I hate crappy instructions!!!

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harrisonm

harrisonm

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My pet peeve is crappy, hard to follow instructions. For most of my working life (20 years in USAF and 20 years in a Federal Home Loan Bank) I had zero tolerance for erroneous written communications. There is NO excuse for instructions that are hard to follow. I think the cause for them falls under 3 categories:
1) Instructions are written by someone who knows the product backwards and forwards, so no matter how bad the instructions are, they make sense to them.
2) Written by someone in China who barely speaks English, so they don't make sense to them or us.
3) Written by someone who really doesn't give a crap, and they know that as long as the product sells well, their job is secure no matter how bad the instructions are. They depend on the tech lines to help confused customers.

I just bought a new cordless AT&T phone set for the house. I followed the directions and the phones would not ring for an incoming call. Finally after hours of reading the 150 page manual, I came across a single sentence on like page 120 that said the Block Unknown Calls function was turned ON at the factory. This was NOT in the quick setup, and didn't appear until I was 3/4 through the manual.

I bought a Stainless Steel Brakes Corp front disk brakes kit for my 69 Barracuda about 10 years ago. The instructions were garbage. Step one said "take off the backing plates and discard the 4 bolts". A few steps later, it said "Reusing two of the bolts from step one...." There were SO MANY mistakes in their instructions, I sent them a 4 page document with corrections. Never heard from anyone. Brakes are great though.

Bought an AC unit for the Barracuda from Classic Auto Air about 8 years ago. The instructions were ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. They referred to the same part with different names throughout the 20 page instruction manual. They had a wiring diagram that made NO SENSE (and I am good with wiring diagrams). Etc, Etc, Etc. I had to call their tech line 3 or 4 times. There were SO MANY mistakes, I sent them a 12 page document with corrections. Never heard from them, but the AC works great. If you get that AC unit now, I guarantee you'll get the same instructions.
I guess nobody really cares.
 
harrisonm said:
My pet peeve is crappy, hard to follow instructions. For most of my working life (20 years in USAF and 20 years in a Federal Home Loan Bank) I had zero tolerance for erroneous written communications. There is NO excuse for instructions that are hard to follow. I think the cause for them falls under 3 categories:
1) Instructions are written by someone who knows the product backwards and forwards, so no matter how bad the instructions are, they make sense to them.
2) Written by someone in China who barely speaks English, so they don't make sense to them or us.
3) Written by someone who really doesn't give a crap, and they know that as long as the product sells well, their job is secure no matter how bad the instructions are. They depend on the tech lines to help confused customers.

I just bought a new cordless AT&T phone set for the house. I followed the directions and the phones would not ring for an incoming call. Finally after hours of reading the 150 page manual, I came across a single sentence on like page 120 that said the Block Unknown Calls function was turned ON at the factory. This was NOT in the quick setup, and didn't appear until I was 3/4 through the manual.

I bought a Stainless Steel Brakes Corp front disk brakes kit for my 69 Barracuda about 10 years ago. The instructions were garbage. Step one said "take off the backing plates and discard the 4 bolts". A few steps later, it said "Reusing two of the bolts from step one...." There were SO MANY mistakes in their instructions, I sent them a 4 page document with corrections. Never heard from anyone. Brakes are great though.

Bought an AC unit for the Barracuda from Classic Auto Air about 8 years ago. The instructions were ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. They referred to the same part with different names throughout the 20 page instruction manual. They had a wiring diagram that made NO SENSE (and I am good with wiring diagrams). Etc, Etc, Etc. I had to call their tech line 3 or 4 times. There were SO MANY mistakes, I sent them a 12 page document with corrections. Never heard from them, but the AC works great. If you get that AC unit now, I guarantee you'll get the same instructions.
I guess nobody really cares.
Click to expand...



That's just it. They don't care. I used to ***** about horrible instructions. I'm old enough now where I expect them to be junk and if they aren't junk I let them know.

Much easier that way.

BTW I suspect most people don't read instructions. Or, if they do read them, they don't understand how bad they are.
 
yellow rose said:
That's just it. They don't care. I used to ***** about horrible instructions. I'm old enough now where I expect them to be junk and if they aren't junk I let them know.

Much easier that way.

BTW I suspect most people don't read instructions. Or, if they do read them, they don't understand how bad they are.
Click to expand...
Tried to install a Heart Throb 2.5 " mandrel bend,exhaust kit ,from Kegs. The instructions were generic enough ,to throw them away ,buy two 3' pieces of straight line pipe .Welded as needed ,called it done . ,feel the O.P's pain.
 
I used to deal with a LOT of #1.

I wrote and proof-read IT procedural documentation as part of my job (and still do).

