After reading many of the reviews of broken fragile pieces, I would suggest the issue was the delivery handling. After watching how the box it came in was handled by the UPS driver, I can see how some pieces may have cracked thus breaking the rest of the way during assembly. Ours worked out fine luckily even though the delivery driver "shoved" it out the back of his truck onto the ground then walked it on end up to the door. He had NO respect for our package and has been reported. The bed itself, after a long assembly time, seems very sturdy and looks good. The same bed is about $25 cheaper on Amazon with Amazon Prime.