Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

We replaced a 25-year-old Cosco Kitchen Stepstool, still going strong, but the vinyl seat cover was ripping at the front edge. We fixed it several times with clear packing tape, but it was time to replace it. Figured if we purchased a Cosco "Retro Kitchen Stepstool", we would get the same original style and quality, but with new vinyl seats. Well, what a disappointment. The old one we had was built with through bolts/nuts, guides aligning the steps and sturdy through bolted braces on the legs. This new stool is total junk. Cheap Chinese self-tapping screws, cheap Chinese 8/32 pan head bolts, and built-in, (welded) nuts for the 8/32 bolts. The first thing that happens with these cheap #2 Phillips screws and bolts is the Phillips slots strip, and the fastener is wasted. They even give you an extra 6 fasteners anticipating this, but if you want the truly tighten the screws and bolts, they strip. Junk. Then the braces are of stamped sheet metal, ill-fitting at best, not fitting at all at worst. The chair fastens to the seat bottom with sheet metal screws into plastic, The plastic stripped when made proper tight, Useless. And there are no guides holding the steps in place, only a plastic slot on the top step, allowing the step to rattle around unhindered. Dangerous. What a disappointment, Buyer beware, this is not "Retro" in quality, in fact not even in looks, the seat and steps are considerably smaller than the original Cosco Kitchen Stepstool.