Pole was in three sections. One section had to be forced to screw into the other causing paint to flake off. Once the pole was inserted into the grown, it looked too short. We took the pole out of the ground and measured, it was 9', not 11'. We could not get the section unscrewed due to the force. This information was given to the company, they said to keep the pole (that I have absolutely no use for, due to length) and they refunded half of the money and said to keep the pole. Doesn't seem fair, if the pole had been 11' to begin with, I would not have had a problem.These are well made light poles. They go together easily and look pretty good. There's some vertical wings on the top that are kind of redundant if you clamp the wire down. No big deal.The inside of the tubes isn't coated. It's bare metal. There's a hole in the center of the cap so rainwater can get inside. I plugged that up but then moisture is going to get trapped. Aaarrgghhh!!!Rust-proof and steel are typically opposites. I am not convinced of the rust proof aspect here. If the tubes were powder coated inside and out I would think otherwise.You get what you pay for. In a good way! I was half expecting these string light poles to topple over after the first gust of wind came in, but I was pleasantly surprised at the superb durability. I was in need of something (anything!) to attach some outdoor cafe lights to in the back of my backyard. There was no solution other than a neighbor’s tree, and I didn’t want to test their neighborly disposition by affixing my string lights to their tree, even if the tree does hang significantly into my hard…but this isn’t a review of my neighbor’s tree! This is a review of the two excellent poles that hold up my backyard cafe string lights.Where was I?…Oh yes. The poles. Out of the box, I was able to assemble them in no time at all. Just under 15 minutes, by myself, as I drank my morning coffee. And you better believe I didn’t read the instructions. That’s the ultimate test of a product’s design: can it be assembled simply by looking at the parts themselves? And with only one wrong turn (screwing the top piece into the middle of the pole) I was able to manage perfect assembly.Getting the stakes into the ground takes some effort, about what it takes to use your heel to get a shovel fully into the ground. But you’ll be glad for that extra effort because these babies aren’t going anywhere. The top part where the lights attach is quite perfect for the intended purpose. Almost as if someone built this precisely for this reason and this reason alone! I honestly scoured Amazon for hours searching for something like this before I stumbled onto this product.Only caveat: these are advertised to be 11ft poles, but the ones I was sent are only 9ft tall. Honestly, 11 feet would’ve been a bit much, and the 9 foot poles are perfect for me. Just worth noting.What I am using these and another pair of 9 foot poles is to hold a rectangular weather tarp above my car in the driveway. The reason - a couple of months ago during a high wind, a dead branch fell from one of the trees that hang over the driveway and cracked the windshield in three places. Too large to fix with resin, but also didn't shatter the windshield so that I could put a claim in...now I know the tarp isn't going to make branches bounce off of it, but it might slow any branch down enough to give my windshield a fighting chance of making it through without another crack. It also gives my car more shade and considering it is an older car, saving the paint by providing cover should extend the life of the finish - you've seen pockmarked and peeling paint on cars - that's from sun and dirt and other issues. The more I can save my car (since I don't have a garage) from full sun exposure, the better. But back to these two poles - at 11 feet, they are perfect next to the house with two 9 foot poles I happened to have opposite these two. I purchased some water-type tent weights to hold all 4 poles in place after I used a rubber mallet to get the poles fully down, into the ground, then filled each weight with water (they state they hold 40 lbs of water). The tarp is held with 4" ball bungee cords so they can give some when and if a wind tries to catch the tarp. So far, having a nice angle to the tarp, I feel any branch that may fall, will stop at the tarp and roll off. The poles are great and working well for my "cloth carport."Really happy with these string light supports. I actually chose them to hold up some aviary netting around our chicken coop, and I was very pleasantly surprised by their strength and stability. They're more than adequate for string lights, pennants, etc. They would be fine for signs and banners as well, assuming it's not super windy.These are composed of sections of sturdy tubing that's threaded for solid connections. The weakest points are probably the set screws, where they connect to the base and the little arm holder on top, but those both currently feel nice and solid to me. You'll want to use a tool to tighten them down nice and snug.The base is very stable, much sturdier and more serious than I expected. If your ground is relatively soft, you'll be able to step them in; if it's harder, you can finish the job with a mallet. One cross section is higher than the other, so if you stand/pound on it, you can sink the lower section a bit below the surface. I gave up before the top section was completely flush with the ground, but I'm happy with how solid it feels.They are tall! I'm really happy with the height. No worries about head clearance, even if what you're hanging sags.I was expecting thin walled tubes, Nope, these are some nice, strong, tick walled tubes. Very sturdy. The fork things for sticking in the ground are also quite strong. End result is that these two pole stands are a lot of steel. Nice. For giggles, you can make use all the poles for one and get something that's what? 18 feet? (didn't measure it). Still solid at that length.These might be overkill for just stringing lights, but will certainly withstand a few holiday mishaps.Easy and convenient way to string lights and look good. Easy to put in and remove