I had a gripe today on 3fingerpat's blog on his new drill press about poor assembly instructions. Pat experienced one of my pet hates. http://lumberjocks.com/reviews/330.
To me there is nothing worse than a company that makes fine products botches up the assembly instructions. I know a lot of you will say they don't read the instructions but many of us do.
So I thought I would start a gripe session. What really annoys you with new machinery or tools or at the hardware store????
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).
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.
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.)
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 ….
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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