Oops, Wrong Number!

“Hello Sexy Hunter!”
That is what many people heard last fall when they called the number issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). One number switched with another on the duck stamp could have cost the USFWS hundreds of thousands of dollars. Last fall there was 3.5 million duck stamps printed with the number 1-800-872-6724 (1-800-TRAMP24) on them instead of 1-800-782-6724 (1-800-STAMP24).

The first number led the callers to “Intimate Connections” instead of the USFWS licensing department. Instead of a person asking you which license you would like to purchase, you were connected to a heavy breathing female telling you what you could get for $1.99 a minute! How many times do you think the duck stamp was looked at by high officials of the USFWS? I am sure it was numerous times, but every one of them failed to look at the number. How many of you think you would have proofread the number instead of just looking at the picture and the writing on it?

This is a big reason why everything has to be proofread many times and every mistake has to be fixed before anything is circulated. This has changed many people’s opinions on how professional the USFWS is. It was just a simple mistake that could have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for the government. If the USFWS would have recalled all of the stamps and issued new ones, it would have cost $300,000. That is a huge loss just because of a little mistake that no one caught before issuing the stamps.

The credibility of a company or organization can change in many people’s opinions with just one little mistake. How would you have liked to been the person answering the phone for the USFWS to help the customers that had called the number already? I’m sure most people were polite after hearing what had happened, but I’m sure there were quite a few rude people also.

This is a huge example of why companies require every email to be reviewed by at least three to five different people. Every little mistake in a big company can end up costing thousands of dollars. It might not loss that can be seen, but a loss in business that they were going to get and business that ended up leaving the company because of the lack of professionalism. Do you think you have ever been judged by a misspelling?