Rants | Something Creative

Dec 02

Rant 002

O.K…. Time for rant number 2:

Why have we, as a society, accepted such low standards when it comes to writing an email? I understand that formal letter-writing went out the window when email became wide spread. We didn’t have to give up on grammar, spelling, and punctuation did we? Hell, we have even given up on writing complete sentences let alone a paragraph or two.

Allow me to give an example. Today I emailed a company inquiring about prices for their one of their services. This is the response I received (7 hours later):

hello keith .. thanks for your interest. we have multiple sizes / lease agreements which are available. we also lease different types of uses — personal / business. the difference would be according to the use (personal / business). the pricing is determined by the length of lease and for which use – business / personal.

thx

——-

I have preserved the original “formatting”. There was a signature but since it includes the company name, I’m leaving it out. It, however, did not have anyone’s name in the signature. I guess that is good for them since I don’t have anyone specific to be pissed at. Besides not answering my question, this message is a complete pile of crap. Not one capital letter. There is almost an ellipsis between my name and what I’ll call the introductory sentence. There are 4 slashes and one double hyphen which I guess you could make a case for an em dash, but that’s shaky. Then, the number 1 “pisser offer” is the texting or chat room style thx at the end.

Keep in mind I was a prospective customer inquiring about pricing. This response is not acceptable. I work in a customer service department and if I responded to a potential customer like this, I don’t think I’d have a job. Even with long term customers that I have known for years, I use complete sentences.

I was so pissed off after reading this reply I couldn’t even formulate a response for them. I simply gave up and went looking for a solution from someone else. I may send them a link to this post. Is that mean? Maybe, but I’ll feel better!!

Come on, people!! Would it kill you to take a minute out of your life to put together a complete damn sentence? Let me answer – NO! It wouldn’t.

End Rant

Tagged with: common sense • email • rant

Nov 19

Rant 0001

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O.K… time for something new here. My first rant – and certainly not my last…

“Leaked Black Friday Ads”

This crap started in early November. At first it was just a couple rumored big retailer leaked ads, but it has caught on to the point of seeing some new ad every day. Really? Do we need to know about your 4%-off-our-already-low-price-doorbuster-savings between 2:48:14 AM and 3:17:24 AM EST – 25 days before the “event”? Let me answer – No!

I know that dedicated Black Friday shoppers need time to plan their assault. I have no problem with that. But damn, people, some of the greatest plans the world has ever known have been pulled together in less than 3 weeks. I think you can figure out which stores you want to “visit” in the few days leading up to the event.

When it comes down to it, retailers of the world, if you are going to have your ads ready on November 1, and you want the world to see them, just freakin’ publish them. Don’t waste your money trying to generate hype for your crappy sale. It’s Black Friday. If you are open, you are going to sell your stuff. Save your money and my bandwidth.

I’ll admit, I’m not a Black Friday shopper. I can’t stand to be around that many stupid people. Even people who are normal 364.242 190 419 SI days (give or take the Earth’s precession) of the year become crazy and/or stupid for just that day. But, even if I were a Black Friday shopper, I would plan my attack in between naps on Thanksgiving afternoon.

I’m just sayin’