Everyone has good reviews of these…I bought one here about a year ago. It had two posts coming out the top. (like the 68" one, but not as fancy overall) My cats love to lay on top, and occasionally chase each other onto it. The posts get very wobbly, if the bolts aren’t tightened almost weekly. The top post, which was coming out of the middle of the little hidey-hole thing, tore out of it’s base after about 6 months of use. The carpet is thin, and was ripped off the top long before that. (my one cat doesn’t jump, but climbs) Maybe if I was more diligent on keeping the bolts tight the post would have stayed longer. That’s just more maintenance than I expected for cat furniture. I have a smaller one that was bought from the pet store in '93 when we got our previous cats. That one I’ve only tightened the bolts on once, after 3 moves, and it still has a very solid stance.
Maybe I just got a bad one, or my cats are just a bit too rough with it. All I know, is if the second post breaks, I’ll be going and finding a much sturdier one at a local pet store.
(Oh, also, the light colored carpet is horribly hard to keep clean with 2 black cats)
Edit: Here’s an image of the tree. I keep the top post on the ground for another scratching post, it was attached where the lower cat is laying now. You can also see how the other post is tilted quite a bit. http://i.imgur.com/Qt2PFa3.jpg
Two of the three platforms on mine have broken off the same as yours but I thought it was because I overtightened the bolts. My cats have to share the blame as they like to get a running start then scale the tree up to the top and are not especially careful about the force they use to jump onto and off of the platforms. They have also torn the sisal rope loose on half the posts. Some of the fleece is coming loose in spots and it took only a few days of use for them to destroy the little toys hanging from elastic bands.
Still, they have gotten a good 3+ years out of it so I’m getting them a new one and I’ll have one leftover platform to use as a backup for the new tree.
