Some time ago I purchased one of the brand name TV stands from a furniture store in our area to compliment our newly refurbished living room. As you can imagine, we were excited to get it home, assemble it and put our plasma screen on it to finally relax with some favorite TV shows while admiring the look of this great new TV stand we just got.

Needless to say, we were over the moon with the wooden brand name TV stand (won't mention the make and model here) for at least 3 months before we started noticing that it was wobbling more then when we had first got it, yes it had a very slight wobble initially. I realized, by controlling the DVD player via it's buttons and turning the TV on and off via the main button all the time, it was making the TV stand move from the applied force while pushing a button, causing the joints of the legs where they attached to loosen. It got to the stage where I started to worry about its strength, especially with the weight of a plasma TV on it, so we had to invest in another one as this one came with no warranty - Yes, I should have asked about warranty to begin with! But it's not something you think you're going to have a problem with. So much for brand name stands!

Anyway, now that we're totally positive that brand name TV stands are out of the question and with our dislike for some manufacturers of TV stands, we convinced ourselves a cheaper stand may do just as well only to find out in a short time that the top of the stand started to bow under the weight of the plasma TV.

By now, as you can imagine, we are totally P'd off at having no luck with such a simple thing as a TV stand! So this time we shopped online for a TV stand and to our amazement, came across more brand name TV stands which looked really nice, and the reviews for the stand we were considering were great . So to cut a long story short, we settled on a stand that had great reviews, had it delivered and finally for the third time, we mounted the TV on top of it and 1 year later, without the slightest hint of any distortion, it remains without any wobbles or bowing from the weight. I guess it was third time lucky huh?

In conclusion, my recommendation to you is to choose from brand name TV stands which have been designed and constructed by reputable and reliable TV stand manufacturers - which have warranty included I might add! And let me not forget to mention to stay away from cheaper TV stands, especially when you're putting a weighty plasma TV on it . At least by purchasing online, you'll be able to see what others say about the TV stand you're thinking of buying . Now that's something you can't do offline ;-)

Good luck - and tell us what you think - Maybe you have a horror TV stand story to tell?