Hey, Sid, how's this for kicker, I once got a rejection letter back, where I had sent out pages to be read, right. Well when I got it back, the pages wheren't even unfolded, and the Rejection letter was format, sitting on top, you could so tell they didn't read it, but who am I to judge?
Publishers often don't read any of the excerpts you send them, unless they're impressed by the Synopsis.
A poor cover letter will also result in them not even reading the first paragraph of your novel.
Once they have started reading the first chapter, if their attention hasn't been caught within the first few paragraphs, they'll reject it, not bothering to read the rest.
Also, not formatting correctly is a good way to get an auto-reject.
Then see what happens =X