I Hate it When

With that dazzling smile you don’t look too Grumpy! That must have been taken after you started this blog.

I hate poor instructions also. Especially the one’s for people that can’t read. Pictures only.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Missing parts!

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

Don’t put your house on it Gary. They don’t call me Grumpy for no reason.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Extremely poor translations from originating language to English is one of my pet peeves and one reason I avoid Chinese products!

-- North Texas

Yes Tom, another pet hate of mine.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

My pet peeve about tools, besides the poor Chinese translations (which is only 1 of many reasons I don’t buy Chinese)?...

The way big companies tend to build themselves a good name for quality tools then eventually use that good name to pedal crap, err, excuse me,... poor quality merchandise (Black & Decker, Sears, etc.). It makes it difficult to keep track of what brand is good and what isn’t.

John: I generally only have the missing parts problem with things purchased at HD (another many faceted gripe).

-- Michael R. Harvey - Brewster, NY - RusticElementArt.com - SpaceAware.org - AnConn.com

Manuals without exploded views and parts lists/numbers

Lew

Gizmo, Mike & Lew, thats music to my ears. Could’nt agree more.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

missing parts and manuals that don’t make sense. especially when its a blown up picture with a top of letters and they call its directions! i hate that!

Mixing metric and U.S. sized hardware. I can judge fasteners fairly well if I know the units used, but when they are mixed up, it really is a pain to match wrench to fastener.

-- Go http://ncwoodworker.net/pp/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=730

1. Manuals that do not explode the digram to enough detail.
2. Wife that nags because you don’t use manual becasue of #1
3. Spare parts caused becuase of not using manual becasue of #1 & #2.

On the serious side:
Manufactures having to spell out 4 pages of a 5 page manual of nothing but safety issues and warnings becuase too many people have misused a tool and became injured due to their stupidity. Then they decided it wasn’t their fault and sued the manufactures (sorry to the lawyers among us.)

-- Brian, Lebanon PA, If you aren’t having fun doing it, find something else to do.

Manuals that are 10 pages thick, with one page devoted to english.

Now were talking Jocks, great stuff.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Who had the brainy idea to create sheet goods that aren’t the size they advertise them to be? Why isn’t 1/4”=1/4”, 1/2”=1/2”, etc.? I’ve got to mess around with jigs and shims and whatever so I can get the pieces to fit correctly. Why not manufacture it so AFTER SANDING the ply is the advertised width? Not rocket science folks ….

-- Paul D, Atlanta GA

I hate it when people bitch about something, but when it comes down to it…....they don’t read the directions, or do what the directions tell them to do, and something doesn’t work out. You ask them, did you read the directions…..they look at you with this blank stare like a deer in the headlights, and answer…. well no, I thought I could do it with-out the instructions.

So true Paul & TopE5

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

My gripe actually goes on and on. You buy a new piece of equipment and obviously needed parts are sold as “accessories” like dust port attachments, mounting shims, etc. They give you a website address and when you key it in so many people have used it to improve their web presence that you never find it. You wind up calling them on the phone and get another phone number for their parts dept., that has such a backlog of calls that I’ve had to shave twice while waiting on hold. Your call is important to us. Really. bbqking

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

BbqKing, Don’t you hate that hanging on the phone bit. Two shaves, you are a patient man.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

I hate the general orginization at the hardware store. You go in looking for a nut and bolt and have to look through 300 bins before you finde the right one. And they never have the exact one you want. They have a 1/4” x 20×1 1/2” in grade 5 but not 8 like you want. In grade 8 they only have 1” and 2” etc, etc. Yea you could just ask the “helpful hardware folks” but I feel kind of dumb making him look for 1/2 an hour for a grade 8 bolt when a 5 would do just fine, but I don’t want a 5 I want an 8 so instead I spend the 1/2 hour convincing myself to go to the other hardware store or that the grade 5 will to or to buy the 2” and cut it down. I just agrivates me when I want something that I think should be simple and they can’t provide. It also makes me angry when “associates” of any kind act like they are doing you a favor when you are the customer and they are just doing their job.

-- Jimmy, Oklahoma "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing milkbone underwear!"

