Maybe Katrina should have listened to every mother’s advice. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Maybe then she’d still have a job and her ex-employer wouldn’t be receiving abusive emails from around the globe.
This amazing story from News.com.au explains the trouble caused when a very tacky email was sent from New Zealand’s Great Marquee Company to a client who chose not to use their services.
After cancelling the hire of a marquee for his upcoming wedding, Steve Hausman got the following email. “Hi Steve, Thanks for your reply. Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway, so we only ever considered you time wasters. Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not.
“Why don’t you stay within your class level and buy something from payless plastics instead.
Kindest Regards, Katrina.”
Ouch!
Steve sent a copy of the email to his fiance who forwarded it to friends. From there it rocketed around the world causing the Great Marquee Company a great big headache.
So who is Katrina? She is the now unemployed wife of the owner of the company. Imagine having to sack your own wife.
Replacing the usually classy front page of their website is a statement regarding the incident. It says in part, “We would like to advise that we regret the exchange. We have apologised to the customer concerned and this staff member’s contract has been terminated and processes has been put in place to ensure it won’t happen again.
“We most certainly do not condone rudeness on the part of any of our staff or endorse the views in this particular response.”
It’s another reminder to be so very careful what you put in an email. Email is such a fast method of communication, making it easy to send something inappropriate before you’ve had the chance to think through the possible consequences.
Have you ever been caught out by what you’ve put in an email? Has anyone ever misunderstood the tone of an email that you sent? Have you ever received an email that the sender has later regretted?
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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Never been misunderstood in an email……nope, not me! (I’m lying here 🙂 ) Hello Rodney! I heard your intro, and I have to say, you actually sound exactly how you sound to me in my mind reading you! Just dropping by to say hello from a fellow BF’er!
Sounds like perfect fodder for whofailedtoday.com. 🙂