I was able to call the retailer and spoke with someone who was friendly but could not help. In the end I pushed a needle shaped inflator that is used for basket and footballs down the extremely teeny tiny fill valve and discovered the the very thick bottom was a flap that would only partially open to allow air to pass into the air bladder. This valve was designed by a cretin. It would take most of an hour to fill and all day to empty.Thank heavens for Amazon's liberal return policy. My UPS store is 2 minutes walk from my home and the product was on its way back about 12 hours after it arrived. However, in fairness I should say that for the money it is not a bad deal if you only use it at home. You would never, ever want to try and use this while traveling. What a joke.