Mr. Assembly

Mr. Assembly assembles furniture that comes in parts and pieces that the consumer is supposed to assemble. Anyone who ever has been faced with pages of bewildering assembly illustrations and hundreds of small screws, hinges and cam locks knows how daunting the task can be. Owner Marcelo Braga worked for that well-known Scandinavian retailer of self-assembled furnishings for years and then started his own business. On his website I filled out the form describing the large closet armoire that I had ordered online. The retailer's reviews said that it came in six boxes, weighed 380 lbs. and took anywhere from 5 hours to 4 days to assemble. Marcelo replied the same day with an acceptable quote. Three weeks later the boxes arrived and I contacted Marcelo. He replied promptly and we set the appointment for the following week. He and his assistant arrived on time and set to work. They were careful to cover the floor with blankets and securely to set aside large parts so that they would be out of the way until they were needed. One of the pieces had two small gashes from improper handling at the factory. Marcelo called them to my attention and described several options. He suggested that pictures of the damage be taken, which I did. He suggested and performed a temporary fix to conceal the damage. We agreed that if the retailer supplied a repair kit he would return to perform the repair at no charge, but if the part were replaced he would return to perform the switch at a nominal charge. This seemed fair to me. When the assembly was complete, he noticed that the tops of the doors did not align due to the floor not being perfectly level. He remedied that by installing shims under the base to level the unit. He collected all of the leftover packaging and swept out the room. The job took four hours from start to finish.