Saturday Paper's Want Ads

Maryn · Jul 7, 2007

I know, I know, not everyone speaks native English. Not everyone who does got a decent education. Some people have learning disabilities. Some people just can't spell. Typos happen. But every Saturday, when the local paper has a "Bargain Stuff" column in the classified ads, with its cheapest ad rates for items costing under a certain amount, apparently nobody spell checks anything.

Today's offerings included

DRESSOR: Mapel ecx. cond. 6 droors

FLING CABINET: Commercal grade...

TOYS: Vintage GI Joe vechiles, all $100

RADITOR & FRONT Strut’s for 1996 Lummina

LATTER: little giant latter comes with leg levelor and platform to stand on or put stuff onto

How depressing, eh?

Maryn, closet elitist

scarletpeaches · Jul 7, 2007

I don't even know what some of those things are meant to be.

Nichola, scratching her head.

RLB · Jul 7, 2007

It's not only the spelling, it appears to be the logic as well.
What is a "little giant ladder"?

Jamesaritchie · Jul 7, 2007

Ladder

RLB said:
It's not only the spelling, it appears to be the logic as well.
What is a "little giant ladder"?

"Little Giant" is a brand name.

Chumplet · Jul 7, 2007

Many of those ads are submitted by the customer on-line. They pay a pittance for doing all the work, and they mostly do it all wrong.

The classified ad taker gets the submission by email, and because she receives little or no commission from the sale, she does a half-assed job of entering the information on the database. Mostly just cut-and-paste. Entering this stuff takes her away from answering the phone and getting a nice 3-inch career ad from a big company, where they can make a few hundred bucks for ten minutes work.

Plus, some newspapers charge by the line, so the customer tries to save money by abbreviating almost every word. Our newpaper charges by the word, so they're allowed to spell it out. But they still spell most of it wrong anyway.

The sales reps try to catch the mistakes, but hey, they're not being paid for this ad, so they give it little effort.

jordijoy · Jul 7, 2007

Hmmm, interesting little known facts.

RLB · Jul 7, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
"Little Giant" is a brand name.

Ah. Obviously I am not up on my ladder manufacturers.

Of course had the proper capitalization been used, I woudn't have been befuddled.

Devil Ledbetter · Jul 8, 2007

This appeared in Freecycle:

wanted large metal dog kenal
i have large gods that i would like to put in a kenal.
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Jamesaritchie · Jul 8, 2007

RLB said:
Ah. Obviously I am not up on my ladder manufacturers.

Of course had the proper capitalization been used, I woudn't have been befuddled.

True. I'm only up on it because I've actually used the Little Giant ladder system, and it's a very good and useful thing to have around.

Jamesaritchie · Jul 8, 2007

Chumplet said:
Many of those ads are submitted by the customer on-line. They pay a pittance for doing all the work, and they mostly do it all wrong.

The classified ad taker gets the submission by email, and because she receives little or no commission from the sale, she does a half-assed job of entering the information on the database. Mostly just cut-and-paste. Entering this stuff takes her away from answering the phone and getting a nice 3-inch career ad from a big company, where they can make a few hundred bucks for ten minutes work.

Plus, some newspapers charge by the line, so the customer tries to save money by abbreviating almost every word. Our newpaper charges by the word, so they're allowed to spell it out. But they still spell most of it wrong anyway.

The sales reps try to catch the mistakes, but hey, they're not being paid for this ad, so they give it little effort.

Maybe at your paper, but at newspapers I've worked for, it doesn't quite work this way. The ad taker corrects all obvious mistakes, and does an excellent job. But his job is not to spend time researching and questioning whoever is taking out the ad. But he does care, he does a full-assed job, and generally gets everything about as close to perfect as possible under the circumstances.

benbradley · Jul 8, 2007

Devil Ledbetter said:
This appeared in Freecycle:

wanted large metal dog kenal
i have large gods that i would like to put in a kenal.

I have a blog entry quoting a Freecycle post that I found quite surprising. The moral: Read subject line before reading message body.

Chumplet · Jul 8, 2007

Jamesaritchie said:
Maybe at your paper, but at newspapers I've worked for, it doesn't quite work this way. The ad taker corrects all obvious mistakes, and does an excellent job. But his job is not to spend time researching and questioning whoever is taking out the ad. But he does care, he does a full-assed job, and generally gets everything about as close to perfect as possible under the circumstances.

I guess the general moral is higher at your paper.

But the spelling described above isn't nearly as bad at our paper, so they must be doing some editing.

I assemble the pages afterward, so I catch some of them and correct them on the page. Not my job, but I do it because I care.

Southern_girl29 · Jul 8, 2007

We have a classifieds department and a run-of-the-paper ads department, so our classifieds people don't have to worry about selling a big ad. They get paid by the hour, no commission. Their jobs are basically to type up the ad and put it in a document and keep track of who bought the classified. I do know they don't make a lot.

Chumplet · Jul 8, 2007

Ours make a whackload of money. I was stuck there for six months before I moved to production. If I didn't hate phones so much I'd be rolling in dough (and drinking and smoking like it's my last day on Earth).

BarbJ · Jul 9, 2007

How much for the commercial grade fling cabinet? Sounds rather intriguing... :tongue

Saturday Paper's Want Ads

Maryn

Not Any More

scarletpeaches

RLB

bundled

Jamesaritchie

Chumplet

This hat is getting too hot

jordijoy

In pursuit!!

RLB

bundled

Devil Ledbetter

Come on you stranger, you legend,

Jamesaritchie

Jamesaritchie

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Chumplet

This hat is getting too hot

Southern_girl29

Chumplet

This hat is getting too hot

BarbJ