I’ve wanted a standing desk for a while now, but could never quite justify it. I already had a perfectly fine writing table in the corner of our dining room. I even purchased a standing desk converter a few years ago so that I could reap the benefits without shelling out for a whole new one. In the back of my mind, however, it felt like a compromise; I still coveted the real deal. Then the WFH phenomenon took over our lives, and I eventually took the plunge, opting for Fully’s Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk. It’s a great piece of furniture, but what transpired after I bought it is what really sold me on this company.
As we all know by now, March 2020 happened and plenty of people, including myself, were suddenly forced to work from home. I already did to some extent, but it went from an occasional situation to a full-time commitment overnight. That in and of itself wasn’t a problem; the issue was that now my husband had to work from home too. His computer setup was also located in the dining room, and it turned out that both of us working from home in the same room at the same time was a recipe for marital distress (overlapping Zoom calls was one problem among many).
Fortunately, we had a guest room that we could transform into a temporary office. After moving some furniture around and doing a bit of redecorating, I officially “moved” my workspace upstairs. But my desk situation was still pretty dire. I actually ended up using a folding sewing table as a stopgap in the guest room because I wanted to keep the writing table downstairs. I thought I’d be okay with it since this situation was supposed to be temporary. But as weeks turned into months, I realized this was probably how it’s going to be for the long haul.
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After doing copious amounts of research, I settled on the aforementioned Jarvis Bamboo Standing Desk by Fully. It has a ton of positive reviews, I liked the design and it comes in a small enough size to fit in our space. At around $600, it’s not cheap, but I found that it’s actually fairly priced compared to similar desks (the Uplift V2, for example, is around $50 more for a similar configuration). After a brief shipping delay due to a back-ordered bamboo desktop, I finally received everything a week or so after I ordered it.
But then I ran into a problem. After putting the whole thing together, I realized (to my dismay) that the desk was much too high for my 5 foot 3 stature. I had mistakenly ordered the mid-range desk frame, which has a minimum height of 29 inches, and not the extended-range desk frame, which has a minimum height of 24.5 inches. My husband was especially annoyed because he had spent nearly an hour putting the whole thing together, only to have me disappointed at the outcome.
At first, I thought I could make it work. Maybe if I piled a few extra cushions on my chair, I could have a better sitting height. Or maybe if I just committed to standing all day long it would be okay. But after a few days, parts of my body started to hurt, and I decided that the poor ergonomics were to blame. I bristled at the thought of having to dismantle the desk and return the whole thing, but I emailed the company anyway, informing them of my dilemma.
To my absolute surprise, Fully was ready and willing to exchange just the frame, which allowed me to swap out the legs while keeping the desktop and its components mostly intact. In other words, I would purchase the extended-range frame on its own, swap it out with the mid-range frame, send that back to them, and I’ll get the difference in price refunded to me (The extended-range frame is only $20 more than the mid-range option).
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In a little over a week, the extended-range frame arrived. We then took apart the desk’s existing frame as best we could, and replaced it with the new one. It took a bit of work -- it’s not quite as easy as the company claims -- but we got it done in under an hour. Then, since we had already thrown away the old packaging, we simply put the old frame into the box the new frame came in.
What’s more, I needn’t have worried about the hassle and cost of returning it. Fully sent FedEx to pick up the box directly from my house and covered all of the shipping expenses. I didn’t even have to print out a return label. What I thought would be a complete nightmare of a returns process was actually incredibly smooth.
Importantly, I am also now much happier with the desk, and no longer have to suffer from poor posture. When sitting, I can lower it to the point where my elbows are at the proper 90 degrees, which I wasn’t able to do before. I also opted for the advanced controller where I can assign memory presets for my desired sitting and standing heights -- pressing a single button and having it automatically go up or down is fantastic (I would’ve preferred tactile buttons to the touch-sensitive OLED ones, but it’s a minor quibble). I’m finding myself standing at my desk more frequently as a result. The desk itself is also lovely, with a handsome bamboo finish and plenty of space for my laptop, keyboard, trackpad and various other knickknacks.
If Fully hadn’t made the returns process so easy, I would’ve likely had to suffer through either a troublesome exchange, or years of enduring a less-than-perfect office desk that I had spent hundreds of dollars on. Instead, I now have a desk that I am very happy with, and I have the company’s really excellent customer service to thank for it.
In this article: fully, jarvis, Standing desk, gadgetirl, irl, gadget irl, news, gear
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