Friday, April 23, 2021

Friday FAIL

For years, we used a Bissell Little Green Machine to clean up puppy mistakes and doggy upchucks. But now I find it hard to kneel on the floor to use it, and decided I wanted an upright carpet cleaner that I could use standing up. This week's sales flyer had just what I was looking for, a Bissell Stainpro on at half price.  So yesterday morning, bright and early, I logged on to the Canadian Tire website and ordered one. At precisely 8 am I got an email saying my order was ready for curbside pickup. Pretty good service, I thought. I pulled on jeans and jacket, and half an hour later I carried a huge box through the door.

After breakfast, Ron and I opened the box, found the instructions, and struggled to assemble the beast. It was harder than it should have been, and the instructions with accompanying pictures made no sense. At last we turned to YouTube for assistance. Sure enough, we found a video on how to assemble the machine. Several minutes in, we found that the guy doing the video (with help from his dog) was having exactly the same problems we encountered. He eventually figured it out, but declared that the instruction manual was for an older model, and that was why the pictures didn't resemble the parts in the box. 

The Stainpro is ready for action now, but our frustrating morning brought to mind the struggles many people have when purchasing Ikea furniture.













Stay safe!


From Hermione's Heart

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

youtube is the go to source for any project, big or small. Love the April fools joke that they had
bottoms up
red

Roz said...

Love the funnies Hermione, argh, the joys of putting new furniture together. Why is it always such an exercise in frustration and the instructions always less than helpful. What's with that?! I hope now that it's together the stainpro work well for you.

Hope you have a great weekend:)

Hugs
Roz

Baxter said...

We went to IKEA once, just to see what people were raving about. Little did I know it was a maze and you had to keep walking in the same direction for what seemed like miles past all this stuff. I am a patient guy, but I got really po'ed that I couldn't simply find the %&*$% exit to get out of there. I will never darken the entry way of an IKEA ever again.

But to the general topic of your blog, I believe the folks that write the instructions should have to assemble the product and then be spanked for making them so incomprehensible.

Baxter

Anonymous said...

I hate the store, but oddly enjoy assembling the furniture. It’s satisfying and very good quality for the price.

I love my IKEA dresser that works so much better than the antique ir replaced.

Just don’t make a mistake. Many are irreversible.

Rosco

Anonymous said...

I agree with Baxter on the store layout. If you go there for one thing it's like you have travel through crap you didn't come for to get it. But other than stuff for students or newlyweds, I can't say I would buy any of their furniture for myself. Too cold. (They do have a great glassware shop though for a lot of variety.) As for their instructions? I can't say they are any better or any worse than most others I've seen.

morningstar said...

loved the Ikea cartoons -- so very true.

I have thought about getting an upright Green Machine.. had the lil one and ugh... it made doing large area rugs a strain on the knees...... I do NOT understand why everything has to be assembled!! It frustrates me !! and I can't help but think if everything was assembled there wouldn't be so much packaging/cardboard to recycle !

WendelJones said...

When the Misses buys Ikea furniture I buy a spatula from kitchen area. If I get frustrated putting the thing together I stop and spank the daylights out of her for buying it. So I guess in a odd sort of way I like Ikea.
Thanks for the laughs.

Joe said...

I chuckle at these but have never been to a Ikea and most likely never will just because of all the things I hear