When marketers don't understand what they are marketing

[Tor]

We get situations like this. In this case, that is a Maple Burl back. Birdseye Maple is something quite different altogether. To be fair, the marketers in this case are not expected to be especially familiar with the names of wood figures.

Don't count on getting to see the error for long; I wrote them with what should be more than sufficient documentation of their error. Then again, perhaps getting it changed is like classic dealings with bureaucracy: something akin to pushing a string uphill.

[denimini]

They probably didn't know or did and think that birdseye sounds better. I suspect that you will be written off as a pedant. Often a word gets used inappropriately so often that it's meaning eventually gets changed.

[partlyscot]

Good marketing people are rare, I think. Most of them are the bane of my existence in one form or another.

[Tor]

I suppose they could ignore it, for one reason or another. Not really a brilliant idea IMO. I'm not entirely sure how well defined the words are legally, but I wouldn't be surprised if an unwary purchaser who finds out months later would be able to demand a refund outside of the return policy and successfully back that up in court if desired.

Words may change meanings, but I don't see two words to describe visually and botanically distinct phenomena merging to both be described by one of the words, marketroids' wishes or not. At least not while both words remain in constant use among those who understand the difference and would not care to receive one after ordering the other.