'x3' table top would cost $250 in material and hardware for the highest grade, 50 for the lowest. The only way to make your 700 table worth it for the business would be to purchase the lower grade and cheap labor. This is all to say you can avoid high shipping fees and lackluster results if you seek out a customer furniture maker in your area. Oftentimes they can give you a fair price for a piece you truly love, rather than an expensive piece you kind of hate. For a waterfall coffee table in white oak I would start around 1000, and depending on complexity, size and thickness of material I would adjust the price. But I'd deliver it myself, work with you in a design and send you pics throughout the process.
It was 1100 +200 in shipping the price shown was for smaller table. Although I still recognize that my price is still low
Dude, you paid good money to get something that looks like what was advertised. The cruella deville-ass table you received doesn't look like what was advertised *at all*.
Thank you for writing that up so vividly
Yeah - I’d deal with this table for $300, but not that much. This is garbage at that price.
DM me if you want something that looks like what you ordered I can do it for less too.
You should absolutely return it, take the money, get a custom piece made. This unit looks like it was meant to go into the failed qc bin and painted or something.
I agree. I make white oak tables pretty regularly. I would never put that dark board smack in the middle of a table like that.
I'm fairly new to woodworking, I have to go to a lumberyard and dig around for pieces that match okay. For a place that makes a bunch of furniture, wouldn't it be reasonably easy for them to match the wood better? Put light with light and dark with dark? This table looks like they got to the bottom of two piles and threw them together, it's baffling.
I thought we were judging the grain matches on the left table and the right tables or if they were close enough for a pair of matching tables. I’d be very disappointed in that as a single table depending on price
Well it was almost $700
It was 1100 plus 200 in shipping
I’ll make you the same table with grain matched oak for 800 and I’ll throw in shipping, crazy for the price it should have been perfect
I might take you up on that depending on what this company responds back with
I’ve got plenty of grain matches white oak boards already that I had earmarked for something else that fell through… I’m just going to glue them up nice, then groove cut them on my cnc and then joint them together wouldn’t be a hard project by any means plenty of profit
Damn, Mr. Hucknuts here was a stranger not a moment ago, and now this man has fully convinced me to purchase a table when I never had a need or want for one (I carry a plate and utensils with me wherever I go, eat on the ground)
I feel like $700 is waaaay too cheap for that if it’s solid like OP says but on the listing someone posted down below it looks like it might not be solid because the description does not say that anywhere.
It's so easy to fix too. Not my personal taste, but 2341 or 3124 would have made a nice symmetrical pattern that looked intentional.
Same here. I was thinking OP was asking if it would be obvious with them on opposite sides of a room. Then saw it was one table.
Me too, I though OP got 2 of their 36X18
That suuuuuucks. I’d return it.
Yeah we might have to - just looked at fine print says we have to pay return shipping and a 15% restocking fee which I’m hoping they can waive that for this situation. UPDATE 6/24: can’t figure out how to update the main post. spoke with support today they offered two solutions. Keep it and they’ll refund 25% or they’ll ship me a replacement one. I asked for them to send a replacement and they said they will coordinate getting the other one shipped back to them. I asked for a picture of the replacement table before sending and they said they will send one over. So looks like the company has held true to their word! I will update again if anything changes.
My guy (or girl), you shouldn’t be paying shit. They fucked up. It looks like shit. You didn’t get what you paid for. It’s their mistake to eat the cost of fixing. Absolutely roast them on every available avenue if they don’t immediately correct it.
Appreciate the camaraderie in here! hahah I will keep everyone posted on what they respond back with
Restocking fees are supposed to cover the company for people changing their minds on a purchase, or realizing they don't need it. Not for when the company fails to deliver the product as described. I wouldn't let them off the hook, make them pay return shipping and get a full refund or a new item with photos before they ship it to guarantee this one is good.
