I recently received a quote from a European Management School of high repute indicating the cost of a course as £13,00.00 vat. What did the writer mean and what was the effect of the error?
Apart from being puzzled (and amused, I'll admit) I lost a teeny bit of faith in the organisation. Maybe they don't run mundane letter- and proposal-writing courses, but that's no excuse. They are offering to teach senior management how to run companies, darn it.
We all know that e-mails are often sent off in a hurry and not checked as thoroughly as we check 'proper' letters, and we all use the immediacy of e-mails as an excuse: 'it's only an e-mail so they'll understand'. Well, chummy, if you can't be bothered to grant me the courtesy of checking what you write to me, I'll not be bothered with the courtesy of replying. And there's a quick way for you to lose business.
On this occasion it was difficult to reply, as anything I said would point out the error to a then embarrassed writer. So I spent MY time searching through the attached literature to find the real cost. Neither productive nor pleasing.
It was £13,000 + vat, by the way.
