Dealing with contractors and insurance people is a royal pain.
We got a quote from a guy whose spelling is atrocious. I suppose I should overlook it, since if he were a Rhodes Scholar he wouldn't be in the business he's in, but I am very impatient with people who can't spell even the most common words. For example:
What he wrote: hall (it should have been haul).
debree (debris)
land field (land fill)
tare down (tear down)
flute (flue)
chemmy (chimney)
peice (piece)
licabe (liable)
desides (decides)
Can you blame me for not having a lot of faith in him - or am I being too picky?
9 comments:
I try so hard to be accepting of poor spellers but the English major in me feels like someone just ran their thumbnail down a blackboard.
Judy--While poor spelling and poor grammar are jarring to me, I would prefer to judge a worker on previous jobs that have been done - unless I'm paying for the worker to write something for me.
Cop Car
P.S. On 9/10/11, Hunky Husband called to tell me that the crew of his airplane from VA to PA had multiple tattoos on their arms. He was concerned. I assured him that tattoos would not keep a pilot from flying well and safely. After all, some of the best pilots in the world (of NAVAIR) are known to have tattoos. "That's different!" said he, "They get tattoos that mean something!" (Goes to show that he hasn't been around as many Navy and Marine pilots as I have been around.) I assured HH that the tats meant something to the bearers - even if they meant nothing to him.
(No...I don't really like to see tattoos; but, people probably don't really enjoy the sight of a fat old woman waddling about, either!)
I hate to say it but I would "judge" this person incompetent. Maybe forgive a couple of faux pas but so many? No way. Maybe the contractor if he had good references on previous work but never the insurance adjuster.
However it seems these days with texting and a multitude of hooked on phonics graduates we're losing the art of spelling and grammar anyway.
He just doesn't have spell check on his estimate pad.
I have often found deficient book learning workman sometimes are brilliant at their trade.
I'd give him a try after checking his references.
Sorry I think you are all being a bit harsh. Some people have a word blindness or dyslexia which - to my mind - makes then brave to even attempt to write publicly.
Also I find - with age - suddenly words I have been happily spelling for decades seem wrong and I live with a dictionary by my desk. Just saying.
Do you need him to tear down a chimney or write a grant application? I would want to speak with people for whom he's done work.
If he can tare down your chimney without damaging yore hawse and find the land field to hall off the debree, does it really matter? He is able to communicate even if it does put our teef on edge.
I'd just check his references as I would anyone else's. After spending years as a reading tutor for adults and children, and raising two dyslexic sons, I'm a witness to bad spelling not being indicative of a person's competence in other areas. One of my sons grceived a BS with honors, the other graduated community college with a 4.0. Neither of the can spell their way out of paper bag but they are trustworthy and competent in their fields.
This would definitely worry me, too....! I know he doesn;t have to be a Rhodes Scholar...BUT....Some of these words are so important to his particular work!
Have you seen any work he has done, elsewhere? That might help you decide, for sure.
Wow, he makes my spelling look good!
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