Oh, bother

I've been taking my dog to work with me. I take his plastic crate there and put it under my desk, and he stays in it most of the time. He likes his crate.

Whenever I plan to go somewhere after work, I've been bringing the crate home because he has to be in it if he's left alone in the house. Otherwise, unspeakable things happen to the floors and furniture.

So I bought a new crate to have at home, so I don't have to bring the old one back and forth. I picked out a nice wooden one that can look like a nice piece of furniture instead of a plastic box. Here's picture from the side of the box it came in:

I bought it a few weeks ago, and the box has been sitting unopened in my living room. Today I planned to stay home all day and get some things done and I told myself the one thing I absolutely will get done is putting this crate together.

How hard could it be? It's a box.

So I took all the pieces out of the box ...

I put all the packing material back in the cardboard box ...

And I looked at the instructions. The first thing they want you to do is "Attach Bottom Panel (B) to Left Side Panel (C)."

Easy enough. Here is the drawing of the top and bottom panels, A and B respectively:

Okay, so what have we here? Part A, top panel, and, oh, look, another Part A, top panel ...

and no Part B, bottom panel ...

So I called the customer service number on the instructions, and they -- he, actually -- asked if I still had the receipt. I said, "I doubt it." But I do have one of those store cards, and by looking that up, he found that I had purchased this box at the Petco on Bakerview in Bellingham, WA on September 1. He would send me an e-mail form to fill out and then e-mail back, along with a copy of my state-issued picture i.d. Then he'll send me a proof of purchase so I can take this back to the store for an exchange or refund. Oh, goody.

I've received the form and filled it out and e-mailed it back with the copy of my driver's licence. Now I'm waiting to receive the proof of purchase. I am not driving in to Bellingham today, however. That is not part of my plan.

Assuming Mr. Customer Relation gets me this proof of purchase back today, I'll stick the whole business into the trunk of my car and tomorrow after work I'll stop off at Petco on the way home and trundle it all into the store and ask for a replacement part.

This occurrence is somewhat annoying.