Did you get an office, free food, an on-site gym, etc., etc.? If not, then that's what people call "not very nice" these days, at least for programmers.
I didn't get a personal office, but barring a handful of individuals, nobody did. Everyone worked in shared space. No cubes though- just adjoining desks, grouped by department.
Everyone got free snacks and drinks, and free lunches delivered to the office on Fridays. There wasn't an on-site gym, but the company paid for memberships to a local gym. There was also the beginning of a game room with a ping-pong table, a foosball table, and a dartboard.
The perks were by no means Google-scale, but they were nice nonetheless.
I didn't experience any of the "not very nice"-ness you're referring to- my coworkers there were and are actually really nice folks.
I did, however, leave because of burnout.