The catalog isn't always right

[wierdscience]

I've been noticing a trend that technical accuracy in catalogs is starting to slide. Sometimes it's just a typo, but other times it's a failure to understand accepted nomenclature.
Two examples:
I was shopping for a few accessories for the new lathe, a collet chuck was one thing I was after. So I needed to shop by spindle mount ,not sure which camlock spindle the lathe has, I went to the company website and looked it up-

https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-12-x-36-gear-head-cam-lock-spindle-lathe/g4003

Description says D1-5, but that's not right, D1-5 has six pins, this only has three, turns out it's a D1-4. The manual has the correct spec, but the webpage is wrong. Luckily I caught it before return shipping became an issue.

Second example: Nationally known distributor for pipe fittings, old company, but with new hard copy and web catalog. Pipe tees, malleable iron, threaded. They come in three configurations -straight meaning all three ports the same size, lateral reducing and main reducing. Catalog uses the same picture of a lateral reducing tee regardless of which type. So look at the description and order from that. Well....

3/4 x 3/4 x 3/4 is a straight 3/4 tee
3/4 x 1/2 x 3/4 is a reducing lateral
3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 is a reducing main

But that isn't immediately obvious to the average warehouse stock clerk and the pictures all look the same, so order 80 each 3/4 x 1/2 x 3/4 and get 80 each 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 instead. Then spend a half hour on hold trying to explain this to inside sales. The factor that exacerbated that experience, is that the older staff that knew all of this and had it right previously, have either retired , or quit and went to work for another company.

[JRouche]

Well....

3/4 x 3/4 x 3/4 is a straight 3/4 tee
3/4 x 1/2 x 3/4 is a reducing lateral
3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 is a reducing main

But that isn't immediately obvious to the average warehouse stock clerk and the pictures all look the same, so order 80 each 3/4 x 1/2 x 3/4 and get 80 each 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 instead. Then spend a half hour on hold trying to explain this to inside sales. The factor that exacerbated that experience, is that the older staff that knew all of this and had it right previously, have either retired , or quit and went to work for another company.

I have seen some similar issues. For the first it is usually a "lost in translation" issue. For the second it is a cost savings issue. If it doesnt have an individual part number there is a high likely-hood the stock picker will just grab and go. Again, a money issue. JR

[Joel]

I have noticed a pervasive and increasing mediocrity nearly everywhere in the last several years.
Mediocrity is the nicer way to look at it, incompetence is perhaps just as frequently accurate.
Competence of those with supposed 'expertise' I find lacking on a constant basis. Quality control (Import or made in US) is hit or miss, as is frequently, quality in general.
Almost every piece of software has many bugs, nearly every app - and I run into them all the time in Windows. I assume the prevailing attitude is 'well, it will be replaced shortly anyway, so why bother making it good or actually work correctly'.

Even books now fail to escape this phenomenon. E-books are riddled with typos, grammatical and format errors, and finally this has even filtered down to printed books (but to a much lesser degree, at least, but it still takes me by surprise). I get the impression that many people don't even notice.
Movies and TV shows - well, most I see now have scripts that have numerous logical errors, and frequently seem to be written by people with absolutely zero experience in the subject matter (and apparently don't bother to consult with those that actually do). Quality in many news sources is poor, and documentaries are often terribly researched and inaccurately presented. And on and on it goes.
This all appears to be getting worse and filtering down to most everything. There are ways to deal with most of this, of course, but the inexperienced among the populous seem to have not been prepared with the tools necessary, or even the knowledge to know better. I get that things have gotten more 'complex' and that most are just tiny teeth in one of the very many gears of the overall machine (a dangerous thing in itself). But one can only get away with half-assing for so long...
This cannot fare well for our long-term success, nor for our very existence.

[eKretz]

Number of pins doesn't really tell you much. I've seen plenty of D1-6 with 3 pins. Better to go by the diameter of the pins. It's different for each size. D1-6 is 7/8" for instance.

[oxford]

The real question is: If places paid knowledgeable people an honest wage to support their family and make a living so these things didn’t happen, would you want to pay the price of what those items would then cost?

[RancherBill]

Companies view creating a catalog as an expense.

A correct accurate description is an investment as it will be used for years or decades - it's worth the effort IMHO.

