Workshop Wednesday-Real Men Don't Read Instructions

 RTFOM- Read the freakin owners manual. The people that designed and built the equipment supplied you with an owners manual. Having built the equipment, they probably have a clue how to operate it.
 "My saw starts hard when warm"
  "Show me your starting procedure"
 -customer attempts to start saw-
   Now here I have to make a choice. Do I take the low road and belittle the customer for obviously not reading the manual or listening to our instructions? No. I reserve that snarky behavior for my friends and call it humor. It's odd how we sometimes treat our friends crappier than strangers.
 Depending on the age of the customer determines how I proceed. I had an elderly gentleman confused when I tried to explain setting the fast idle on his saw. Move the choke to full then back to run. The fast idle is set and will return to normal after hitting the trigger. He couldn't wrap his head around it until I reminded him of an automatic choke on an old car. It finally clicked. Nothing had to be done to repair the saw and the customer has not been back with problems.
 Younger customers are a different story. I don't say "the manual says...". Rather, I say "the manufacturer suggests..." because heaven forbid we read the freakin manual. We don't want to offend youngsters that think they know everything but I do like to make sure they leave smarter than when they walked in the store. I try to explain some of the features of a computer controlled saw like my ability to see how any hours are on it or the quality of fuel that was run. It saves a lot of embarrassment later when they try to bullshit me.
 The worst part is that all of this was explained when they bought the saw. So don't walk in and claim your new saw is a piece of shit when the reality is that you thought you knew everything and didn't read the manual or listen to our instruction.
 Another one that gets me is when someone brings one of these "piece of shit" saws into the store huffin and puffin about what kind of junk we sold them only to discover their fuel tank is full of water or bar oil. It will be junk if you don't clean up your fuel supply. And guess what? It's never their fault. It must have been from the neighbor that borrowed the saw. Recently I called a customer with a question about a repair. The wife answered and told me her son was the last one to use the saw yet earlier I was told by the husband that he loaned it to a neighbor. Why all the bullshit?
 "Real men don't read instructions". That's fine if everything goes ok. It's when things go south that you should consider reading the manual. It will save a lot of time and embarrassment. I should add here that it's only a small percentage of people that have these problems. They shout the loudest therefore they get more attention. I suppose I could write a post entitled "Everybody's Happy" with a picture of smiling customers showing off their shiny new chainsaws. Maybe the next pic could be us all having a group hug. Sorry, that's just not the way I roll.

 Not all instructions are easy to read.

 Sometimes you have to rely on the pictures. The point is, I was reading the instructions!
Rant over.