We love the desk in general and the mystic oak color in our blue office.  My husband had no issues with assembly. There were six distinctive dents on the desktop and two shelves. Fortunately, five of them were on the backside of the desk and only one was on the front of a shelf.  The rustic nature of the desk keeps the front dent from looking terrible. We would attribute all of the dents to a packaging issue versus a transit issue. Had the desk arrived without the dents, we would give it a solid five stars.