>I don't wish to sound rude

not only was it rude, but the word was carefully chosen to give him the benefit of the doubt; i.e., that he has purposely combined or fused the two -- but he was probably just confused.

1. To bring together; meld or fuse: “They ingeniously conflated other characters and incidents to provide an opéra-comique setting” (Andrew Porter). 2. To combine (two variant texts, for example) into one whole. AHD