If you have ever bought anything and had to put it together yourself, but have never done so before, you can thank your lucky stars that almost anything you buy that you have to fabricate, will come with an instruction manual.
Some of these manuals are easy to understand with pictures and explanations, but for the most part they are vague at best but will get the job finished with some frustration. Thankfully for some people, if they have built something before, they don't need the manual unless its for a quick reference.
I have bought more than one barbecue over the years, and every single time you do buy one, you have to assemble them yourself, but because I have assembled one before I usually don't use the manual, I'm handy and I can see what needs to go where. (minus a few screws) I have also been thoroughly frustrated with the lack of, or unclear directions and have had to muddle through it myself figuring it out along the way.
The problem with most manuals is that you have no idea of what you are going to get until you open the box. Everyone is so dazzled by the end product or the idea of what they're buying that they don't take a moment to wonder about the difficulty of putting it together in the first place. You never know when you are going to get good instructions or bad ones.
Why is it, that as a consumer, there is a quality control and regulation in place for a product, but not for the way it's put together? There should be a standard of excellence when selling something that need an instruction manual, and it should one of the most important pieces in the box.
Having an in depth description and a 20 page booklet is not what I'm going for here. That is too much information and easy to be overwhelmed before you even open it, but a folded single piece of paper isn't going to cut it either, as it won't explain enough. I think there should be a 3 to five page minimum on all products, with some exceptions of course, but you should never get less than three pages.
Of course this is all just my opinion as usual, and you can decide if you even want to use the manual in the first place like I do.
Scott Goerz
