Spelling, a common sense story

This post is based on fact, but any names and addresses have been changed to protect the innocent (and stupid).

We have all experienced the problem of having our names misspelt or misheard.
In fact, one of the reasons a double glazing company had their quote refused wasn’t because of their price, but because they’d spelt our name wrong.
How pathetic, I hear you say. This happens and it’s no big deal.
I couldn’t agree more, but the fact was we had written the same letter to 6 companies, signing off with our surname in CAPITAL LETTERS, so to us, there was really no excuse. Also, it was more than a case of getting a couple of letters round the wrong way, it was an entirely different surname that just happened to share the first and last letters of ours.

It all started in our first house I suppose, an address of some ‘nobility’ as all roads in that area were named King, Queen, Princess, Lord, Prince, Earl, Marquis, Duke etc something or other.
Our mail was addressed accordingly, and one letter therein started:
‘Dear Marquis of Walk……………’
They didn’t get our business either.

Hubby thus instilled into me the phonetic alphabet, testing me at odd hours and in unusual situations until it came as second nature, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
So these days, when quoting my name, address, post code or car registration number, all letters are said the Phonetic way to avoid any errors or confusion.

That was until we received a letter addressed to a Mr and Mrs Charlie Hotelalpha

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