[PStechPaul]

Mediocrity in schools is rewarded, and I think many teachers no longer value (or even know) correct spelling and grammar. I have captions turned on for my TV, and they are usually riddled with mistakes, many of which indicate gross ignorance, incompetence, and apathy. Automatic spell and grammar checkers often clean up printed text, but many times seem to omit titles. I noticed that Planet Fitness has a sign that says, "Judgement Free Zone", which should be "judgment", but I see that the misspelled word now passes my spell checker. And one could argue that mentioning the misspelling is a form of judgment, and thus does not apply.

I often find errors in parameters for electronic parts on websites like Mouser and DigiKey, and sometimes I report the errors, but I don't know if they get fixed.

I happen to be a pretty good proofreader, and often will spot a few errors in books. But lately I find myself relying a bit more on the spell checker, or using internet search and on-line dictionaries to check spelling or meaning.

[Paul Alciatore]

Having worked in the TV production business I can tell you that the closed captions are looked upon as just one more expense in getting a production ready to air. I am at least ten years behind the times, but can tell you that the first text for a program or commercial is either from the original script or from an audio to text transcription. Only after that does a human actually look at it. And usually with limited time to do so. Many times that human check is completely overlooked.

Even with a commercial, where you would think that the advertiser or the ad agency which is paying for it and therefore would be interested in the accuracy, the closed caption is only rarely checked by a human.

AI? Like heck it works.

Mediocrity in schools is rewarded, and I think many teachers no longer value (or even know) correct spelling and grammar. I have captions turned on for my TV, and they are usually riddled with mistakes, many of which indicate gross ignorance, incompetence, and apathy. Automatic spell and grammar checkers often clean up printed text, but many times seem to omit titles. I noticed that Planet Fitness has a sign that says, "Judgement Free Zone", which should be "judgment", but I see that the misspelled word now passes my spell checker. And one could argue that mentioning the misspelling is a form of judgment, and thus does not apply.

I often find errors in parameters for electronic parts on websites like Mouser and DigiKey, and sometimes I report the errors, but I don't know if they get fixed.

I happen to be a pretty good proofreader, and often will spot a few errors in books. But lately I find myself relying a bit more on the spell checker, or using internet search and on-line dictionaries to check spelling or meaning.

[wierdscience]

Companies view creating a catalog as an expense.

A correct accurate description is an investment as it will be used for years or decades - it's worth the effort IMHO.

That's the strange part, there was nothing wrong with the old catalog, the information in there was correct as were the item pictures. For some reason, they decided to change reams of part numbers and rework the whole thing for a couple of product lines they added. It had to have cost quite a bit to do all of that, especially failing so miserably.

[wierdscience]

This all appears to be getting worse and filtering down to most everything. There are ways to deal with most of this, of course, but the inexperienced among the populous seem to have not been prepared with the tools necessary, or even the knowledge to know better. I get that things have gotten more 'complex' and that most are just tiny teeth in one of the very many gears of the overall machine (a dangerous thing in itself). But one can only get away with half-assing for so long...
This cannot fare well for our long-term success, nor for our very existence.

And we will wait until critical infrastructure starts failing before we maybe wise up and do something about it. In the trades, practically everybody I know that's a good experienced hand is 50+ years old and the supply of younger people willing to try and learn isn't large enough to replace them.

[RancherBill]

I noticed that Planet Fitness has a sign that says, "Judgement Free Zone", which should be "judgment", but I see that the misspelled word now passes my spell checker. And one could argue that mentioning the misspelling is a form of judgment, and thus does not apply.

https://www.thesaurus.com/e/grammar/judgement-vs-judgment/

Both are wright. hahaha

[The Metal Butcher]

You're dead right. This is why McM is probably doing such good business right now. Descriptions and photos are rarely ever wrong. Don't trust it? Check the 3d model.

Others need to pull their head out of their ass and get the descriptions right. Drives me nuts at work how often they are wrong, nonsense, lacking, or different from their peers baffling the filters.

[JRouche]

The real question is: If places paid knowledgeable people an honest wage to support their family and make a living so these things didn’t happen, would you want to pay the price of what those items would then cost?

I am going to assume you mean the under educated? That would be a person lke me. 9th grade, first month they asked me to leave.. Oh well, no college or high school for me. Time to go to work,,,, JR