Bayspt, I hope you are not expected to give a tip, that would really add insult to injury.LOL

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Hey bayspt, talking about hardware and big box hardware stores in particular, how many times have you walked toward an “associate” with a question in mind or getting ready to ask for help and they looked at you and hurried away as if they were on a mission from god? I would bet more than several. Thank you internet. bbqking

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

BbqKing, or you ask the shop assistant a question about where to find something & thier eyes glaze over like there’s no one at home.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Or you just bought that 300.00 dollar planer you’ve been wanting and the first thing you have to do is put that dang little stand together, and not have all the pieces or have 375 nuts, bolts, washers and lock washers, all different sizes, and you’ve got to figure out where they go, in what order etc. For that money it seems they could have a store flunky put it together so all you got to do is plug and play. mike

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

It’s not just the assembly instructions that bugs me but the fact that I have to assemble it! I understand that some larger items are not assembled for shipping, etc. reasons but there are a lot of smaller items that are not. I hate payng good money for something and then have to come home and spend hours putting it together. And usually most of this time is spent trying to figure out the @#$% lame instructions! I just want to start using the tool! If I want to spend time putting things together I’d take up building model cars! The least they can do is reduce the price by the amount that they are saving by not paying someone to assemble the product themselves.

The other side of this that gets me PO’d is the stores that charge you for assembly, particulary for items like barbeques and bikes, and call this a service! What’s next, start charging me for bringing it out of the stockroom? I thought this is what we pay for?

Oh, Grumpy, what a big bag of worms you’ve opened… but I must admit I do feel a bit better. ;)

-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com

For me it’s the packaging, How many layers of thick shrink wrapping is needed to hold a couple of screws or bolts? Or how about a nice piece of wood with a too well stuck label on it…..ya need a heat gun to get them off…....... I feel better now, thanks Grumpy.

-- Brian's Table Top Toys http://home.mountaincable.net/~bgraham/

Hello fellow Grumpy ol’ man. Right now I’m a better researcher than woodworker and I always try to find sites that have the instruction manuals, warranty, etc. available on any particular tool I’m researching. Although I’m a better researcher than woodworker, I’ve found that I’m a better woodworker than mechanic.

Hey Grumpy;

I think everyones just about covered all my gripes.

I would have to say the manuals that have four languages in line for each step of assembly. Searching for bits and pieces in English drives me nuts.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

How about tools that require hex keys for assembly and/or adjustment when a phillips head screw would have done the job just fine? So you end up with different size hex wrenches all over the shop for the router, band saw, etc., etc., and you have to pray you can find the right one when you need it.

Even if you keep a whole set of wrenches handy (which I do), you still have to fumble around guessing which size you need.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

So true Charlie I have dozens of them. Don’t you hate it when you go to tighten something with a hex key & the key is too soft & turns in the hole. That happened yesterday on that stupid set of countersink drills I bought & hardly ever use.
Ditto Lee, could not agree more.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Mike, I thought we only had those assembly problems down here but looks like it’s universal.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Toyguy & Ted, glad to hear you are felling better now you got that gripe off your chest. nothing like a good winge is there?.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

well i thought my life really sucked until i read this ! lol

-- if you aint the lead dog the scenery never changes

Assembly instructions where diagrams or pictures that are intended to clarify instructions, but are either too small or fuzzy to help. And as I get older and my vision is not what it was,, small 8 font typed instructions really slow me down to the point, I need more light, maybe even a maginfying glass to read.

Dalec

How about you go to the local Home Depot to pickup a part you need to finish a project, You start looking in the tool section, pickup a hand tool you don’t really need but it screams at you buy me, you stop and browse the lumber aisles, no deals today, look in the electrical section, pick up those light bulbs you may need someday, stop in the paint department, pickup that brush for next’s month painting job….checkout get home and…..

Damm I forgot to pickup what i went to the store to buy!!!

HATE when that happens, I find the older I get the more it happens.

-- Jeff T in Westport CT.

Dalec, my radial arm saw came like that, don’t you hate it
Jeff, You too, I thought it was only me that did that.
Trim, glad I made your day.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

One of my biggest peeves is the sales rep who doesn’t know squat about their product!

”Well, it like, cuts wood.”

The other is directions that obviously were’nt proofread.

”Prease put tab A into srot B with wingknut C using the hammerdriverscrew suppried.”

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

The one big thing that gets me is the multi language instructions. The kind that on page is English but turn the page and there is French or German. And if the instructions are good enough I find my self and just looking at the diagrams and turn the page and what the !@#$?

-- Something that goes unnoticed will never be remembered.

