steven n fettig's Jitterin' Thoughts

One of my biggest irritants (caused by others, not me) are emails that are grammatic and etiquette nightmares. Just yesterday, I typed an email to a company asking if they could find a part that is not usually in their catalogue (they say "write if we don't have what you are looking for"). So I wrote the following email to the sales department:

And this is the response I received that sent the nerves on my neck off:

That was it. Not, Dear Steve, Thank you for inquiring, blah, blah, blah.. Simply, NO in all caps. That is one of the rudest replies I have ever received. I don't care if the person was swamped, I don't care if the person was irritated that I was asking for something they didn't have and couldn't get. I took the time to write an email, making a formal request, in a formal fashion. Their reply was nothing short of rude. I didn't need a long-winded reply. I wanted a reply that addressed me, my question and answered it. This is the type of junk that makes me hate email. People think that just because I cannot see who they are, that they can act like a 6 year old who doesn't know better.
I will not do business with this website in the future - of course, that is the only recourse I have. But, if the salesperson has responded to others who feel the same way I do about email etiquette, he has lost more than one customer. Think twice before you throw all letter etiquette out the window - you just may have an effect that will lose you business, create a false impression, etc. Email is no different than communicating via telephone, fax or formal letter. People are impressed or taken back by the way you conduct yourself.