First one took about a hour as until you get all 4 sides locked at the bottom it falls apart Second one took about 15-20 minutes.. used plier handles above the rivets to keep the vertical rods from collapsing till I could get all 4 sides locked on the bottom

This is the worst product I've bought from Sam's. First of all, there is absolutely no way one person can assemble this alone. One of the things that attracted me to this shelf is that it was boltless and "easy to assemble". The connections do not stay in. Once you get one part of it together, those metal pieces fall out while you're trying to assemble the other part. It is extremely frustrating. The directions state to build the bottom half first, build the top part separately, and then place the top part on top of the bottom half. There is absolutely no way you can do this alone. None of the connections stay together so there is no way you can lift the top half to place it on the bottom half. I tried to build the top half on the bottom half and that didn't work since the metal pieces are so flimsy and continued to fall apart. I used a hammer out of desperation to get the metal connections to stay in with no luck. Also, the directions are poorly written. At the very end of the directions once the shelf is assembled, it tells you to place the rubber feet on the bottom of the shelf. Why would you not start with this instead of having to lift the shelf assembled to put the rubber on the bottom? This entire purchase and experience has been very frustrating and disappointing. What a waste of an evening. I'm returning this product tomorrow. Don't waste your time or your money.

I helped my sister put this together yesterday. If you plan on making the tall configuration, get two people to help you. there is no way to build the top half and set it onto the bottom half without it falling apart a million times. It was a nightmare with 80 moles taking turns popping out of their holes. She got the bottom half together and then called me to help with the top. It took us 1 hour and 20 minutes of playing whack a mole just to assemble the top shelving and set it in place. Every time you try to fuss with one button, a button somewhere else pops out of its mole hole. After a lot of cussing and me begging my sister to return it to Sam's, I had the brilliant idea to reinforce every corner of the top section with painter's tape (easy to peel) and then reinforce every shelf left to right and front to back. this gave us enough stability to lift the top half and set it onto the bottom half and eventually get everything lined up and stable enough to insert the wood shelves. The buttons kept popping out of their holes anyway. But we finally got the top section situated onto the bottom half with only one button slightly askew. And THEN we found a button on the very bottom shelf was out of its hole. I've never assembled anything as frustrating in my 60 years. The only thing that keeps the top half from falling off of the bottom half is a 1/8" lip on the vertical posts where the top ones sit on top of the bottom ones. Look at the close-up of the assembled shelf in the listing. Pray that you don't have an earth quake. My sister agreed to take me out for drinks at the swanky hotel here in town.

Was desperate for shelves and the heavy duty ones I've bought over and over have been sold out for months. Couldn't reach the display in the store to test, but i had (past tense) faith in Sam's so i drove 80 miles to the closest Sam's with the shelves. Got them home and started to put them together and here's where the "fun" starts: 1.) The steel literally flexes in your hands a full 90 degrees. It is not doubled up like the good shelves (which wouldn't flex, btw) 2.) The connectors are laughable. Don't put ANY weight above the middle connector. 3.) The shelves themselves are decent, but if you plan on putting the advertised 600lb per shelf weight limit, plan on buying thicker plywood. 4.) Did i mention the flex? 5.) While putting the shelves together, that flex thing i mentioned makes it darn near impossible to do this yourself. To make things even better: the steel is sharp and when it smacks you in the back of the head because the idiotic braces flex, you get cut. Head cuts bleed. Bad. 6.) putting it back into the box is oddly satisfying. 7.) Paying double the price for the same shelves (only heavy doubled steel) at home Depot or Lowe's is totally worth it. And they're 6" deeper.

I bought two and tried to put the first together and found that connecting the top section to the lower section impossible with the design. I am a fairly handy person, but could not get the two sections to connect. I will probably have to use the shelving as two separate pieces because the top will not correctly mount to the lower section. I am taking the second one back for a refund.

I consider myself to be a handy person, and I got so frustrated trying to put this piece of garbage that I threw everything back in the box and I am returning. Nothing stays together as you are trying to get everything in place. The worst shelving unit I have ever seen.

I disagree with the negative reviews. I’m a petite 5’-2” senior woman. I have put together 6 of these units by myself. The trick is to lay the unit on the floor horizontally. Make sure to attach one shelf at the joint where the 3’ and 4’ legs join together. Making sure all joints are seated all the way into the slots. If you have help then it is possible to assemble vertically. I have also disassembled these units and reassembled them at another location by myself. This unit is very strong and sturdy if assembled correctly. The only unit I will purchase. I want to get several more units but they have been out of stock for over a year. My only complaint.

Was looking for a great father's day gift -- this was it! Needed a shallower 18" depth on the shelves as my dad-in-law does not have a very deep garage. Other units are 24" and these would have been too large -- not enough room to manuvuer around parked cars with the garage doors closed. The sweet spot for fabricating is to have 2 people holding the corners while a third install the side and crossmembers. I agree on the previous reviewer's comment regarding the difficulty fitting the upper and lower corner frames together, but this is so much easier if you have someone to help you. Great product! Thanks Sams Club!!!

These shelves were the hardest thing that I have ever tried to assemble in my 60 years of life, I wish I would have put them back in the boxes and sent them back to the store. I almost got a divorce because of these crappy shelves. The locking rivets do not fit securely and I hope that they don't come crashing down.

I've bought these shelves and the 5 shelf version (24" deep vs 18" deep on these) multiple times over the years. These used to be really sturdy, easy to assemble and high quality. I just bought some for my storage shed this week and was VERY disappointed in the drop in quality. The metal for the legs and shelf brackets has gotten quite thin. They changed the assembly process so there is no longer a bracket that connects the top and bottom legs together making it much more difficult to assemble and SIGNIFICANTLY weakens the overall structure so it is nowhere near as sturdy as they used to be. Without the center bracket, the shelf supports do not sit properly in the legs at that center shelf point. The shelf boards have also gotten thinner and my package had 2 cracked boards (not fully broken but damaged). I was in a pinch and kept them anyway but I will NOT ever buy these shelves again nor would I recommend them to anyone. These are really, really bad quality and not what they used to be...stay away from these crap shelves.