On a lot of this type stuff, if it's not 100% correct (and accounting for any variables), it simply does not work.

One guy produced a 48 page power point document that had about half a page of actual pertinent info, and of that, two paragraphs were missing, and without them, the operation was impossible to complete. I condensed that into a one page word doc and redistributed it after watching an end user complete the steps without any assistance from me.

Something else I've noticed is that those that fall into category #1 get VERY defensive when missing steps or unaccounted for variables are brought to their attention, and they usually blame the messenger ("you just need to do this, and this, and this in between step three and four, and then restart and do this and this and this, and then rename this file before step seven").

I like to test my instructions with a volunteer who's never done the procedure before.

If they find significant omissions, errors, or unaccounted for variables, I give them credit when the doc is distributed.
 
harrisonm said:
My pet peeve is crappy, hard to follow instructions. For most of my working life (20 years in USAF and 20 years in a Federal Home Loan Bank) I had zero tolerance for erroneous written communications. There is NO excuse for instructions that are hard to follow. I think the cause for them falls under 3 categories:
1) Instructions are written by someone who knows the product backwards and forwards, so no matter how bad the instructions are, they make sense to them.
2) Written by someone in China who barely speaks English, so they don't make sense to them or us.
3) Written by someone who really doesn't give a crap, and they know that as long as the product sells well, their job is secure no matter how bad the instructions are. They depend on the tech lines to help confused customers.

I just bought a new cordless AT&T phone set for the house. I followed the directions and the phones would not ring for an incoming call. Finally after hours of reading the 150 page manual, I came across a single sentence on like page 120 that said the Block Unknown Calls function was turned ON at the factory. This was NOT in the quick setup, and didn't appear until I was 3/4 through the manual.

I bought a Stainless Steel Brakes Corp front disk brakes kit for my 69 Barracuda about 10 years ago. The instructions were garbage. Step one said "take off the backing plates and discard the 4 bolts". A few steps later, it said "Reusing two of the bolts from step one...." There were SO MANY mistakes in their instructions, I sent them a 4 page document with corrections. Never heard from anyone. Brakes are great though.

Bought an AC unit for the Barracuda from Classic Auto Air about 8 years ago. The instructions were ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. They referred to the same part with different names throughout the 20 page instruction manual. They had a wiring diagram that made NO SENSE (and I am good with wiring diagrams). Etc, Etc, Etc. I had to call their tech line 3 or 4 times. There were SO MANY mistakes, I sent them a 12 page document with corrections. Never heard from them, but the AC works great. If you get that AC unit now, I guarantee you'll get the same instructions.
I guess nobody really cares.
Click to expand...
 
Bought a table top milling machine. Part of the instruction read "do not place this machine in the sunshine place" They don't know and the importer/sellers don't care.
 
Too many times to count, service manual and parts manual do not identify the same part by the same description.
One calls it a rack abd pinion other calls it an actuator.

“Switch must be mounted so it is biased in the open position”
The hood, or the switch ??
What mechanic uses the word biased??
 
plymman said:
Bought a table top milling machine. Part of the instruction read "do not place this machine in the sunshine place" They don't know and the importer/sellers don't care.
Click to expand...
They messed up, I think they were trying to say "Stick it in a place where the sun don't shine"... LOL

treblig
 
Anything that needs a 'double digit'-page manual to start functioning is a crap designed product.
Or, probably released in the USA where 90% of the manual's pages are mandatory filled with "Warnings" for the majority of dipfuqs out there who are capable of burning the house down trying to light a mini candle... or something like that.
 
I guess the 'modernday man' needs them perhaps.

homeimprovementinstructions.jpg
 
My wife will ask to help put something together and I hand her the instructions and tell her to go read them and don’t come back.
 
BigBlockMopar said:
Anything that needs a 'double digit'-page manual to start functioning is a crap designed product.
Or, probably released in the USA where 90% of the manual's pages are mandatory filled with "Warnings" for the majority of dipfuqs out there who are capable of burning the house down trying to light a mini candle... or something like that.
Click to expand...
I was putting together a home printer. Opened the box and there was a very thick instruction manual. After discarding the pages for 4 different foreign languages. 2 or 3 pages of safety instructions: don't stick your finger in the wall socket, don't eat the ink, etc. I found out the Manual was only 2 pages.
Seen all kinds. One of the funniest was from a plastic model airplane kit from Tamiya. The description of the aircraft said it "fires 20mm cannonballs".
 
