I really wanted to love this set. Let me start by saying I am a woodworker, I have a small shop in…read moremy basement, so I appreciate craftsmanship and we currently have other amish furniture pieces in our house - its becoming harder and harder to find quality solid wood furniture these days. I have no problem spending the premium that solid wood furniture warrants. Myself being a woodworker, I probably pick up on things that the average person would not (or may not even care about).
We paid, what I would consider, to be a high end price for a living room set - 1 coffee table, 3 end tables, and a 72" TV stand. When we got the pieces, I noticed there were pocket holes all over the place, with some screws exposed and a lot of chipout. I was extremely disappointed, I use pocket screws in some of my very low end projects, such as shop furniture or plywood cabinets. I have made some smaller nice pieces around the house and I would never consider using such low end joinery in nicer wood projects, let alone a $6k living room set (price before shipping, taxes, and guardsman protection)!
In my opinion, a "craftsman" making very expensive living room furniture should be using higher quality joinery that is both stronger, and more professional. If you dont know what pocket screws are, google them and watch all the "amateur youtube woodworkers" who use them for lower level projects. This shouldnt be the joinery used on a $6k set (price not including tax and shipping or guardsman protection). Pocket holes have their place and are a much faster form of joinery, but are usually reserved for cabinets or other interior areas or can be filled/covered.
I immediately sent a polite email to the store manager after receiving the set with photos. She never responded. A few weeks after the email I did receive a call from someone who left a message and was in operations but I was on vacation. I called that person back and left a message and have not received a return call. I emailed the store manager again, and still no response. As of the date of this review, it has been 7 weeks with no reply. So I feel I have been more than patient and have given them ample time to contact me back or reply to my emails.
I started to google the set that I bought to see if others complained about the same thing. Thats when I started to notice other online amish furniture places selling the same set, at significantly lower cost than I paid. I finally found the original maker of my set, but it seems that there are a few amish "craftsman" shops which have a line of furniture they build, and then retail fronts and online stores sell their furniture. I was told by the salesperson that I was buying at the biggest discount the craftsman offered all throughout the year, which I believed at the time, but considering I found other online places and stores selling the same custom ordered pieces for significantly lower, I think I got sold a fib by a good salesperson.
Overall, I paid mercedes benz pricing for a toyota corolla. I will likely continue to buy amish or solid wood furniture, but I now know that not all amish "craftsman" are equal and use lower end woodworker joinery in areas where my past amish furniture did not, so I will be sure to look for pocket screws and get clarification on the expectations for my pieces before placing any future orders.
The photos attached show the exposed screws and wood tearout all my pieces suffered from. This is what I would expect from Wayfair/IKEA at 25% the price I paid. Before you buy anything from Gish's, google the set and compare pricing with the other dozen sellers who seem to sell the same exact set, with the same exact stain options, with the same exact wood options from the same exact "craftsmen". Some buyers may be perfectly fine with pocket screw construction, exposed screws, and wood tearout - I was not.
