Customer service is so weird

I bought a very cheap canopy on Memorial Day Weekend at Fred Meyer in Medford. $20 with all the tubes you slip together. Since I'm way too cheap to buy the spendy ones, I figured it could work. And it would be nice to have sun protection on camping trips.

So I start putting it together in my dining room (because I'm weird that way and it made me laugh to set up our garage-sale tent indoors when I was checking it out), and I bloody can't make the top part--the pyramid--go together. I push the last tube into place, and a part pops out from the other side. I push that into place and another piece pops apart. I got out masking tape and started taping together the segments. I must have taped 10 joints before I gave up.

The directions say, "Don't return to the store--call customer service." So I call at noon today, when I'm home for lunch. 8 customers ahead of me. I put it on speaker phone, and load up the dishwasher while I'm waiting. Finally, it's my turn. I get a very nice gal on the phone who says they don't have replacement parts for that model (not that I asked for replacement parts, but I just couldn't get the damned thing together, as if some tube is too short) and she quickly suggests they send me a new one. "With netting or without?" Mine is without, and I tell her so. Start giving her my info, and finally ask, "So will I be shipping this one back?" and she says no, I can keep it for replacement parts or whatever I want. "Um, in that case, can I say 'with netting' now?" (cause that would be nice) Sure, she says, and changes the notation in a jiffy.

OK, the thing only cost $20 (no tax! Doncha love Oregon) but is it really worth their while to ship a new one out & not ask for the old one back? I'm glad we'll have the netting, though; freaking yellow jackets drove us insane at Lake Siskiyou last year.