I bought a new phone charger today
One to keep in the office in order to charge my extra-ordinarily geeky new phone. Not only does it have the picture of St Catherine of Alexandria from the post below as the wallpaper, its ring tone is some Dominican Friars singing the Salve Regina.
Anyway. Below is typed the text from the piece of paper that fell out the box when I ripped it open:
Instructions for use:
To use, plug mains charger directly into a readily accessible socket outlet located near to the equipment. Connect to your compatible handset to charge the phone’s battery. You can use your phone whilst charging.
For additional information, please refer to your handset user guide.
I would venture to suggest that if you need “how to charge your phone” instructions that go into this much detail, you should probably stick to using two tin cans and a bit of string. Or possibly carrier pigeons. Or semaphore.
I am surprised at the lack of dire warnings about the inadvisability of using it in the bath, or sticking the connector in your eye, or wrapping the cord really tightly about your neck and giving it a yank.
December 9th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
It sounds very snazzy – I like the sound of your ring tone specially!
Reminds me of the label on a packet of pistachios recently – warning, may contain nuts, or on the lid of a take away coffee – warning, contents may be hot. I should jolly well hope so too!
December 13th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
My Mum is 82 and finds her mobile phone a challenge but keeps it for safety. I think these instructions are perhaps even on the technical side for her. Does that mean in your world she shouldn’t have a mobile? Just because you are technologically savvy enough not to need instructions doesn’t mean everyone is the same.
December 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Agatha
I think my issue is that they’re too complicated. They could be boiled down to “plug it in and switch it on.” Instead of making their instructions clear, they’ve over-complicated them to the point of absurdity.
And I wrote a blog post which was also too complicated and unclear, thus compounding the problem.