Martha L.

So far, my experience with Ultimate Rental Getaways has been most pleasant, and they appear to be ethical, but I don't know how they'll respond when I ask for certain things in writing.

However, I feel obliged to point out to Ultimate Rental Getaways, and businesses in general, that, if it or any other company would like to maintain its stellar reputation or improve it's reputation, at the very least, its employees who interact with the public need to speak and write proper English.

To those who think this strays too far from the purpose of reviews, I assure you that it doesn't not. And it isn't just because some of the public will think less of a company or question their capabilities and/or commitment to providing good service or a good product as I did after after reading all the incorrect English used by its rep, Lisa P in her response to Sherry on 12/12/2016, Nor is it just because the use of bad grammar is offensive. It's because incorrect English and/or a poor understanding of vocabulary and phraseology can lead to misunderstandings. If serious enough, only one misunderstanding can be costly for a company.

In this instance, if the client is claiming she didn't receive proper notice or the proper documents in a timely manner and the mistake is going to cost the company a sizable sum, no one can determine by Lisa P.'s phraseology whether Sherry's claim could be valid. On the one hand, it sounds as though the email isn't being received, but then Lisa says "if your [sic] having trouble receiving it," which implies it's being received, but there's some difficulty with it. If Lisa is correct, maybe the company can escape liability by proving the email was received and the relevant part was readable and, therefore, proper notice -- or whatever -- was received by the plaintiff.

In addition, a misplaced comma can actually change the terms of a contract. In the past, I'm sure this rarely, if ever, occurred, but, given the errors I see every day on the Internet, we may find, as we step into the future, that it isn't so rare anymore.

So, if a company values quality -- in products, services and interactions with customers, clients or patients, it needs employees who also value quality.

For example, in her very short, three-sentence response to Sherry's question, this rep made eight (8) errors in grammar, phraseology, capitalization and punctuation. If I may, they are:

(1) "documents were" because the subject, "documents," is plural;
(2) "sent the day of purchase[comma] 10/12/2016, and were resent on 12/12/2016[period]" or "the day they were purchased[comma or colon] 10/12/2016[period]"; (3) "Please check all folders." -- capital P at beginning of a new sentence and a period at the end;
(4) "The email" -- new sentence = capital letter;
(5) "will should" -- seriously? Should read: "The email is from..." or "The email should be from [will be from]...";
(6) "... a call if your still having" -- should be "you're, the contraction of "you are," NOT the possessive "your";
(7) "if you still haven't received it" -- if it's not being received at all and "if you're still having trouble receiving it" -- if it's being received but with a glitch or in unreadable condition; and
(8) phone #[comma] Ext[period] -- Better still: "Please give me a call at 866/882-8395, Ext. 1003, if you still haven't received it."

If it isn't worth doing with excellence, it isn't worth doing at all. The more we Americans compromise on quality, the more we deserve what we get. If we want better than sub-standard, we have to be better than substandard and care about and expect quality. Be the change you want to see. If we want quality in products, services, business dealings, relationships and personal interactions, we must exemplify quality.

AS AN ASIDE: Software designers have no business forcing us to present a vertical list of numbered items with two-digit numbers flush left with the wrapped text landing under the number above instead of under the text above. Are we to believe they're incapable of recognizing how idiotic that looks and how cumbersome it is to read?

FIRST, numbers should never be flush left; each number must always - always - always be in the correct column based on its value, i. E. the "2" representing "200" must be in the "hundredths'" column; the "5" representing "50" or "5 tens" has to always be in the "tens'" column; the 8 representing 8 ones must always be in the "ones'" column (as I've said for years, the post-1966 reforms in math and language have failed miserably. How can software engineers, or whoever is limiting our choices, not recognize how ridiculous this looks.

SECOND, the text must always wrap to under the first character in the line above; it must never - never - never land flush left under the number. Again, it looks ridiculous and is far too cumbersome and cluttered looking to read easily and quickly.

With all due respect, what good is coding knowledge when one doesn't even know 3rd and 4th grade math? And is it even humanly possible that anyone of any age compare a blocked paragraph of text with the current method of multiple lines of text flush left under a number and think the latter looks the best of the two.

Quite honestly, I think even most, if not all, five year olds in kindergarten would choose the former, numbered paragraphs every single time as the better-looking format, yet adult software designers can't. It's truly baffling. And to think the early word processing programs only required CTRL + Tab to get it done correctly.  New is not always better. And these days? My experience is too limited to say, but I suspect it's rarely better.

If it isn't worth doing with excellence, it isn't worth doing at all. The more we Americans compromise on quality, the more we deserve what we get. If we want better than sub-standard, we have to be better than substandard and care about and expect quality. Be the change you want to see. If we want quality in products, services, business dealings, relationships and personal interactions, we must exemplify quality.