HA ! I am with you dadoo, I HATE it when I go to the tool department and the “sales” guy knows nothing about what he is trying to sell me ! I try and do my homework before I buy anything, but there is always that one question and the sales guy looks at me like I am stupid? Sometimes you just want to reach out a slap the heck out of him and ask “have you ever even used a tool???

example, I was at sears the other day to buy a storage shead they had on sale in order to get some crap outta the garage to make space for more tools : ). While a wait for 1/2 hour and they look in the (apparently 20 acre) back storage.
I watch a guy griping at this 18 – 19 year old clueless sales boy about his craftsman impact gun and no matter what he does the socket will not fit on it. This is the second sears store he has been too and no one knows why they don’t fit. The sales boy gives up and says “I don’t know…..” after jacking with it for who knows how long. I finaly step in since my sales guy is lost in the back still looking for my shed and tell the customer you have to knock the socket on there. They both give me the deer in the headlights look…..Put the socket on the floor and line up the impact and knock it in there. Bam goes right in. The customer walks away happy and the sales guy is still lost….....
Where is the training? Should there not be some sort of experiance needed to get this job? If you have never even turned on a tool how are you going to make a living selling them??

Well that my little grip for today, thanks!

runngt

-- It seem's I just make scrap wood and saw dust most of the time !

Runngt.

I have told this story before, but it still gripes me. I was in a big box store late one evening looking for some tile goute. I spent some time reading the labeling on the grout boxes. Of the grout color I was looking at, there were two types, one intended for narrower grout gaps and one for wider gaps. I was pretty certain I had the right grout, but decided to to confirm this by asking a sales associate. He said he would check with another associate, whom I assumed was more knowledgeable. The second associate said with absolute confidence, the package I had (which was the wider stuff) was only to be used on the narrower grout lines. The complete opposite of what I read on the packages. I went with the labeling instead of the information give to me by the sales associate.

In that it was toward closing time for the store, it felt like I was dealing with the second string and any knowledgeable sales associates were long gone. I shudder to think how many people, rather than read labels or do individual, rely solely on information give by less than knowledgeable sales associates.

You can tell this still is a sore point for me, by the length of this story. :)

Dalec

Dadoo. Huck, Runngt & Dalec. The more I hear this the more I think it is international. Great gripes fellas.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Here’s another one -

Went to the gas station to fill er up – paid a King’s Ransom for gas——then the gas station owner tells me, you should have been here 15 minutes ago, I just raised the pump price .07 cents a gallon, 15 mins ago!
I said you just raised it 2 days ago and he says, “probably will raise it again in 2 more days, you know how it is…”
Funny thing I don’t know how it is ! I only know what it is not and that is Fair!

-- Jeff T in Westport CT.

mine is hunting for the english version in instruction manuals and then realising their at the back

jeff you should live in the uk petrol is at £1.17 a litre and still going up so i’ll swap your prices anytime lol

-- cut it saw it scrap it

Calling customer service – having to press one to speak English, for God’s sake – then having to press one of eight options, only to be put on hold and have to listen to Muzak. Get a person to answer the phone!!! Please!

-- Maplewood, MN

Rikkor, I could not agree more. What about the computer that rings you on some promotion & tells you to hold the line until the caller comes to the phone #$%^&^%$%##*(.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Jeff, the price of petrol (gas) down under is close to $1.60 a litre, wait for it #$$%%^^#$%^&(#^%&*)&^$##$% thats about $7.60 a gallon. That hurts.
Pommy, yours must really hurt.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

at $8.78 a gallon I sure guess! Pommy, I hope you get good efficiency!

-- Fred, Springfield, Ma

Boy oh boy Grumpy, you do have a good thread going here. My peeve is with a particular store. I bought a scrollsaw and brought it home and it did not even run . And I——you not that the very next day I tried to take it back with receipt in hand and was told a flat no. They would send me a replacement motor.. I was in so cal visiting my father and was only going to stay 3 weeks. The motor was going to take 8 to 10 weeks. And it was just like Dalec mentioned. It was pass the buck at every turn ,No one could explain why I could not just get my money back , but they could point me in the direction of someone who could! They seemed to take pride in the fact that they were willing to send me a new motor.I did not want to scroll in 10 weeks. I wanted to scroll today. Ya Know? Oh just writing about it makes me mad. I hate that store, I hate that store! I even called their headquarters i was so pissed. Nothing. I recieved a motor in the mail at my father;s 10 weeks and 4 days later! Oh yea, guess who had to put it together? HELL YEA Let me give you my hard earned cash for your product and PLEASE let me put the motor in!
Did i mention I hate that store!!!

