(More) Really stupid things you've done

[xoggoth]

Cleaned and checked the oil-fired central heating and all seemed fine but it cut out the first time we tried to use it in ernest. Spent 20 mins pulling it all out again and checking it, then discovered I'd forgotten to open the tap from the oil tank.

Not as daft as the missus though. She'd been looking forward to watching the Olympic opening ceremony and, come the moment, shouted up that the sound had gone on the TV. Was up in the attic getting the spare when #1 son called up not to bother. She had it on mute.

[BrilloPad]

I got caught by the mother-out-law on volume control - she used the satellite remote volume control which we never use! Took me 5 minutes to work that out.

I was once stupid enough to enter an iron man. Though I am considering doubling my stupidity. How stupid is one if one does not learn from one's mistakes?

[stek]

I was once stupid enough to enter an iron man....

Gaylord!

[nomadd]

Well, not so much 'done' as 'should have spotted'...

Visited my mum's place a few years back and she informed me her TV was broken. Me and my bro-in-law had a quick look at it but no joy.

We called out an engineer. He struggled with it too.

Turned out my mum had switched over to an electricity meter and not told anyone. A couple of quid in the meter later, and the tv worked perfectly.

Doh!

[BrilloPad]

Well, not so much 'done' as 'should have spotted'...

Visited my mum's place a few years back and she informed me her TV was broken. Me and my bro-in-law had a quick look at it but no joy.

We called out an engineer. He struggled with it too.

Turned out my mum had switched over to an electricity meter and not told anyone. A couple of quid in the meter later, and the tv worked perfectly.

Doh!

I once bought a new TV that failed to work. Took it back to the shop and 3 assistants looked at it for 30 seconds - before one spotted the on/off switch.

[nomadd]

I once bought a new TV that failed to work. Took it back to the shop and 3 assistants looked at it for 30 seconds - before one spotted the on/off switch.

True story:

A friend of mine used to be a Sony TV dealer. In the early 2000s, Sony's logo was the word SONY (in caps) in red ink with a few red circles to the side of it in a pretty square pattern. A sticker with this logo and a transparent background was attached to the top-right corner of each Sony TV. You simply peeled it off when you got the TV home.

At least once a week my friend would get phone calls from angry customers complaining that "the red buttons at the side of the word SONY on the screen don't work - and they aren't documented in the manual! I want a refund!"

[KentPhilip]

I was once stupid enough to enter an iron man....

I was once ironing some shirts and couldn't get to the kitchen sink to refill the steam iron (because the landlord's large alsatian dog was in there) so I filled it up from a can of Stella Artois instead..

[Sysman]

I once bought a new TV that failed to work. Took it back to the shop and 3 assistants looked at it for 30 seconds - before one spotted the on/off switch.

Bought a shiny new monitor a couple of years ago.

Got it unwrapped, assembled, connected to computer and mains, and the thing wouldn't turn on.

Read the instruction book, paying attention to the diagrams.

Perused paperwork and found it was a return to shop guarantee. Waded through the website to see how to do a return.

Started to put it back in the box and noticed an on/off switch hiding beside the mains socket. Black on black of course.

This switch was mentioned precisely nowhere in the instruction book. It only mentioned the switch underneath the screen that does standby.

[Sysman]

I once bought a new TV that failed to work. Took it back to the shop and 3 assistants looked at it for 30 seconds - before one spotted the on/off switch.

I struggled with a Panasonic microwave for some time before I realised it only had a 12 hour clock.

I did better than my brother though. He actually took his back to the shop.

[NotAllThere]

A a fresh-faced young permie, just started a new job, my boss and I went to a client site. Signed in at reception, and told to go through the doors into the main area. My boss pushed, but the doors wouldn't open.

"Do you need to do anything to open the doors for me?" he asked reception, thinking maybe they need to press a button to unlock them or something.
"Just pull...".

"One word from you, There", he muttered, "and you're fired". I couldn't stop laughing for quite a while.