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Does bad proofreading / spelling put you off an advert?

BPD07

BPD07

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Nov 25, 2014
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Location
Milton Keynes
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E220 ragtop, Opel Manta, BMW X1 and Z4 and… an MG ZS EV 🤓
I am a member of a few classic car sale (UK) groups, firstly the price people want for junk is amazing, but this question is about proofreading/spelling, or the lack of:

Breaks for Brakes, well not really forgivable but they tried.
Raters for rotors for discs possibly.
“Got hard” - steady on, it’s not that nice, maybe hardtop?
Then there’s a general grammatical mish-mash of a sentence, which makes me wonder what they really meant.

But this morning, I had to chuckle, when I read about a car transporter for sale.

“built in aluminium’s ramps , new mot , owned for 3 years and had a full No experience spared refurb , i and last owner only used to “

So my question is, does a poorly written advert, make you more wary?
 
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In a nutshell ..... Yes!

Although i will concede that there are many non nationals living here and English may not be the first language - I dread to think what my advert would read like if i was selling something in Hungary for instance using the dreaded Google translate :eek:
 
If someone cannot take time to spellcheck an advert or email, what else have they not carried out? Reminds me of a time a few years back of going through many C.V.'s for some vacancies, a manager asked for help so a few of us offered.
About 10 minutes later, said manager asks why some C.V.'s were stacked next to me. My reply, full of grammar and spelling errors so not appropriate to pursue. Manager gets more than a tadge upset by this, easy say I, do it all yourself and it is on your head/shoulders who you employ!
 
It really wouldn’t bother me. I know lots of people that care their cars wonderfully but are not blessed with The Kings English (myself included).

Looking after vehicles and poor grammar/diction are unrelated.

This can be applied to many other forms. As an example I use an old retired bricklayer/stonemason for my small extensions. His work is the best I’ve seen. But his spelling when messaging me is poor. Should I stop using him for my building projects? 🤷‍♂️
 
Not overly put off by poor spelling but it doesn't instill confidence.

If I see any the following I will be put off :
'here we have' (it is not a fabricate egg mate)
'leathers' (who on earth uses the word leathers)
'lady driver' (may as well say it's never been serviced)
'sold as seen ' (why?)
'egr/cats delete' (grest, so now it's illegal 🤦)
 
A Ryobi ad in yesterday’s paper, for a carpet cleaner, described it as cordless and brushless etc.

Then went on to say how the brushes agitated the dirt in the carpet.

So, brushless or has brushes?

(Yes, I know it refers to the motor being brushless, not the machine, but Mrs B, along with probably many more folks, didn’t.)
 
My gripe is the photos . I am not OCD , but FFS when posting photographs of a car you want to sell there are a few basics .

Wash the Frucking thing......and then let it dry , not posting photos of a wet car on a wet driveway.

Take all of your $hit out of the car before taking the photos

And finally and MOST important make sure the steering wheel is level at zero degrees BEFORE taking any interior photos ....

Phew ! Rant over .

As you were.
 
Petrol Pete said:
My gripe is the photos . I am not OCD , but FFS when posting photographs of a car you want to sell there are a few basics .

Wash the Frucking thing......and then let it dry , not posting photos of a wet car on a wet driveway.

Take all of your $hit out of the car before taking the photos

And finally and MOST important make sure the steering wheel is level at zero degrees BEFORE taking any interior photos ....

Phew ! Rant over .

As you were.
Click to expand...
What about estate agent's photos?
 
Petrol Pete said:
My gripe is the photos . I am not OCD , but FFS when posting photographs of a car you want to sell there are a few basics .

Wash the Frucking thing......and then let it dry , not posting photos of a wet car on a wet driveway.

Take all of your $hit out of the car before taking the photos

And finally and MOST important make sure the steering wheel is level at zero degrees BEFORE taking any interior photos ....

Phew ! Rant over .

As you were.
Click to expand...
Fwiw what baffles me more, is when the advert has eg, 6x photo's ,,,, and there are simply multiples of the one image !! :dk: WHY
 
esscee said:
If someone cannot take time to spellcheck an advert or email, what else have they not carried out? Reminds me of a time a few years back of going through many C.V.'s for some vacancies, a manager asked for help so a few of us offered.
About 10 minutes later, said manager asks why some C.V.'s were stacked next to me. My reply, full of grammar and spelling errors so not appropriate to pursue. Manager gets more than a tadge upset by this, easy say I, do it all yourself and it is on your head/shoulders who you employ!
Click to expand...
The plural of CV is CVs :wallbash:

That aside, I carried out a similar rejection process several years ago when I was a school governor and assessing applications for a new teaching post. Fortunately a low percentage, but I was horrified at the poor standards of a few of the CVs submitted for the English language teacher post!
 
TC350 said:
The plural of CV is CVs :wallbash:

That aside, I carried out a similar rejection process several years ago when I was a school governor and assessing applications for a new teaching post. Fortunately a low percentage, but I was horrified at the poor standards of a few of the CVs submitted for the English language teacher post!
Click to expand...
That’s valid. 👍
 
Speeling mistaks put me right off 😄 ....rightly or wrongly (probably the latter!) it makes me question the owners intelligence and I don't want to buy off someone stupid!! Breaks instead of brakes is particularly annoying to me...don't know why.....and we see it all the time of this very forum!!!
Not so worried about the car needing a vacuum or wash.....although I'd never advertise mine like that.
Any tuning, emissions parts removed (EGR/DPF/Secondary cat delete etc).....that's an instant "move on" for me.....which is odd as I'm the first person to mod a car.....but there is some dodgy tuning work around. Also I feel that a tuned car has probably been driven harder.
 
English is not my first language but every time I put a car for sale, I try my best to not make any spelling mistakes and also take good pic's. One of the main reasons why I do this is because I want people to have all the information's they need and not call me because as humans we can't help but judge others and I know that the moment they hear me speak, someone might get put off buying a car from a foreigner. It's not an excuse for me to make mistakes as I've been living in UK since I was 12 years old. 23 years later, I still have a strong accent and I still make spelling mistakes.
Whenever I post here, I also take my time to read what I've typed and check at least three times but after I post a comment or create a thread when I read it again, I notice spelling mistakes.
I do apologise if this annoys anyone.... It's not my intention :)

I did like the comment that @HappytalkAgain made regarding his bricklayer. There's more to a person than his spelling :)
 
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You're a bloody Johnny foreigner?????.....well that's another one added to my ignore list!!! 😄








So am I ....well half! No accent though as I was too young to talk when I arrived on these shores!!
 
HappytalkAgain said:
This can be applied to many other forms. As an example I use an old retired bricklayer/stonemason for my small extensions. His work is the best I’ve seen. But his spelling when messaging me is poor. Should I stop using him for my building projects? 🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
You’re looking for a new brickie so you put out some ads on LinkedIn.
You get 2 replies.

Both the applicants have roughly the same experience, they’re around the same age and the day rate you offer is fine by them.

One applicants letter is written perfectly with the correct grammar etc etc.

The other letter is a shambles though. Bad spelling, awful grammar and even worse punctuation, it’s almost like he couldn’t care or even bother to read through it after.

Which one you going for? The one who comes across as a guy that does things properly, takes his time and really does care or the applicant that comes across as not giving a shit?

Remember that first impressions are last impressions.
 
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