Review on Play Like A Pro With The STIGA STS 420 Table Tennis Table by Juan Lukas

This was our first ping pong table and now that it is finally set up in my basement, we are very pleased with it. However, we did have some issues that I think Stiga and customers should know about.First off, when it comes time to attach the two sides of the table to the platform, there should be no children anywhere in the room. It is deadly dangerous. Each half that needs to be lifted into place weighs 117 pounds, and once the first one is mounted on the platform, it is extremely unstable and can easily fall over. In our first attempt, we set it carefully into the pivot tubes and it promptly crashed over. It could well have killed someone and it scratched the table surface badly. It turned out the table top was facing the wrong way, but even facing the correct way, it is liable to fall over. The instructions do not describe well enough the steps needed to do this safely; namely, should the third person hold the first half upright while the second half is lowered into place (in which case it is hard to slide the tubes together), or should the first half be resting on the ground before the second part is attempted (which makes the platform seesaw into the air).The second issue was that after the first half fell over, I attempted to bring it upright again by bracing my foot on the center wooden piece and pulling the table surface toward me. That made the board immediately brake into three pieces. It was particle board and I would be surprised if it was rated for more than 20 pounds. It is unacceptable to use such a weak piece of material on a platform needing to support 250 pounds of hardware. Fortunately, my contractor happened to be around and he quickly fashioned a piece of pine board to replace it.The irony is that one of the main reasons we purchased this model is because it is does not require much assembly, however this meant the two main pieces were so heavy that I had to wait several days until I had two guys strong enough to help put it together.The package itself came on a pallet, surrounded by cardboard and particle board on the sides. It weighed 367 pounds but our delivery guy was great and it appeared to have no damage whatsoever. However, once I finally got it open, I found one of the plastic corner protectors was broken, and that one section of the white metal apron was a bit bent up. Nothing serious though, and I've asked their maintenance provider to provide a replacement corner part.Okay, all that out of the way, let me be very positive. The net is fantastic (once we figured out how to tie off the extra string in the net tension system), and although my basement floor is quite tilted (to allow drainage), I was able to get the two halves nearly perfectly level using the leg levelers. The ball bounces really well and the table top is really solid. Overall, it looks great and the ball holder tubes are a nice touch. Just be careful when setting it up.