Home improvement, vitsoe style

Julia and I finally decided to place our order for our 606 Universal Shelving System from vitsoe.com. We had been deliberating over it for the last few months. They are definitely expensive when it comes to shelves but I consider them the “BMW” of shelves.

The online purchasing process was smooth. A nice lady by the name of Georgia was prompt and clear with her replies and made sure we had all the information we needed to make the purchase. We needed it to be shipped to Singapore so I had a couple of queries like:

• Q: Shipping costs? A: Delivery costs are calculated on the amount of goods being shipped.
• Q: Do I have to pay VAT? A: When ordering from Singapore you do not have to pay UK VAT, however you will be responsible for any local duties and/or taxes applied at local customs, as well as any customs clearance charges
• Q: Exchange rate? A: They just used xe.com and if you pay by credit card the credit company determines the fx rate.
• Q: Shipping duration? A: Mine took 3 weeks to arrive from date of order.
• Q: Defects and returns? A: We take great care in inspecting and packing the goods before dispatch to make sure that only goods of great quality and finish are packed, and are packed in such a way that they will travel safely.If anything is defect we will replace this free of charge. We ask that you unpack and check the goods when they have been received, and if any damage is found, notify Vitsoe within 48 hours with images of the damage so that we can log a claim with our insurers. We will make sure to get any necessary replacements to you asap.

The shipment came on time (I had to pay GST to clear customs but the shipping company called to check and we agreed that they would pay first and I’ll pay them on delivery). All the items were packed very well and there were no damages. They waited in my drive way for a few days before it was the weekend and I could start assembling them.

We had to paint the room first. That took us a good one and half days, but I had mostly been preparing for this and there were not much things in the room (clearing the room is always the hard part). We also opted to not paint the ceilings (lazy!). 

After painting, we finally got round to our Vitsoe. Installing the e-tracks was the most challenging part. Each one had 8 screws so 8 holes needed to be drilled, and we had 8 e-tracks for a total of 64 holes! The spirit leveler provided with the exact lengths of the components made this process much simpler. Getting the e-tracks vertical parallel to one another was not easy, there is some room for error but its not much. One thing surprising was that it was not enough just to get the top and bottom holes parallel, we had to make sure all holes were parallel as the e-tracks can sometimes lose their straightness when mounted.

Putting up the components were the easy part, as long as the e-tracks were well mounted. The screws also had to go all the way in. Some of my wall was concrete and I had difficulty drilling to the suggested depth. So I had to pick up some shorter screws to make it work. Also I had to buy a electric screwdriver. You will not be able to do this with bare hands unless you have massive forearms.

We were very impressed with the quality of the shelves and are very happy with how it turned out. I highly recommend them but be prepared to spend some time and effort with the installation.