This, you do not have to pay return shipping if what you receive does not match why you ordered. Every place seems to have some law that says something like “item received must match description” because of companies screwing people over, hell in the past companies used to send people stuff they never ordered and then send a bill for it 3-6 months later so there should also be a law that says you do not have to pay for something you did not order. Now this does not mean you get to keep anything shipped to your house because accidents happen but you 100% do not have to pay anything to return it or jump through a bunch of hoops or bullshit. You will have to fight with the company, because screwing customers over is a core component of late stage capitalism, and may have to contact your credit card but often the threat of this is enough to get the company to operate in an honourable and legal way. Credit card company have also gone to shit and will do whatever they can to screw you over and side with companies, so you may have to escalate or get a bullshit “merchant letter” stating that this table is shit and does not match the item description. You may however be able to find someone in this sub who can write this for you. Now after is is your bank or local ombudsman or Apple if you paid through Apple Pay and then I think it goes to small claims court which should be a default judgment in your favour because it would cost to much to send a lawyer to represent them. Had to learn all this shit to help my mom who bought an LG linear fridge which failed under warranty and they refused to replace it for 6 months…but they did in the end.
Something similar actually happened to me and my credit card covered me- was like a $1,000 office chair from some company working as just a middle man. I’d inform my credit card company if I were this person.
If they don't take it back you post that shit all over their website and make sure people know what they're getting. I would be pissed because that's not a quality control issue that's an IDGAF issue.
Correct. No one who has spent hours and hours and years and years to learn their craft would let that go out with their name behind it because that’s not a blemish that results from wood being naturally variant.
This is the kind of thing I love my American Express for- if the company doesn’t play ball, AmEx will get my money back one way or another lol
They didn’t send what you paid for. If they won’t refund it and pay shipping, do a charge back
Hopefully you paid with credit card
I wonder if most credit card companies would do a chargeback on this. Imo they should cause this looks nothing like advertised.
Yeah it looks like 2 tables. I would be happy with it split half.
OP, are you SURE they didn’t send you two? Sometimes I grab two paper plates by accident and you have to really work them apart /s
They misrepresented the product and must make you whole. Deducting 15% does not make you whole. Insist that the cover shipping and give you a full refund, including any shipping that you paid for.
Whoa whoa whoa! Easy! My god! You’re pulling out a Sherman tank when all you need is some communication. OP hasn’t even heard back from the maker yet. Call, explain, ask for an exchange since it’s clearly not like the [picture on their site](https://www.urbandi.com/collections/coffee-tables/products/white-oak-square-coffee-table?variant=43250066063559). If they agree, no harm done. Enjoy the replacement table. If they refuse, I wouldn’t even *threaten* a chargeback. I’d call my credit card company, file the dispute, and once your claim is approved, I’d then reach out to the seller if you haven’t heard from them already. At that point, I’d inform the seller that they can send you a pre-paid shipping label and you will have the product returned to them.
The photos on that site don't show anywhere near enough detail for me to part with that amount of money.
I can absolutely agree with this. The biggest version (54” x 54” in the drop down menu) is $1920. Simple box table isn’t worth that *to me*, but I don’t begrudge anyone else their tastes. It’s their money and their house.
Not to mention the bottom of the one in the photos is clearly bowed and lifting off the floor at each end. Lol
The credit card comment is a solid solution especially if American express
Well…. Let’s not turn up the heat on them so quickly. I agree with you. But to go straight to the BBQ pit is harsh don’t you think? Obviously their QC sucks ass. Even the person building it should have stopped and said “umm this doesn’t match” at least to management.
>Well…. Let’s not turn up the heat on them so quickly. I agree with you. But to go straight to the BBQ pit is harsh don’t you think? I uhh... well. Perhaps we... \*looks at pitchfork and torches in hands\* ...may have overreacted a tad.
I wonder if it might have looked okay while building it but that middle piece absorbed the finish more. Either way they shouldn’t have shipped it.
Yeah, that's one for the outlet store.
