posted on February 16, 2002 10:51:17 AM new
I had auctions end on Thursday evening so Friday morning I sent out my end of auction emails. Most have replied by this am, Saturday. One fellow sent me an email reply that is absolutely unreadable, I think he is complaining about my high shipping costs (as he perceives it) but I can not tell for sure. About every third word is badly misspelled.
I can't understand how some people can go through life not knowing basic spelling and to do business with someone like this is agrivating as heck.
Buy a dictionary and use it, if you can read that is.
posted on February 16, 2002 10:58:31 AM new
THANK YOU!!!! This is one of my biggest pet peeves. This and people who are unable to pronounce words correctly. I had a public school education and I can speak properly and spell properly. I agree - if you can't spell - get a dictionary.
posted on February 16, 2002 12:00:07 PM new
Sure you did there buddy, maybe you see something in the person you dislike that you see in yourself? Do you own a dictionary!
posted on February 16, 2002 12:12:00 PM new
Perhaps your bidder is an international customer? I've had several lately and I've really had to decipher what they were saying. However, almost all apologized for their poor English; I reply..."Your English is MUCH better than my German/French/etc."
posted on February 16, 2002 12:44:44 PM new
I am dealing with one that won an item for $3.50 three weeks ago. no email, nothing. finally when I send ebay payment reminder I get an email saying check is on the way.
today I receive a check for $3.50! what about the $3.50 shipping? yaaarrrgggghhhhh!!!
posted on February 16, 2002 01:03:03 PM new
Well if today's public education is any clue, we'll soon need audio auctions and emails. But it's not like this started yesterday. We live in a culture where reading and writing skills suffer atrophy and this is accelerated in an increasingly visually oriented society. I would laugh at the picture sign that points towards the local public library if it weren't so sad.
posted on February 16, 2002 01:27:14 PM new
Its even better when you CLEARLY state in your listing AND your WBN the only methods of payments you accept (PAYPAL & MO ONLY) and the winning bidder prints the WBN out and sends it with a PERSONAL CHECK. THEN..I email the buyer stating that I do not accept personal checks and this high and mighty woman replies with "You are joking right?"
MEOW
posted on February 16, 2002 03:50:29 PM new
Don't get me wrong here, I do not consider myself intellectually superior. Heck I even misspell a word or two now and then but it is really sad when someone sends me a reply that reads as such;
"Thanyu 4 tha emal my nam is joe blow an my shipadres is 1234 mainst. lubock texes zipcod is 56789 mi check wil b in tha mal on monda yu ship cos ar rely hi".
I have to wonder how this person performs everyday tasks and deals with people in person. He obviously has a computer or access to one and has at the very least rudimentary knowledge of Ebay, email and perhaps other computer related uses.
I don't hate this person, I actually feel sorry for him. If he is going to do business on the internet then he should at least educate himself in the proper spelling of simple words so people can understand him. Otherwise no one will take him serious.
posted on February 16, 2002 04:40:40 PM new
Just thank your lucky stars that they had their spelling checker on. Or you would have never known you charge too much for shipping!
posted on February 16, 2002 04:54:57 PM new
I've been very lucky with bidders...most can write/spell/think just fine. But I buy a lot of my stock from eBay itself, and I am constantly amazed that some sellers are able to sell anything at all!
It's not just the fuzzy pictures, it's the auction listing that is nearly unreadable because of spelling and grammar errors. Many don't list their shipping costs, which is a big issue for many people (me included). Others neglect really important information, like size, brand name, measurements, etc.
One reason I prowl the listings is in hopes of finding treasures offered by know-nothing sellers. But when the listing is SO BAD that even I can't figure out what's for sale, I am amazed that the seller is able to unload any stock at all. Most buyers just cruise on by these listings.
posted on February 16, 2002 06:43:36 PM new
Boy !!!! I hope I spelled it right !! I had no problem reading and understanding what your bidder wrote.I am from the south, maybe that makes a difference....... But maybe that is because I am the worlds WORST speller.....Thank goodness for my websters dictionary. .Instead of complaining >>>> Be happy, glad, he sent you a email with his mailing address, and be ever so glad when you recieve his payment......as he will be the one to pay you..... some one with perfect english and won the spelling "B" in school, will turn out to be a deadbeat.....
posted on February 16, 2002 06:52:21 PM new
Funny thing I just got an email that took me several tries to figure out if they wanted to buy something, or they just bought it. The first line said, "I buy video? Later it said the auction end date so I realized they were asking about the expected arrival of an item they won.
posted on February 17, 2002 06:44:06 AM new
I only had 1 buyer send an e-mail that was difficult to read. Someone must have typed all the subsequent mails, because they were perfect. Did they pay, nope.
