Stupid is as stupid does

Last Monday it was time for the big window air-conditioner install. I had purchased the unit a few days before, and some friends were coming over to help me put it in the foster room.

That morning, I decided to unpack it and browse through the instructions, just to get a heads-up, although as possibly the least-mechanically-inclined person on the planet, I'm not sure what good I thought this was gonna do.

I pulled out the manual, started to unpack the unit, and saw that the instructions kept mentioning a "top rail" that had to be installed first. The top rail was supposed to have been shipped on the side of the unit, and there was even a handy little diagram showing where the top rail would be.

There was no top rail.

I looked, and looked, and checked the instructions again, and poked around some more, and ... no top rail.

Well.

I looked at my watch. I had an hour before my friends, who were traveling a little distance to get to me, were supposed to be there.

I put the foam stuff back in the box around the AC, threw all the parts in on top, hoisted it into the car, and headed back to the store.

I got to Returns, explained the situation, and they asked me to take the unit over to the Service area. I got to Service, explained the situation again, and the guy started looking through the box. "Hmmmm," he said. "I don't see the top rail. Let's open up another one." So he got another AC unit, opened up the box, and started looking. "There's no top rail in this one, either," he said. "Maybe we got a bad shipment ... let me just lift up the unit. Maybe ..."

You know where this is going, right? He lifted the unit up, and there, in the bottom of the box, was - ta-da! - the top rail.

Lesson learned?

Take the damn thing OUT OF THE BOX before you conclude that parts are missing.

I'm like the village idiot or something. I do all the stupid crap so you don't have to. You're welcome!