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Lillyvale have made a unit which claims to hold 528 DVDs or 1116 CDs, but mine will be holding nothing whatsoever. Note: Theirs is above-right, and mine is below.
It cost £79.95 from Amazon with free delivery, and is currently now “unavailable”, but when it comes back into stock, don’t even buy it on a bet! It isn’t worth a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys.
On the plus side, all the pieces turned up, which I understand is not the same for everyone. It comes in two packs. However, the instructions within are not exactly detailed. They do just about get the job done in terms of explaining things, but that’s if every piece behaves like it was meant to.
Look at the picture – and ignore the fact that there are no shelves in any of the sections because if I’d put one or two in, they would’ve just sat on little dowels, so they’re not going to provide additional support.
You get the following from Lillyvale (and this is how they’re labelled):
- A – a single top plank
- B – a single middle plank
- F – a single bottom plank, which sticks out at the front, and would normally have provided a good base.
- C and E – two left (C) and right (E) planks to be at the sides of the unit
- D – four middle planks (not all of thes were labelled, but I was able to work out which were ‘D’ as all the others were labelled)
They’re set out this way because they each have different sets of holes and so on.
From the top, and doing this while flat on the ground with the black edge of each piece facing up (as that’s the front):
A fits into C, E and two of the D planks, each with wooden dowel pins (attached to C, D, E), plus a metal one inbetween them (attached to A). A big screw gets put in each of the vertical planks and with a turn, locked pretty successfully into the metal pins I’d put into A.
Then you have to attach B to the bottom of these planks, and this is the first major issue. You have 8 screws which go through B and into each vertical plank (2 each). Trying to get them in is like trying to push water uphill. I used a Philips screwdriver to do this – in fact, I used 3 of varying sizes because they each provided different strengths at times, and I had to undo and redo the screws many times until they finally went in.
Repeat this with B, although when you think the four big screws are fully connected from the lower vertical planks, following the same process you did before, they’ll come apart at the drop of a hat. Even if you don’t have a hat. But they don’t reveal this just yet.
You now have just F to attach at the bottom. This involves 8 more screws. Get ready to swear again for however long this takes.
The complete unit is now on its back. But it needs to be turned over so you can put the flimsy back on (which is H and I in the instructions). However, I tried this a few times, and each time, the aforementioned big screws in the middle detached themselves. When this happened, I saw that some of the wooden dowel pins had also sunk further into the vertical planks, and even if I got them out and repositioned them, they just sunk in again, so there’s no support there.
In a video I saw online (above), one guy managed to stand the unit up, spin it round and put it on its front without any trouble, so I’ve clearly got a duff one.
The back pieces require 43 screws which also come with it, but I couldn’t put that on when the top and bottom sections are coming apart in the middle.
So, to see what would happen, I stood up the lower part, tried to put the top part in place – noting where all the wooden dowel pins and metal bits go, and this is not easy when you’re doing it on your own in these socially-distanced times!
And you can see from the picture, it’s not in the least bit balanced. To avoid damage, I took the top part off and laid that down flat again.
The whole thing is a complete disaster. If Lillyvale can address this and deliver a unit fully completed, I’ll be happy and will update this review, and then they can take away the old unit pieces if they want. But if they don’t, I’ll be seeking a full refund. If they don’t give me that, I’ll be contacting my bank to do it instead.
Your move, Lillyvale. This unit is worth zero out of ten. Sadly, on Amazon, I can’t give them zero. 1 is the minimum.
The unit is on Amazon here. Please don’t buy it.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.