Agreed. I would have sent a picture to the buyer and asked if this one was fine. If they said no, then you send another. If it doesn’t look like the picture in your advertisement, it’s not the product that the buyer purchased.
Threaten a chargeback if they do anything other than a 100% refund.
[удалено]
You can see urbandi.com in the product pic https://www.urbandi.com/collections/coffee-tables/products/white-oak-coffee-table?variant=42327719018695
Thank you!! This is clearly not the same table as advertised. I could see the maker being able to sell it, but it has to be displayed properly showing this distinct contrast on the website.
They have very strategically not shown the table top very well in any of the marketing pictures. I wonder if they mass produced them and are trying to hide the mismatches.
4th pic shows a very good view of the side though, and it appears like one continuous piece of wood, no obvious material divide in the middle like OPs table.
I could easily be classified as a 'Maker'....and I wouldn't let that out of my shop. Of course, I also wouldn't have had that much tone mis-match in the first place. Tone variations from one piece to another is normal. That's why you look at the material you have and figure out what goes together before getting out the glue and clamps :)
Agreed! Sadly, not everyone has the same standards as some of us. Don’t know why you’re being downvoted. You’re right.
You didn't get what you ordered. If they still charge you and don't play ball, you can dispute with your credit card company and do a charge back
That is for people returning things they just changed their mind about or just ended up not liking. This isn’t that. This is a ‘defective’ or ‘inferior’ product and its return is covered by the company 9 times out of 10 and if it’s not, that’s a big deal and generally not legal in practice if I understand correctly.
This thing is **garbage**. I'd spend some time with a CS rep, and reverse the charges if you can't get resolution. This isn't "changing your mind", this is returning a defective piece of furniture. I'm guessing that you paid close to $1,000. Perhaps you can find somebody local who actually understands wood to make you one. I don't expect mass market furniture to be as nice as a one-off, made by a skilled craftsperson. But there's no excuse for this crap.
If they insist then you initiate a charge back through your credit card company. You shouldn’t have to pay ANY money to return an item listed as one thing, but shows up looking completely different. Maybe they should have let you see it before shipping, sounds like the sellers problem (if I were you).
If you paid with a visa, tell them the return is completely on them and if they don't you will just stop payment.
That looks like dogshit. A big part of custom furniture building is working *with* the grain and color of the wood to make something beautiful, not just slapping random boards together just because they are technically from the same species.
[удалено]
Hahah exactly - the listing was white oak coffee table
It looks nothing like their photo. Lock or pull back payment. Return. pay nothing...zero. They pay all shipping. Period.
Exactly! If i got that i would return immediately... the first thing that put me off is the color. The marketing pic looks "matt" and more "desaturated" in color. This table looks varnished and dark/bright yellow. I obviously know nothing about wood and carpentry but i know that the product you sell should match the marketing pictures.
Yeah- it’s not representative of the product they sold you. That’s kind of the definition of product fulfillment. You’re well within every type of “right/correct” to raise a stink about this and get what you paid for. I agree 100% with the others- their restocking fees should be applied to products returned because of a change of mind- sure- not because what they shipped you looks nothing like what you ordered. They should be covering 100% of the return and replacing the product for you.
The issue here is I don’t think this is custom. I think this is still mass produced, albeit likely a smaller scale, but still mass produced. Carpenters are not putting this together, assembly workers are. Maybe they’re given instruction about stuff like this, but I highly doubt it. Edit: this is still not acceptable, regardless of who’s making it.
Yeah, at this price that probably isn't even made in the states, it's just a texas company white labeling furniture made in china or SE asia.
