Mike Allred knows what a difference a decimal can make.
Because of one misplaced decimal, Allred's West Jordan janitorial equipment company, The Cleaning Supplier, is listed mistakenly under Abortion Services in more than 300,000 copies of Utah's Regional Directory.The mistake occurred when a data enterer assigned The Cleaning Supplier the code for Abortion Services, 10.0, instead of the correct code for the White Pages, 1.00.
"Had it been 100 it would have been listed under Aerial Applicators," said Don Russell of Pacific Coast Publishing, the Tacoma, Wash. company responsible for the error.
However, a wrong listing under Aerial Applicators isn't as potentially damaging as being listed under Abortion Services.
"I've joked about people picketing me," said Allred, who has already received a half-dozen calls from women seeking abortions since the phone books were distributed Monday.
To make things worse, the company's name, The Cleaning Supplier, appears as an extremely insensitive name under an extremely sensitive listing.
Recognizing the touchiness of such a false listing, Pacific Coast agreed to refund Allred more than $700 for all of his paid listings. Allred, who had four or five correctly listed ads in the phonebook, plans to stay with the company.
In its 12-year existence, the publishing company has never made such a colossal mistake, according to Russell. Normally, such errors are caught in the company's rigorous editing process.
"It was an unfortunate error," Russell said. "We'll be definitely proofing those types of areas more thoroughly."
Meanwhile, until the book is replaced next year, Allred just hopes he can continue his business as usual without having to answer too many wrong numbers. "There's no way of measuring the effect after the first week of the year," he said. "I have no idea what the repercussions might be."