-- Allison, Northeastern Ca. Remember, Amateurs built the Ark, Professionals built the Titanic!

My Bi^@# is when a mfg. continues to market a product long after a known issue with it is brought to light without doing a damn thing to inform the consumer of it. The riser block for Powermatic bandsaws is a perfect example. They know that the casting is a problem and now their “customer support” if you can get to them will tell you to “grind off the tab” when and if they deign to speak to you. It is not possible to install the riser block and keep the wheels in alignment without doing so and not doing so will not allow the bandsaw to function properly.

If it were my company I would:

1. For all items already in the distro chain, notify dealers to alert customers of the necessary modification. The dealers themselves could choose to make the modification on the front end, for those not already sold.

2. Send some schlepper out to the warehouse with a big sheet of stickers to paste on every package containing the offending item with a description of the problem and the solution for items already packaged.

3. Publish the issue on the company website in the first few pages, preferably on the home page and not buried behind 17 nested pages. We screwed up, here’s what we did. If that section runs into multiple pages it just might be time to re-think the Q.C. department and maybe even be so bold as to bring those manufacturing jobs back to the States, or somewhere not under the boot heel of oppression and opportunism .

4. As to the beef about the”most interesting happy pictures informationing, quality most favorite YES” manual problem, AGAIN, make it here, not THERE! We already speak the language. Operators are standing by . . .

#1 You are in the middle of checking out and the phone rings. The cashier stops checking you out and talks for three minutes. Sheesh, the stuff just scans. Can’t they multi-task? If not, don’t answer the phone.

#2. It’s broken, You bring it back. This is the only store that sells it. It looks just like the one on the shelf. “Did you buy it here?” “Where’s your receipt?”

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Sawdust, you just reminded me of something. We have a store called the ‘Good Guys’. They sell everything electronic for the household. They have at least 6 people at the counter taking your money & process the deal in no time flat. But if you want to return a faulty product forget it, they don’t want to know you. Strange thing that @$&^&*(.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Had to make some adjustments to my table saw yesterday.The nuts and bolts were metric and set screws SAE. I don’t really care which but would think they could the same system for the entire machine. (it still a great saw anyway)

-- RTB. "dumb animals are not stupid they simply can't talk "

1) Tech support that’s in India – and on cell phones at that.
2) Chinese products – rarely good quality.
3) Telemarketers reading from a script.
4) Husky tools (Home Depot) – I broke an adaptor socket. I thought, like Sears, they would just swap it out for a new one – nope, have to go thru Husky tools, and do that dance. Won’t be buying Husky again. Sears only.
5) When ordering fast food, having to repeat “to go” when just told them that 5 seconds earlier.
6) The ever-rising price of gas, and the fact we haven’t done much to wean ourselves off of oil.

THat enough? LOL

-- -Be Blessed!, Patrick

Good to see I’m not the only one that gets grumpy.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Paying two lawyers to close my mortgage.

People parking in front of my driveway.

Paying more for gas in the 2nd highest oil producing country in the world than I do 2 minutes into the states. I love buying my natural resources back from another country.

Waiting 20 minutes for a coffee & sandwich at Timmie’s- I could go for a steak and a beer faster!

Mixed SAE & metric on equipment

Highway 8 east and west running perpendicular to hwy 401 east & west- Just *ing stupid!

The retards at the HD pro desk! How can you hire someone who doesn’t know s from Shinola about construction to help professional contractors! If you can’t hire smart, at least hire cute! It makes the aneurysm that swells, ready to burst every time that I am in there, at least tolerable. “Is that a 2 by 10 or a 10 by 2?”

I need a beer. Thanks.

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

Speaking of Lawyers, matter...

My uncle died a few years ago, and left money and property to myself and other relatives. He had a will, with all the stuff laid out – who gets what, and so on.

None of the “payees” challenged the will, and there were no encumbrances on the execution of the will – problems with transferring property, or disposing of items, etc.

Pretty much, it was just some paper shuffling to get things done.

Ok, so how much do you think the lawyer billed the estate?

Keep in mind this is in a very small town – not downtown Manhattan, and his told estate was worth about $300k.

