The 3 stars are simply for the fact that, unless you're a DIY sleuth, you really would be wise to hire someone to assemble this for you... this is most definitely a 2-man job (as stated in the instructions).  It was a mammoth task for my boyfriend and I and took us more than 3 hours... we were methodical and followed the instructions to the letter - the instruction booklet is 25 pages due to the fact that there are 4 different configurations you can set the desk up in... I chose configuration A... it was only at the very end when we'd nearly lost our minds that we saw some small words in the instructions.... "We advise hiring qualified personnel to assemble".  As you can see from the photo, we got there in the end.....