I’ve been trading e-mails with Lasonic tech support regarding a broken DVD player. The last e-mail I got from them was so riddled with basic spelling and grammatical errors that I couldn’t be sure it was from the actual company or a spammer that was spoofing the address. Here it is, in all its awful glory:
hi:
Sorry, cuz your pervious message wasn’t attached, it’s difficult for us to retrive your message. Please attached your pervious message for us to follow up! thank you
Tech Support
*
Amazing. Truly amazing. “Previous” is NOT a hard word to spell, yet this person screwed it up TWICE. :eek:
I had a similar experience just last week.
I was perusing mortgage rates at E*Trade and had some questions about various loans they offer, so I decided to use their “Live Chat” option.
The CSR I was chatting with seemed to know a good deal what he was talking about, but could not spell to save his life and kept using SMS-like abbreviations like ‘ur’ and others.
Gah! Is it too much to ask when I’m dealing with a company that might possibly be getting several thousands of dollars from me in closing costs and interest to spell out entire words correctly? Needless to say I was quite put off by the situation and if another lender has similar rates and costs, I will most definitely go with them if they are more professional than that!
Front-line tech support isn’t exactly a 6-figure job. Demand for good techs generally outstrips supply. Yes, good spelling would be much more professional, but it’s not absolutely vital to getting the job done. Frankly, I wouldn’t care if tech support spelled “previous” as “mangrove throatwobbler” if they can fix my problems and I can understand what they’re trying to communicate.
I am a decent speller, but I realize many people are not. I get over it.
Communication seems to me to be a pretty basic skill, and not too much to ask from someone in a client services type position. Abbreviations like “ur”? Unacceptable.