Wow. What a complete disaster. Unless you want to put a post every 2 feet, these poles are useless. I should have known there was trouble and just stopped when I saw the top of one of the poles was bent (see photo) upon unpacking but I assumed it was a mfg or shipping error, not because these were pre-used and ruined. I also really wanted to put them up. As I began assembly, one of the sections was completely stripped (see far right of pole photo), but I still plowed ahead thinking I’d just use 8 foot height and not 10 and it would still work out. As soon as I put the first one in the ground - which is a solid claw like 5 piece affair I should add - and ran my light strand to it from about 10-12 feet away (but also plugged in higher than the pole since I was forced to reduce the height of the pole) the whole thing started leaning at each seam from the weight towards my outlet / house. Put the other one in the ground and started experimenting. Quickly realized that any weight / tension of more than about 2-3 feet of light strand was simply too much for the poles. Maybe it’s the half inch of threading? Maybe it’s the thin diameter of the posts? All I know is I’ll never be able to go from my outlet / house to the edge of my patio with these as it’s a bit wider than 3 feet. But I now know why I was sent someone else’s reject: they failed with them and retuned them. Unless I’ve missed the return window I will at least try and tell npcpsolar.com that they’re defective so they don’t just ship this pack back out to someone else. I’ll most likely look to local garden centers for solid one-piece poles before trying to hang my lights again.