You May Have My User Guide

We bought a new fax machine for the office the other day. When we went to set it up, there was a "quick start-up guide", but no actual instructions. After doing a little on-line research, I discovered that this particular fax was supposed to come with a 286-page "User Guide". I called Staples, where we bought the fax, and the guy at the store told me to "just come in and pull the guide out of another box". Thank you Staples! I guess I know what happened to the guide that was supposed to be in our box! The trickle-down theory of user guides.

I am not having such a good week at work.

Update: I went to Staples last night, they opened up another box, and guess what? That box didn't have a user guide either! At which point the assistant manager tried to tell me that "this fax doesn't come with a user guide". I had been e-mailing back and forth with HP (the maker of the fax) regarding this, and assured the assistant manager at Staples that yes, indeed, there was a user guide. As a matter of fact, HP even e-mailed me a downloadable version, all 286 pages. I even pulled the packing slip out of the box he had just opened and showed him the picture of the user guide on the slip. God bless him, he just repeated that "it doesn't come with a guide". Interesting. He suggested that I print out the downloadable version, I explained that I didn't particurlarly feel like printing out 300 pages of something that was supposed to be in the box, and he offered to print it out for me if I brought it in on a flash drive. I explained that the user guide was also on HP's main web site and that he could pull it up there at the store and print it out, and he said "we're not allowed to go online". Oh really?

So after a few more e-mails with HP, they are going to send me a real, printed out, honest-to-goodness user guide. HP has been nothing but prompt and professional throughout all this. Staples? Bleecccch.