I looked up the company you bought from up and found the product page. That's a lot of wide, thick white oak boards to make that table. Near me that's $400-$600 worth of rough sawn/raw material, before labor and overhead to turn it into a table. The price point seems low for something with this much solid white oak. They don't have much margin to produce high end product and finishes that 2" thick solid white oak deserves. Based on the products and images on their website, I think this company specializes in "rustic" style pine furniture (some seriously questionable pine staining IMO), so it's not too surprising to see something like what you got,[ or this](https://www.urbandi.com/products/white-oak-box-side-table?variant=43667242451143). My guess is this table was built to order, and they probably don't have thousands of dollars of white oak lying around to grain match so you got what they got from their supplier. Grain matching white oak is pretty time consuming and expensive for a low volume built-to-order table like this. All that being said, when working with solid woods, if you have a specific design/outcome in mind, you either need to buy in person so you know what you get or work with someone who will build custom to images you provide/discuss, which will be at least twice the cost of these.
appreciate the response... as a note the price in the second image wasn't what I paid it was closer to 1300 1100 + 200 in shipping. But I do agree still a great price for solid oak I just was not expecting two separate colors split down the middle.
I really have to start selling my pieces.
Hahah any chance you’re in Massachusetts?
I’m in RI and do woodworking as a side business!
Oh wow…. Would love to connect if I end up returning this if you have something similar! If not no big deal
Of course! I only make custom pieces so everything would be exactly how you’d want it.
Reddit, you beautiful son of a bitch. You did it again!
I just sent you a chat. We're in RI and desperately need a carpenter/handyman for a small project. No worries if it's not worth your time or you don't want to reply. Thanks!
I am, and I work for a company that would probably take this job.
Want to DM your info?
Now y'all gotta kiss
https://preview.redd.it/eqidqq3nht7d1.png?width=424&format=png&auto=webp&s=0224e5249f17398a2b18528b173c368694bfcd92
The company in question is going to be out $800 by the time this is finished, so maybe not quite the inspirational story to draw from. I used to work in a low margin industry and it is so high stress because any issue can devastate you.
> I used to work in a low margin industry and it is so high stress because any issue can devastate you. It's an absolute business killer. If you don't think you can ask enough to make margins to absorb issues like this, need to never start the business in the first place. Honestly, I see nothing on this site that looks like it's worth what they're asking for. Seems like someone who had success on FBM and tried to take it nationwide without factoring in the extra costs involved with operating at that scale.
>Seems like someone who had success on FBM and tried to take it nationwide without factoring in the extra costs involved with operating at that scale That suddenly makes this business make sense to me.
Screen printer here. Feeling this statement big time. So stressful and have experienced that devastation more times than I'd like to admit. Sucks.
That was actually the industry I used to be in. The business ended up going under in large part due to a simple mistake where the slightly wrong sized template was used. Company had a $1.2 million reserve fund built up over 10 years. That one job completely wiped it out. They never recovered.
It’s seriously a tough business and the margins suck to stay competitive. Last year almost killed me and then a fire forced my hand to close my storefront. Otherwise I’m stubborn enough to keep digging the hole deeper. I restructured and skinny-fied and things are smaller but better finally. You summed up the risks well.
I’d bet money that if OP leaves a negative review on that site with this picture, it gets deleted.
Agreed. I make high quality solid wood furniture in the US and this is a LOT of material alone even for $1100. I’m guessing that table is 3’x3’x 1’6h and they started with 8/4 white oak, which I get from a supplier for $7.07 / boardfoot lately. With a 25% waste coefficient they’re at almost $500 just to get the wood on a truck. We haven’t yet included finish materials, consumables, hardware (feet?), packaging and LABOR (the most expensive component by far). At $200 they’re very probably eating some of the shipping costs, freight is insane right now and I usually do that or people balk at how much it costs. Not saying you should keep the table, more just a commentary on how they must have zero profit margin and aren’t leaving any fat to do things like pick through the woodpile for just the right piece. From their website it is obvious the photoshop the same piece in a listing to show different finish options.. I’d beware of anyone doing that, furniture or otherwise. Folks always want a good deal, but something has to give. That said, I would not send that table out like that. Though I’d also be charging 2.5x what they did.. Just a side note: Buy direct from makers, and use an electronic check or check or cash if possible. When you go through Etsy, 1stDibs, or a showroom, they’re paying a huge commission off the top. If you paid by a card, they’re paying 3% right away to the card company - ie this $1300 transaction may have cost them $40 just to take your money. It adds up fast.
