Some Worrying Quotation Marks in Our Moving Estimate

March 26th, 2007

Filed under:
Mixed Bag, Words

Some Worrying Quotation Marks in Our Moving Estimate

Next month we’re moving, and so I’m obtaining some estimates from (hopefully) reputable movers. One guy was very professional, and wrote up a very thorough free estimate (including references!). There was one thing that concerned me:

Does this mean our couch, TV and PVR will be ’stored’ in his den?

This is a fairly common mistake in punctuation (and, I know, I shouldn’t throw stones from my glass house). How do people learn to make this error? They seem to be conflating emphasis markers like exclamation marks with quotation marks.

Tags: estimate, moving, punctuation, quotation, Vancouver

Comments: 10 Responses so far

Metro
March 26th, 2007
9:56 am

It may depend on the company–are you storing it with the movers?

One thing “storage” could mean is that they’re going to put your stuff into a small shipping container and keep it in the corner of the yard, possibly on a trailer.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the container’s watertight and they don’t lose it. But if you’re paying for controlled temperature or such things, then you may want to view the facilities where they say they’ll be storing your stuff.

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darren
March 26th, 2007
9:58 am

Yep, we’re storing it with the mover. In their dedicated storage facility, apparently.

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Julie
March 26th, 2007
11:47 am

I see this punctuation error in advertising quite frequently, and it always makes me chuckle.

The “best” Chinese food in town
Sign up now and receive one month “free”!
_company name_: the “intelligent” choice

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andrew
March 26th, 2007
12:46 pm

My buddy’s stuff got “stored” after their townhouse fire. Most of it went “missing” and the rest was pretty badly damaged.

- A

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Gene
March 26th, 2007
1:26 pm

On our last move back from Europe we found out that the best way to do it with all our “stuff” was to share a container with another party. We had our items in the back as we were the last destination to offload. There were no weight problems with the price divided up by cubic metre and customs was a breeze. It was the first moving that nothing went missing.

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Duncan
March 26th, 2007
2:02 pm

Do NOT use a company called Prince Moving.

They destroyed almost all of my electronics and refused to pay for any of the insurance.

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Andrea >> Become a Consultant Blog
March 26th, 2007
2:31 pm

They probably don’t have an official storage area and so they’re putting that word in quotes to give them some flexibility. Trailer, facility, dungeon,etc. If they move it to another storage locker and you complain, they’re covered.

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