To think that you cannot possibly use a leaflet with a typo and a spelling mistake in it

[TheMagnificentBathykolpian]

Especially when that it reads

"By using our services and adjusting your operations accordingly, you dramatically reduce your overall fuel consumption and your company's carbon footprint, while running and more efficient organisation and benefitting from larger profit margins"

??

People would laugh their bloody heads off, right?

Your reply will enable me to shut my boss/husband up.

[BuntyPenfold]

As a proofreader I would laugh my head off, but I am often amazed at what some people don't see.

[gallicgirl]

Not as funny as the misspellings and grammar errors on the average BNP leaflet.

But no, I wouldn't use that company.

[Fuzzywuzzywozabear]

you cannot possibly use that leaflet, customers would not take you seriously

one of my jobs is also proof-reading and I am shocked at things that get printed which haven't been checked properly

yanbu

[startail]

YANBU
I'm dyslexic and I can't find the spelling mistake, but the typo grates.
I hate pedants about spelling in emails and MN posts, but always get someone to proof the PTA posters and fliers I do.
There's a glaring error on DD1's merit award letter from school. It's so obvious that my far more dyslexic DD started giggling. I wouldn't mind, but they used the same ones 6 months ago!
It really does not give the right impression.

[TheMagnificentBathykolpian]

Thank you.

Do you know what he suggested, when I said we cannot POSSIBLY use these leaflets?

Tippex.

I ask you. Bloody tippex [boggle]

[grovel]

No way I'd use a company putting out that rubbish.

[gallicgirl]

There was a report on the BBC website recently about how spelling mistakes cost companies millions in lost business. If you see a spelling mistake ona website, apparently people are less likely to think the company is genuine or reliable.

[OrdinaryJo]

Put it out. Then, when your boss doesn't get any business off it, and is laughed out of town, he'll maybe employ a copywriter / proofreader next time.

*Disclaimer: OrdinaryJo may have a vested interest in people employing proper writers to do writing and stuff.

[Sarsaparilllla]

I wouldn't use a company that had any spelling/typo/grammar mistakes, I wouldn't trust them or I'd think it was some kind of con set up, if it's a geniune business it discredits their work I think

[worldgonecrazy]

I think you need to weigh up the risk of losing business and the cost of a reprint. (This is from someone who once created a poster for a customer with the typo "sunshite" on it - the worst thing is that it was up on their premises for two weeks before anyone said anything.)

[TheMagnificentBathykolpian]

I would, Jo, but since the boss is also my husband and the business feeds us, I'd be up shit creek in a concrete canoe

Stranded - very good point there! the 'could' is vital.

[TheMagnificentBathykolpian]

x-post, world. Yes, it's got to be re-printed, hasn't it? The cost of putting out a leaflet with mistakes on it is too high. You only get one chance to make a first impression, as they say.

[thebeansmum]

Puts me in mind of some shopfront PRINTED fascias in a town near me. 'Nail's Sunbed's and much more thing's - come in'

I go the long way around in case lights change and I may have to look at it. I think there may be a disorder to describe my depth of anger even typing it out.

They don't even have the excuse that some kid has written it on a bit of flourescent card and stuck it in the window - would a signmaker not think to mention it to the buyer? I simply don't understand how, from order to fitting, nobody would say 'do you know that's incorrect grammar' Mind boggling.

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

Put them out, reap the bad press/slump in business, then hire me to edit/proofread next time; no mistakes and very reasonable rates!

Typos, bad grammar etc piss me off royally and do put me off companies. But I'm shocked at how widespread this kind of howler is, and I'm sure it's getting worse. I see it in newspapers and books all the time.

at 'sunshite'. My personal favourite, from an email sent round work about a Pilates class, is 'loose-fisting clothes'.

[TheMagnificentBathykolpian]

And my typo in my OP when that it reads

[OrdinaryJo]

Actual snorts at LadyClarice's fisting clothes.

OP, in that case I will let you off and look forward to furthering my acquaintance with you on pendants' corner, my latest MN discover

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

beansmum, I know; that's what I don't get either! In handwritten things at least you can think that it was just one person's mistake and no one else saw it, but in things that have been signwritten/typeset/printed/proofread there's no excuse. Quite apart from the people who worked on it as it went along the chain, I always think 'Someone high up thought that was OK and signed it off'.

[OrdinaryJo]

discovery feckit! I can spell, honest!

[biddysmama]

i'd put the leaflet into the recycling bin..

[YouWithTheFace]

I actually can't vote for the local LibDem lot because there lefelets ar rubbbish... Totally NBU

[TheBigJessie]

I afraid I always doubt the reliability of companies, after I see spelling errors. I mean, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Word even have automated spell-checkers that pick up things like "benefitting". I think, "What else do they miss? They didn't want to employ a professional proof-reader; what other checks have they cut costs on?"

[SarkySpanner]

TBH I find the overuse of meaningless corporate speak more irritating than the typos.

Why can't you/he just say what you mean. In normal words?

"benefitting from larger profit margins" WTF is wrong is "saving you money".

[TheMagnificentBathykolpian]

I agree. But he insists that larger profit margin grabs the business owner and is more formal.

Or maybe he likes it cos it's poncy, I don't know.

Hang on, I'll ask him.

He says 'saves you money' is too casual

Dear god, don't tell me I married a 'blue sky thinker' or a 'brainstormer' who 'thinks outside the box' and has A Vision

[LadyClariceCannockMonty]

If your audience is a business one rather than consumers, I think that phrase is fair enough. It would be too poncey and dull for a general audience though.