> At $200 they’re very probably eating some of the shipping costs, freight is insane right now and I usually do that or people balk at how much it costs. I'm thinking they have *some* freight costs baked into the cost to cover transport in their general area, but aren't realistic about the costs to go more than a few hundred miles and way undershot here. >From their website it is obvious the photoshop the same piece in a listing to show different finish options.. I’d beware of anyone doing that, furniture or otherwise. Recipe for absolute disaster. And why not send the client photos of the finished item BEFORE shipping so it saves everyone money, time, and headaches? I think this is a garage business that just got out of hand.
I have had boards cut from the same stock - so from the same tree - react completely differently during finishing. A completely uniform unfinished panel that looked like a single slab of wood that turned into OP’s table once the oil hit it. Wood is *weird*.
I just read their “About Us” section on their website. Among other things it’s a brand promise. How they react and rectify the situation at no additional cost to you will tell us all we need to know about their sincerity. I am surprised that left the shop. If they hesitate to fix this, make them listen to you read the “About Us” section back to them out loud. In my mind, they should 100% make you satisfied and do it with a smile on their face. The customer review section shows products with grain variations, but they’re perfectly reasonable in my mind. They should spend some time reviewing the topic, for their customers though your table is still too far out there. A couple of other thoughts. The pricing seems reasonable, though the shipping must be a killer. The designs are nice, the execution looks decent. There is a lot of unhelpful reactions/advice here, but it is the internet. Your measured response seems appropriate. Good luck and let us know update.
Looks shit. Completely mismatched grains. I’d send it back and find something off their website that mentions how oak is premium due to the beautiful aesthetic to justify their prices, and tell them it looks like shit so doesn’t justify the price.
that looks like a half and half pizza
1 - looks nothing like the sale photo. *nothing*. 2 - it looks like 2 *shitty* tables sandwiched next to each other. I wouldn't expect $50 for this and I'm a piece of shit.
I work for a manufacturing company that uses white oak extensively, we would never send something out like that and if we somehow did, I would expect it to be returned. If the advertised photos showed a similar amount of variation it would be different but you have all the right in the world to not like what you received.
Pretty sure I found the Etsy store for this ( or there are copyright issues with their photos). Another customer was very happy with theirs and I can see why. https://preview.redd.it/9qxv4sv6ks7d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebe9cb665a337709b220c73ef3d3b17adc3284dd
Yes they have an Etsy shop too
That’s not just a grain issue, that appears to two different finishes on the wood
Idk, I don’t hate it personally. But I’m not very picky. I’m a plumber first tho, and a novice woodworker second so take my opinion with a grain of salt. I might’ve tried to put the pieces in a gradient. 2, 1, 4, 3. To see how it looked. The third piece is the most interesting to me, but doesn’t match at all with the second. Actually I’ve changed my mind. I like it. If you rotate it, you get a beach scene. Two light pieces the sky, the dark piece the water and the final piece the beach. I could live with that.
I thought it was a photo of 2 tables at first. Deffinatly a return.
Nope. And you shouldn't have to pay for return shipping either, that is terrible quality and not at all what the ad represents. Did you buy that off Etsy by chance? I'm pretty sure I saw that exact listing when I was looking for furniture.
[удалено]
It's really sad when good woodworkers pushing for quality get ignored in favor of margins. It's so shortsighted, terrible product will ruin a company so much faster than spending a little more to make it right. Build what you would want in your home.
I think they have an Etsy store but we bought it from their website [Urbandi.com](http://Urbandi.com)
That is 100% unacceptable, unless you ordered a two-tone table.. There is no excuse for that. You couldn't convince me in 100 years that it slipped past QC. They know exactly what they sent. After looking at their display photos for that product, it's not even close and they can't hide behind: "wood is a natural product and every piece is unique...blah blah blah" excuse. I'd immediately call them, ask them when they will cross ship a replacement and pick this one up, at their expense.