I bought a rectal thermometer for my dog....the instructions got pretty crappy real fast......:rofl:

Jeff
 
MrJLR said:
I bought a rectal thermometer for my dog....the instructions got pretty crappy real fast......:rofl:

Jeff
Click to expand...
You know how to tell the difference between a rectal thermometer and an oral thermometer? They taste different.
 
Years ago we built a couple of lumber dehumidifiers with Mycom screw compressors. The manual seems to have been translated from Chinese to Hebrew to Russian to EEeenngleesh. I remember a reference in the overhaul manual about the "tefron" shaft seals

You are talking here, about a product that in about 1985 was worth some 10--15000 dollars US

groups-de-froid-de-vis-mycom-p60824069_4.jpg
 
iScamp said:
I was putting together a home printer. Opened the box and there was a very thick instruction manual. After discarding the pages for 4 different foreign languages. 2 or 3 pages of safety instructions: don't stick your finger in the wall socket, don't eat the ink, etc. I found out the Manual was only 2 pages.
Seen all kinds. One of the funniest was from a plastic model airplane kit from Tamiya. The description of the aircraft said it "fires 20mm cannonballs".
Click to expand...

Need video of this! I WANT ONE!
 
Compare these stories of woe to building things from Ikea. Their instructions feature a flock of bird people assembling whatever you bought but they have essentially no words. Sometimes they are hard for me to follow.
 
Hooker Header instructions that fail to mention "the drag link must go THROUGH the driver side header". While my younger sister was studying at the Cal Poly Pomona's engineering department, she spent two summers at the Marine Corps Supply Center in Barstow translating the manufacture instructions into useable instructions for the Marine Corps. What can I say? She was the better student. She went to work for the City of Tustin Street Department and helped survey and re-engineer the storm drain system for the "100 year floods". So, when your Duster doesn't float off toward Irvine, or whichever direction is downhill you can thank her :D
 
harrisonm said:
My pet peeve is crappy, hard to follow instructions. For most of my working life (20 years in USAF and 20 years in a Federal Home Loan Bank) I had zero tolerance for erroneous written communications. There is NO excuse for instructions that are hard to follow. I think the cause for them falls under 3 categories:
1) Instructions are written by someone who knows the product backwards and forwards, so no matter how bad the instructions are, they make sense to them.
2) Written by someone in China who barely speaks English, so they don't make sense to them or us.
3) Written by someone who really doesn't give a crap, and they know that as long as the product sells well, their job is secure no matter how bad the instructions are. They depend on the tech lines to help confused customers.

I just bought a new cordless AT&T phone set for the house. I followed the directions and the phones would not ring for an incoming call. Finally after hours of reading the 150 page manual, I came across a single sentence on like page 120 that said the Block Unknown Calls function was turned ON at the factory. This was NOT in the quick setup, and didn't appear until I was 3/4 through the manual.

I bought a Stainless Steel Brakes Corp front disk brakes kit for my 69 Barracuda about 10 years ago. The instructions were garbage. Step one said "take off the backing plates and discard the 4 bolts". A few steps later, it said "Reusing two of the bolts from step one...." There were SO MANY mistakes in their instructions, I sent them a 4 page document with corrections. Never heard from anyone. Brakes are great though.

Bought an AC unit for the Barracuda from Classic Auto Air about 8 years ago. The instructions were ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. They referred to the same part with different names throughout the 20 page instruction manual. They had a wiring diagram that made NO SENSE (and I am good with wiring diagrams). Etc, Etc, Etc. I had to call their tech line 3 or 4 times. There were SO MANY mistakes, I sent them a 12 page document with corrections. Never heard from them, but the AC works great. If you get that AC unit now, I guarantee you'll get the same instructions.
I guess nobody really cares.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of them are a combo of #s 1 and 2. The person who writes the original in another language knows the product, but may not very good at putting it into written instructions. Then they hand it off to a not-very-good translator. who butchers it up even more. LOL
 
Well, most of the time I just look at the pictures to see how things get assembled.
Nine times out of ten that works.
The 10th time I just do whatever.

And......

worthless.gif
 
adriver said:
Well, most of the time I just look at the pictures to see how things get assembled.
Nine times out of ten that works.
The 10th time I just do whatever.

And......

View attachment 1715117254
Click to expand...
Often that's all you have to go on...
Recently did calibrations on a multi-million dollar printing press made in Germany. Several pages of pictures (control panel screen shots, with only a few lines of text). So to expect much instructions with a $20 item is probably unrealistic. :BangHead:
 
adriver said:
Well, most of the time I just look at the pictures to see how things get assembled.
Nine times out of ten that works.
The 10th time I just do whatever.
Click to expand...
I usually do OK myself, but the AC and front disk brake install were different. There were too many parts, spacers, etc in both to not read the instructions.
 
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