I expected the chair to arrive in pieces, but I didn't expect the final piece to be stuck and impossible for me to remove.  I tried many times, along with a friend of mine.  I had to wait for my husband to get back into town to finish putting it together.  (I'm quite sure I loosened it for him.)  The chair is for my 10-year old son, and once it was together, he loved it.  There's a lot of plastic on it, so I don't expect it to last forever, but it was worth the price once it was assembled.