Did you try turning it upside down?
such a shame, because really, the grain is so beautiful on both of the halves -- they just don't go together
This is poor design judgement on the builders part. I make custom furniture for a living. Unless the client specifically picked and layed out the wood like this it would never leave my shop. My guess is they ran out of a similar grain/ tone of white oak and used whatever they could find. Unacceptable!
What does the bottom look like? Not like I think you haven’t looked already, but is it any worse than the face in the pictures?
yeah its very similar with a noticeable split in grain in the middle
That’s not two tables? I really thought you got two separate tables… Saw your other post saying you paid over a thousand dollars, full refund baby. That’s horrible. Leave review as well to protect others.
I work for a company that specializes in custom solid wood products. 1. This must be the lowest quality white oak available on the market, if it’s truly even white oak. I work with a LOT of white oak and maybe it’s the lighting in this photo, but I have suspicions. 2. We would never send anything that looked like this out of our facility. If we received lumber that looked like this, it would be either scrapped or returned to the provider.
If it were me I would have never sold this to a client, or even made it with that mismatched wood.
It you look at review pics of the table, it looks like there are two pics of your size or larger, and both look reasonable with grain pattern. You definitely did not get as advertised and they should correct the issue. And be embarrassed.
Are we sure that’s even oak? That looks like a half oak half walnut table to me
They sell a walnut version also, so they could have mixed up woods before finish.
Two of us at a cabinet shop in L.A. concur with your assessment. Based on the photos’ details we can see, that’s walnut, or it’s the strangest white oak grain pattern and shading we’ve (n)ever come across.
I concur with your concurrence. And it’s like a *nice* walnut piece huh?? That’s the sort of thing I’d set aside for drawer fronts or something. And they were like, let’s throw it in this oak table. So weird
The grain can get pretty wild in oak where the crown branches out. Sort of looks like a tree that was taking on staining from water and tannins. Some of the ones I pull out of my lake look similar.
That looks completely different with both finish and the abysmal grain matching, although if you are going to complain, I'd take a photo with better (more natural) lighting so you can give a fair comparison. However as a suggestion, it might be an option to lean into the skid e.g. get a half and half wooden tray for the top and rotate (so dark tray on light oak) etc etc. I'd still be wanting a hefty discount from the company as it's clearly not what they sold, but maybe a thought to mull on.
Grainblending. What grainblending... Only thing I ever built is a bbq table for my green egg. It spend a lot of time properly matching each plank. This is just absolute bs.
Call them and be nice, but raise hell. - doesn’t look like white oak at all - that mating is f’ing dreadful - looks nothing like their own photos of the table OR the customer submitted photos. I can’t believe they’d pack that up with a straight face tbh.
The picture on the product page shows that the sample table isn't even perfectly flat on the bottom. Blending is much better on the product picture. Regardless, with the cost of the product, how are you posting pictures that aren't perfect? The lack of attention to detail on the product page gives me pause as to their attention to detail on anything I would potentially order from them.
Yeah right, that looks like shit. Not what was advertised. For $80 from Ikea, I’d live with it. For $700, no way. And make them pay for it. They’ll try to hassle you, but they ripped you off, sold you a piece of junk, and want you to feel bad and to pay for it. No way.
Reach out to them and ask them to exchange it. That’s not what was advertised and that contrast is way too much.
That's fucking awful. -a seasoned carpenter (You should find someone who can build one for you. Job + a good story)
I would have never glued it up with that much contrast between the wood boards. I personally wouldn’t be happy with that much contrast between boards on the same piece. I just read further down the post. 1100 plus 200 shipping is pretty cheap for that piece.
This looks.. really easy to make
Yeah, not acceptable. This is def a quality control issue; boards with similar grain could have easily been chosen but it was probably done randomly, or out of an error. Maybe someone was rushing to get it our. If you write them explaining I’d be curious what they would say.
