Wow it took me about 2 seconds to connect the ends. What a pain in the ass! As many people have pointed out, how they roll it up is KEY to why it's happening. upset about it. So keep that in mind. I like that it's flat. They only give you 20 "clips" or whatever to keep them in place. So 20 for a 50ft cord you can't even tighten on each foot or anything if you're partially lying down say a 10ft FIREPLACE (!) like I had to do and then some hang. I had to use some of these.