I had a 15' Intex for 3 years and my neighbor used it for a year after (until the mice ate it in his shed) and the connector looked like that the whole time - i think it looks worse than it is. The first year, I did prop it up with a stake for a japanese beetle trap 'cause it looked bad to me but a couple times the Kids shoved the whole pool dangerously close to the steel post so I removed it and let the hose hang.