The other day, I was helping my friend and his dad, install a new washing machine in their house. Not only was this difficult to set up, but my friend ended up returning the machine to Lowe’s because it didn’t work after all of our trouble.

Once we had the washer in place, there was a power cord that needed to be plugged into the wall in order to start the machine. With given no formal instructions by the Lowe’s salesperson, we were all clueless as to what was the next step because the power cord seemed to be tangled around something inside the machine itself. My friend’s dad then told me to take off the front panel on the bottom of the machine. This required removing screws as we came across quite a surprise…

First, there was a large piece of Styrofoam, which had a label indicating that the Styrofoam absolutely needed to be removed before operating the washing machine because a fire could have easily emerged, otherwise.

Next, we finally found the end of the power cord. The power cord was literally clipped on to a metal object inside the machine. Had we kept yanking on the cord from behind the washer, we may have destroyed some very important elements of the machine.

In addition to all of this, we eventually discovered the instruction manual. It was wedged up along the left-inside edge of the washing machine.

Good thing the power cord didn’t actually come out in the first place… Between the Styrofoam and the paper contents of the manual, there could have been a disaster in the house.

All in all, we were just looking for was clear communication (something that a lot of the United States needs to improve on) from the Lowe’s representative. This was a case where the Lowe’s employee needed to spoon-feed us, the consumer, all of the necessary installation information.

Nevertheless, the next day I saw my friend’s dad and I asked him how the washing machine was working. He mentioned that the water would fill up, but the machine would not complete a full cycle. Furthermore, he went on by saying, “I wouldn’t want to be working in Lowe’s this morning with my wife coming in and returning that piece of cow dookie.”