When I was a kid growing up we had one of these play systems in our backyard and I remember the day…read moreit was installed all the way up until the day my parents had it removed when I was an adult. The one my parents installed in their backyard in the 90s lasted three kids and over 20 years with regular maintenance. When it came time for us to look into a swingset for our daughters as tempted as I was by the kidcraft DIY ones at Costco, we ended up going with Rainbow simply because the kidcraft wooden playhouse in our backyard has been up for maybe three years and LOOKS it. We were a bit worried about how something we DIY might hold up so we figured we'd pay a bit more and go this route.
First of all these things are expensive. There is no way around that. The website always says things are heavily discounted, like it never changes cost and is always on sale, so I think it's just the way they try to get you to pull the trigger - like OH it's not actually 7grand, it's ONLY 2 grand. I'd prefer they just be a bit more transparent on that, but I appreciate that it could be more.
Once we were sold on the unit we wanted we decided to make the trek out to Olathe to see it in person and make sure we knew what we were doing. It was April, and honestly we were wanting to move quickly so we could have one installed early in the summer season. There is conflicting information on when they are open online - in some places it says they have hours on Sundays and on others it says they are closed. We couldn't figure out what the case was so we went there and they were closed to the public. The door was open and we thought oh, maybe we could just speak with a sales person but nobody was around so we just went home and ordered the one we wanted online. Now, their website is a bit dated but it worked okay. It was a little scary placing an order this big in this way, but we had no other time to get out to Olathe in the near future and decided it was worth it. Again, IRL would have been better because I would have asked about small add ons like a pirate telescope and baby swing, neither of which you can just add on via their website.
At any rate, we made the purchase and a rep from their team was in contact with me by Monday morning which really impressed me! She told me the timeframe we'd be looking at and what to expect next. As the timeframe of 3-5 week delivery creeped into the three week mark I emailed asking about next steps and didn't hear back for several days. The following week I emailed again, and again no response so I called. Calling prompted an email and we got it scheduled and ultimately installed pretty quickly at that point.
The installer was SO NICE and so fast. It was insanely impressive how they get these things up quickly.
The main thing here is that these are impressive, well made, playsets. The folks working here are very kind, and thoughtful. Sometimes things just move slower than you might want, or you might have to reach out to get questions answered.
Would I recommend Rainbow? For sure! Could they turn this into a 5 star experience with a few small tweaks? Absolutely. If you're not me though, learn from me, and go on a Saturday, talk to the sales people and I'm sure you'll have a smoother experience.