Believe it or not, I'm afraid to buy from a seller whose ad is hard to read. You've seen them? No periods, commas, capitals, and lots of mispellings. You have to read them through several times to get it right. The picture is either blurred or they take a too-close, close up so you can't see the whole thing?I can just see a negative coming through miscommunication and misunderstandings.
I found one this week that said, "dress" for a title. Click on it, and there's no description other than, "pretty dress." No shipping, size, no picture...nothing.
Of course I do that if I haven't had my morning coffee...........
posted on February 18, 2002 12:03:54 AM new
This is my favorite--
I use Juno for mail. If I get sloppy and instead of writing "going to" I write "gonna" in an e-mail, and then run Juno's spell checker, the default suggested correction is "gonad".
posted on February 18, 2002 08:38:09 AM new
Certain people in this thread are guilty of one thing, and that is "Judging a book by it's cover". There is no law that say's a person must speak, read and write perfect English. I am sometimes amazed at how backward we really are in this country. I have lost count how many times, over the last week, that the media has posed stupid questions containg slang and colloquialisms to "foreign" athletes, only to have theses athletes reply in English. How many people in this thread speak a second, third or even fourth language. How good is your Norwegian,
your Greek even your Mongolian. I was in Tromso, Norway a little while ago. People were amazed that I had even graduated high school, let alone gotten a degree without being able to speak (fluently) at least one other language. Are we so arrogant to still believe that people are inferior to us if they don't comunucate on our level.
posted on February 18, 2002 08:53:31 AM new
I don't think any of us expect "perfect" English in eBay correspondence. However, it's nearly impossible to figure out what some people mean when their emails (or auction descriptions) are so riddled with errors.
I was required to show proficiency in a second language before I graduated from college (and in order to get into college, I had to study that language for three years in high school). But I agree, we Americans are woefully behind other countries when it comes to this sort of international viewpoint.
But that's not really the issue, IMO. I can usually tell the difference between a native English-speaker who can't write an intelligible sentence, and a non-English-speaker who is having trouble. I will cut both people a lot of slack, but when it comes down to the important stuff, like shipping costs and instructions, addresses, bid amounts, etc., you HAVE to be able to be clear, even if that means getting a friend to vet your emails.
posted on February 18, 2002 09:35:07 AM new
Secondmoon, Norwegians may be shocked that Americans don't speak more than one language, but then we're not a country of just a few million surrounded by a huge number of languages. Think about it. If you live in Switzerland, you have six languages to call your own, and you can't go very far without encountering many more. I, on the other hand, can travel from Maine to California and not need anything but English. No European can say the same for that distance.
Depending on what you do, and your own desires, you may or may not need to know more than one. Plenty of French only know French, and it's that way for Germans, Italians...and all the rest. The truth of the matter too is that the lingua franca (the language of diplomacy) is English, and it's also become the most important language for business. For the sake of clarity around the world, all air traffic control is done in English.
It used to be French (where "lingua franca" came from), but now it's not. We just lucked out that it's ours.
As to ebayers, as long as they try, I'm fine. I'm not going to be picky over every little thing.
posted on February 18, 2002 10:23:13 AM new
secondmoon
Bidder illiteracy isn't based on a level of English comprehension; it's based on clear communication. People cannot read and understand simple sentences and have a very hard time writing clearly. Then there's a whole class of people who cannot use a keyboard well enough to communicate.
We need to be a whole lot more tolerant of minor errors and a lot less tolerant of how poorly we communicate overall.
posted on February 18, 2002 02:29:29 PM new
It sounds to me that YOU do not have a clue as to how many functioning illiterate people there are in the USA, on the other hand maybe this guy was just pulling you string??
posted on February 18, 2002 02:56:23 PM new
Interesting thread. An occasional misspelling is understandable. I find ads with gross misspellings that scream ignorance a real turnoff. If the seller can't use spell check or have someone else proof read, he or she sends the impression that there may not be enough sentience there to be able to copy an address correctly. As a former teacher of English I am wholly convinced that these folks must have the help of a special angel in order to function in the world.
posted on February 18, 2002 02:57:40 PM newI have to wonder how this person performs everyday tasks and deals with people in person.
I've noticed some awfully savvy businesspeople who are lousy spellers. Computer programmers are notoriously bad spellers, but they can write millions of lines of perfect code.
I have to admit though, I am at a loss to understand why people keep making the same spelling mistakes over and over again. I guess they think their spelling is adequate, even with the errors.
If you want to learn to spell, read a lot. It may not be worth much, but you can act snooty on chat boreds.
posted on February 18, 2002 03:10:12 PM new
>Think about it. If you live in Switzerland, you have six languages to call your own
Um, three: French, German and Italian are the official languages. Romantsch is also spoken in the southeast, but isn't considered a fourth "official" language.
