The Tefal mini compact steamer sounded like a healthy addition for my kitchen. Upon opening the box I found a mini sized pictorial instruction booklet. It assisted me to put the steamer together but not much more. I searched online for a more comprehensive instruction booklet but only found the same book. I emailed Tefal who promptly replied; saying the pictorial instruction booklet was to address environmental concerns and to cut costs.
I searched online for alternative brands and the first one I found (Kambrook) offered a 28 page online instruction booklet that answered all my questions.Being available online certainly addressed the environmental and cost issues Tefal used as an excuse.
Perhaps this is a warning to all consumers to research what a product offers in the way of instructions.
Good advice, @isbill4 . My partner never looks at the instruction booklet and gets right into the device. I’m the one that reads it cover to cover first. I want a good instruction booklet. I understand wanting to be more environmentally friendly and cost efficient, but putting it online is a good solution. Did you keep your Tefal steamer?
Plan to return Tefal steamer. Meanwhile bought a Sunbeam vegetable steamer which has a good instruction book. Very happy with it.
I bought a Tefal rice cooker a year back that had a nice instruction booklet. It referenced normal, quick, and expert modes without any hint of what they meant in practice, other than the meaning of the words themselves. An email to Tefal revealed all and they were quick to reply.
This year we got a Chinese origin massage chair with a manual in (you guessed it) Chinese English. I am always impressed how well the Asians do English even when it seems incomprehensible or funny. We “westerners” are probably far less competent in kanji. Anyway, patience reading and re-reading, and a second sense did not help understand how to work one function and the importer ignored us, but the buyer from Costco (always brilliant service!) explained how it worked. After understanding how it worked the text in the manual became obvious.
Just because there is a user manual does not mean it is a useful manual, although usually more useful than nothing.
In the Fisher and paykel appliances thread, @jen mentioned the decline of manufacturing standards over the past 20 years. I suspect that affects instructions manuals as well. The university I attended (nearly 20 years ago) offered a minor degree in Technical Writing. I took one of those courses as part of my own studies and assignments included writing instruction manuals. It’s not easy. It was specialised work back then.
