I don't think it hurts to let the publisher know. One publisher sent me a cleaned up version of their book, saying the ebook store converted it and posted it without checking the conversion. They were very sorry and attached a clean copy to my email.
Sometimes it happens when the publisher/author takes a printed copy, scans it and runs OCR on it. (Optical Character Recognition). I think some publishers have gone the cheap route and have their older books scanned but then don't pay people to proof the file. Typos and artifacts (leftovers) of scanning get left in.
Other times it's because they've converted the file from one format to another, and some formats are harder to convert without mistakes than others. PDF files can have a lot of problems. So if the publisher had one electronic file, they've once again gone the cheap route and converted it without then paying anyone to check it for mistakes. I think they just post it ASAP.
And some authors new to ebooks don't realize they need to recheck each conversion, so you'll see this on indie books as well.
Weird things happen, and I believe it comes down to doing conversions too quickly and on the cheap. They should always have *someone* read a book and check a conversion before posting. Hopefully, they get enough complaints, someone down the line will learn it's better for your reputation to check the file than to post it blind. Better to do it right the first time.
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