I recently came across this sign on my way to look at a job
for a customer of ours. It reads:
“_________ Roofing -
guaranteed can’t be under bided”
There are so many things going wrong with this sign that I don’t
really know where to begin, but I will try.
Upon first glance, you can’t help but notice the misuse of
the word “bided”. According to Webster’s
New World Dictionary, bided means; 1. to stay; 2.to dwell; 3. to wait,
endure or to tolerate. Now it doesn’t make any sense to have an advertisement
for a construction company claiming that they are guaranteed to be able to wait
or tolerate longer than any other construction company. Therefore, I assume that
this is supposed to mean that this company is guaranteeing me that they will
have the lowest bid or estimate. I’ll admit that I am not always grammatically correct, I
even misspell from time to time. Maybe what we have here is an honest mistake.
Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say that it was just a mistake and
they are actually English professors. After painting this sign, they stepped
back and realized their mistake but did not have any more paint to correct the
problem. “What the heck” they say, no one will notice.
Some questions that come to mind are; what kind of quality
will I be receiving with your low price guarantee? Will it match the quality of
your sign? You may be able to shingle a roof cheaper than anyone else, but is
it going to leak? And if it does leak, are you going to guarantee your work or
do you just guarantee your price?
Unfortunately, we are left with more questions than answers. Don’t sell
yourself cheap and strive for excellence in the work that you do. Perform
every task to the best of your ability and people will want you to work for
them, even if you can be “under bided”.