That’s totally unacceptable. Send it back and please don’t pay for shipping/restocking. Whoever made this should have known better.
I assume you ordered from pictures showing a table with more congruous wood. Company should pay for return and replacement.
Pfff, that is design. This is a Star Wars table. It’s like the force - it has a light side and it has a dark side😆
Not unreasonable at all. I just had an oak countertop made and when I went to the shop to decide on the species we had the conversation about grain variation and how they can obviously never match it just right, I was actually nervous for a moment imagining something similar to your table (sorry 😬), but was then shown samples and realized they were talking about just the slightest variations. I agree with others, that looks like two tables joined together. Perhaps they’ll split the difference (which I know kinda sucks), but if you pay to ship that back they’ll cover shipping of a replacement…one that you’ve seen a photo of.
wouldn't be bad if the light side was cut in half so that it went light, dark middle, light. At least then there would be sort of a pattern to it. But the way it is would drive me nuts after a while
https://preview.redd.it/z8x34c55wx7d1.jpeg?width=3044&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15fcf1a137756a67b638f1a9d76e6cf7646712f9 This looks very similar to these side tables I made out of walnut. Also, you are right to not be happy with this, I personally spend a great deal of time trying to make sure that the grains and color of the wood is very similar before using them together especially if they're not from the same tree. This is unacceptable.
Any woodworking hobbyist worth their salt would know better than to do something like this. A professional outfit doing it and then accepting payment for it is embarrassing. Make them take it back, and make them pay the return shipping, and try to get them to refund the original shipping if you can.
I work with cabinetry. This, is laughably unacceptable under any circumstances. Any quality control at all, would have prevented this from leaving. I'd just lightly sand and stain and maybe oil or varnish. Get a refund.
That’s unacceptable to me as a woodworker of 25 years
Nah g the that’s bullshit, they knew what they were doing and it’s okay that you don’t want to settle for quality while clearly they have no problem. Honestly it’s really scammy to do this.
I sort of like it. Some cool grain patterns. As someone who has built many things with white oak, color and grain variability is very common and I usually make an arrangement that makes the best of what I have, generally. I always think that a company that sells high end furniture with solid wood should show pictures of the actual table for sale, not a representation because of this very customer reaction. That can be difficult with made to order furniture but it would solve a lot of problems. Anyway, it has character and if well built, I’d say is a very good price. $680 isn’t much for a piece like this, IMO.
Dude could saw kerf the transition between the grain and fill with a brass rod or some other feature and I think it’d look pretty sick
And then the customer can spin it 180 every time they think the room looks a little stale to get a whole new look.
[удалено]
“Our white oak waterfall coffee tables are handcrafted in the USA with **meticulous** attention to detail…. Our white oak waterfall coffee tables are designed to be aesthetically pleasing”… That’s for saying meticulous so I could put this bs quote in again (my emphasis, not theirs)
Your table has way more character than the one pictured in the ad. I love the grain on that table. The contrasts are eye catching and very pleasing. I realize things like this are very personal and preferences change from person to person but to me the single color and pattern is boring.
Damn, they should’ve cut one in half and sandwiched it together to make it more interesting. This just looks like garbage.
They should’ve picked one tone and stuck with that. Both look beautiful, together not so much.
That’s so bad, and misleading, but I’ve seen so many products like this where they bury a line about the photo being an example and not guaranteed to look like what you receive. At that price they should be trying harder to match, or they should be showing variations in their photos. If they are going to ship you this, then one of their photos should show something that looks like this, to warn potential customers. I hate misleading product photos. Hopefully they take a return, but sometimes companies just stand firm and blame customers for not finding their hidden disclaimer. Best of luck!
It might have been better if they ripped each board in half and balanced it in glue up.