This pirate charged $500 per hour.

Yeah, that’s right.

And guess what? Just happens all the “work” this criminal had to do was done by his secretaries; he, for the most part, just OK’d the paper work. And it just happened, he was able to bill out 40 hours of work….

$20,000 for an un-challenged, fairly simple will.

How do you think I feel about lawyers now?

$125 per hour? I could have lived with that; but $500? I’m sorry, but for a small town, that’s way over the top.

-- -Be Blessed!, Patrick

Mine is misfits or missing parts. There is nothing worse than being excited over wanting to use a new tool, and it either doesn’t work, is missing parts, it doesn’t fit together… whatever. You call customer service, which is dead, and they provide nothing for you but an 8 week solution of you shipping it back under a very, very limited warranty. I don’t buy tools from manufacturers that I don’t trust, or that don’t get good ratings on Lumberjocks.

Phew, wow, Grumpy… now I feel pretty good…. lol…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Thats it Steve, get it off your chest.
I hate that as well. What about when you bring home a new TV (before the slim line ones), a big CRT. It’s so big it won’t fit in the car so you borrow your mates 4WD. You get it home, plug it in & it blows it’s lid. Now you have to go through the process of getting it back to the retailer, !#%*^^*^%$$$%%&&(*

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

When trying to mate my Dewalt router to a Mastercraft (Canadian Tire) table I realised I needed an adaptor plate. I phoned Canadian Tire and asked for the tools department and I get some young fella. I asked him “do you have router adaptor plates ?”. He gave it some thought and said . . . you should check with The Source (Radio Shack) as we do not carry those here in tools or in electronics. After I hung up I realized what he was talking about . . . a computer router. I chuckled and phoned Sears. That guy sounded like he could have been the young fellas grandpa . . . however he knew exactly what I wanted and put one aside for me.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

When installing my garage door several years ago I swear that the manual was originally written in Slavac, translated to Japanese, then to French and finally to English.

Also . . . there was only one picture in the entire manual, and every second line in the instructions referred to it. And it wasn’t even a good picture.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Oh . . . and I also hate excessive packaging. What can you do with all those weird shaped pieces of styrofoam??

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Cheap pencils. The lead is always cracking AND these are the only ones you can find when you need a marking instrument.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Ok . . . I’ll stop now.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Ok . . . one more.

I find an excellent deal on the web on some tool only to find they do not ship to Canada. And they offer free shipping to anywhere in the US.

ARGGGGGG !!

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

I had actually shut down the PC for the night but had to post this.

I hate it when a replacement battery is almost as expensive as a new drill.

Im done

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Wow zuki, i think you need some anger management trainig LOL.

how could you turn these into opportunities?

1. Come up with some great ideas on how to run a big box office store and still please your shareholders. Then you could become the CEO.

2. Feel really manly about yourself because you assembled a garage door without instructions.

3. Start a business that does something with all that packaging and become a millionaire. Call it “Xtra-Stuffin for Nuffin”

4. Sorry, I cant help you with the pencil thing. Pisses me off too.

5. Start an internet tool business in Canada and compete with the yanks.

6. Let go of the cordless drill thing and buy one with a cord. You will be happy you did. (anyone want a DeWalt 14.4 without a battery?)

-- Scott - Chico California http://chicowoodnut.home.comcast.net

Chico thanks for #6. I agree. bbqKing

-- bbqKing, Lawrenceville

Zuki, you sure have some anger there. I bet you feel on top of Everest now you have got rid of all that angst.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Chico, You ought to go into business selling ideas.
This really hit a nerve. Lets see if we can make it 100 replies.

-- Grumpy - "Always look on the bright side of life"- Monty Python

Whew . . . I broke into a sweat last night getting all those things off my chest. :-)

Xtra-Stuffin for Nuffin . . . hmmmm . . . now what would I package that in to ship it? :-)

I will take the 14.4 . . . it will make a matching set.

I will see if I can come up with more today.

Oh . . . I got another . . .

Needing only a couple of screws to finish a project and you have no other choice to buy a full package.

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

Or you CAN buy just the few you need but they cost more than the packaged screws that have more than you need.

Lee

-- No piece is cut too short. It was meant for a smaller project.

Yeah, I can’t stand that, either…. 1 fastner for $2 or 500 for $3…. lol…

I guesss that business would be Screwed with Screws…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)