When my bench arrived, the box that the bench was in was in good condition.  When I opened the box and began removing the individual sections of the bench, all of the packing was completely intact and the parts of the bench were packaged very carefully and provided for adequate protection of each piece.  I removed all the pieces of the bench and carefully inspected each piece and every square inch of the entire bench was in perfect condition and free of any flaws or defects.  The bench consist of 5 separate pieces and is super easy to put together.  Some of the other comments indicated the variation of the color of the wood and that's one of the reasons I chose this bench as I did not want the wood to have the exact same even color throughout, but rather liked the different shades of color which to me enhance the fact that it's natural wood.  Lastly, the quality of the bench is very good and it is not some wimpy piece of furniture, but rather a well made, solid bench.