I thought it was two table next to each other and you were going to complain that say one you bought now does not match the one you bought a year ago But nope, just one properly fucked table
I'm not going to lie. I thought this was a dry assembly, and you realized it didn't go too well together, not a completed product you had to pay for.
If you paid with a credit card, just challenge with the card company. You have good pictures showing you didn’t get what was offered. You don’t even need to send it back.
This reminds me of a time I hired a very reputable hardwood flooring company to refinish some floors. Part of the job was replacing a couple of damaged boards and they said they could perform this surgery no problem, and swap in the same species of wood. They did exactly that, but the color match was way, way, way off. They said this was because the floor's original wood was 90 years old and their replacement boards were brand new, and the two would age together over time. I said I get that but I don't have 90 years to wait and was led to believe the match would be more compatible. It really was like two random nearly white boards that lept out in a whole room of deep red flooring. They shrugged and said "well, okay, gosh I guess if you feel that way we could maybe tint the boards to match or something..." And I said yes please do that. They did. It matched perfectly. I paid nothing for this correction. You have a really good and well founded grip on the concept of grain variation but man, there is a line.
If you go look at their website for this piece, it gets even worse. They seem to purposefully obfuscate the view of the top surface with camera angles and light reflections. There isn't a single non-obscured shot of the tabletop. Return it dude. They sold mismatched color and grain. It looks bad and I would be upset to have that when I expected a full piece.
I always thought the two tone version costs more
Cut it in half and make two I guess
Looks like they built your table with whatever was available vs actually giving you the piece you purchased. It looks like shit because it looks like two tables glued together. Awful selection of product. They should've laid it out and asked if you're ok with how it looks before they actually assembled it. Ask for this next time.
I could have made you one that blended perfectly
That’s not white oak. Red oak or possibly black oak. Not white.
r/sneakybackgroundfeet
You paid 700 dollars for a rectangle
This website has Scam written all Over it … they took you for a ride OP
I could have priced you and built it along with delivery far better then they did you here lol lord
I found their etsy store page and looked at some user submitted photos of a similar (or it might be the same) table. https://i.etsystatic.com/iap/f2a9d2/5501454119/iap_640x640.5501454119_ptvsc620.jpg?version=0 Looks like they had no problem grain matching with this one. Whoever was making this definitely knew it was dodgy.
That is awful, no reputable company would send that out.
i can't confidently say i've seen white oak before but ik that ain't it, they better take it back with a free back and forth exchange trip or thats a scam
These people may have the skill to build furniture, but they certainly don’t have the eye for design. Zero thought went into the layout.
You would still like the table pictured, within reason for grain variation, but what you got is not within reason. So it should not be a restocking, it should be an exchange.
If it were board order, left to right 2, 1, 4, 3 it would have been so much less ugly
I refuse to believe they sent you an actual white oak table unless your phones camera and/or garage lighting is really off. Also, why is one half so much darker than the other? I think they sent you a standard oak table instead of white oak.
Looks like dog sh*t, if they don't respond or want to charge you for the return, tell them you ordered what was shown on the website and this is not that. If they want to charge you, you can always dispute it on the credit card
I used to build solid oak tables. Usually white oak. And I would never match grains this poorly
No although I'm never surprised to see it on mass produced furniture.
If you have a table saw, you can solve this problem and even get a second table out of the deal. Yeah, I agree, weird design.
https://preview.redd.it/s7matfpzit7d1.jpeg?width=828&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0e8fcadec6388c5e4ccfac2df747f9eb1522c37 From the manufacturer... Meticulous attention to detail?! I'm afraid I have to respectfully disagree, bud! Designed to be aesthetically pleasing?! Also, I fully disagree! This looks like a high school shop student made it on the last day of the semester in order to get something made and not fail the class! 🤦🏻♂️🤣💯 The company is 100% in the wrong here and needs to pay whatever they have to in order to make it right or expect the internet to do its thing until they do! Cyber bullying a company is sometimes the only way to get them to do the right thing and that is just an unfortunate truth