You send an email politely asking for something and the reply politely informs you to send your request to someone else.
From: B
To: A
Dear A,
could you please do this?
Thanks,
B
From: A
To: B
Dear B,
sorry, I am unable to comply with your request.
Please kindly contact C, who will be able to
assist you instead.
Thanks for your understanding,
A
From: A
To: C
Reply-To: B
CC: B
Dear C,
I am forwarding you B's request,
which I know you can take care of.
Thanks,
A
PS.
Dear B,
in the future, please contact directly
C to deal with such matters.
Thanks,
A
--- Begin Forwarded Message --
From: B
To: A
Dear A,
could you please do this?
Thanks,
B
The email you put off responding to since you want to give it your full attention - and thus never answer, giving the sender the impression you don't care, when in fact it's the most important thing in your inbox.
Prepending your email subject with "Re:" to make your message appear as if it was a reply
Whatever you send by email, unencrypted, is available for the rest of the Internet to read.
From: A
To: C
On behalf of B:
----
Dear C...
From: B
To: A
Dear A,
could you please send the message below to C?
----
Dear C...
From: C
To: A
Dear B...
From: C
To: A
Dear A,
could you please send my reply to B?
----
Dear B...
How to make it difficult for everyone that receives your email to answer you directly by replying to the email?
If you are wondering why nobody is answering to your emails, try to send them on behalf of yourself
When you send 1 email to 2 (or N) people, nobody feels in charge and you get 0 answers.
From: M
To: A, Z
Dear A and Z...
(Followed by no reply)
When someone forwards me an email that I was already cc'd on.
Please kindly submit your application by email
Please confirm your participation by email
Exploit email to exchange at any time whatever information is not explicitly foreseen by the process you are supposed to follow
Just send an email
An empty email with an attachment containing the actual message
Email used for asking a person to read or write data into files, databases, or information systems
Attempt to write a document with multiple authors exchanging drafts over email
Can someone please send me the latest version?
I could not care less about spelling your name right...
Even if you don't re-read your emails, please spell check the name of the recipient
Copy it from their email signature if it is difficult to spell
Lightning replies reach your inbox while your email client is still working on sending out the original message
Ok
Yes
No
Thanks
Come and see me right now
Cool: I will reply later
Please kindly return your complete report within a month
(Two hours later)
Please find attached the complete report as requested
(One Month later)
Your report is now overdue. Please send it as soon as possible, as your delay is severely impacting our productivity.
Please find attached the complete report as requested
Fwd: Please find attached the complete report as requested
Please check your inbox, I did actually already send you the completed report sometime ago
Broadcasting reminders via email addressed to an entire organization five minutes before the event can be a symptom of desperation.
Why if you ask two questions in an email, only one will be answered?
Replying to all recipients with the intention of privately replying to the original sender only
Click one:
When in doubt, only write to the original sender.
Are you sure you want to write to potentially hundreds of other people?
To: all
Subject: Salary reduction
Dear all,
due to the current economic situation we must reduce everyone’s salaries and will begin enacting our early retirement program.
Sincerely,
Your CEO.
To: all
Subject: Re: Salary reduction
Dear finance department members,
you will get your bonuses as planned, and do not worry: the retirement program that has been just announced will not affect our department.
Sincerely,
Your CFO.
To: all
Subject: Re: Salary reduction
Dear IT department members,
we have decided to outsource the finance department, and do not worry: you are getting their bonuses.
Sincerely,
Your CTO.
P.S. Oops, did I just send that to all?
Asking the Internet to please disregard your last email
To: all
Subject: Recall: Salary Reduction
Dear all,
please ignore my previous message.
Your ex-CFO.
--
Dear finance department members,
you will get your bonuses as planned, and do not worry: the retirement program that has been just announced will not affect our department.
Sincerely,
Your CFO.
For more information visit my homepage!
(Nothing happens when you click on ‘homepage’)
You can find more information about the detailed
product specification on our company website.
The forms should be completed, signed and returned to us. They can be downloaded from our website, look under the registration pages.
Select one option out of the list which you can find linked above.
It’s on the wiki. You received a link to access the wiki in the email I sent you when you joined our project team.
Thanks for reporting the bug, please go to our support page, I am sure you will find the fix ready for download there
You find the documentation attached to the mail I already sent you the other day.
Dear all,
effective immediately...
Dear all, as you may have noticed today you are receiving some SPAM messages. You are kindly asked to not respond to them. Our office is working hard to stop them and prevent their spread. In case you already answered to those email, we kindly ask you to immediately change your account password. Sincerely, IT Services
Cesare Pautasso, Just send an email: Anti-patterns for email-centric organizations, Leanpub, 2015-2017