Life Email Faux Pas: Describe Your Worst [Archive]

Donger

11-25-2014, 05:39 PM

I just mistakenly replied to an email where I described one of the techs of a customer as a "mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging imbecile." Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my assistant had included said customer in the email chain for some reason...

You?

The Franchise

11-25-2014, 05:45 PM

Always hit reply and not reply all.

DaFace

11-25-2014, 05:55 PM

I occasionally am not careful enough with auto-completing of email recipients and end up sending a message to someone else with the same first name. Thankfully, it doesn't happen that often, and it's never been anything especially confidential.

Marcellus

11-25-2014, 05:57 PM

About 7 years ago at 4:00pm on a Friday I emailed a list of staffing cuts to an email distribution list that goes to about 30% of our employees when I meant to send it to our HR manager.

I spent the next hour and half logging into all the email accounts on that list with our IT guy and deleting the email.

Amnorix

11-25-2014, 05:57 PM

Never had anything too disastrous personally, but I could tell stories about others...

In my profession, it's ridiculously bad to copy the wrong people, and yet we send zillions of emails all the time, and reply all is basically a must most of the time.

BigCatDaddy

11-25-2014, 06:03 PM

I once thought I was sending an email to my buddy in the cubicle next to me and hit reply. It was in regards to this dork at work and this fat chick that was always hitting on him. I think I said something in regards to "Her sitting on his face until he turned blue". Turns out I hit reply to an email my supervisor had sent out and sent that comment back to her. Luckily she was my girlfriend's (at the time)and future wife's best friend so she just laughed it off.

Buzz

11-25-2014, 07:40 PM

Had a sales person forward an email reply to a customer where I had done about 18 quotes on his project that basically said " Good God, isn't this a job yet, shit or get off the pot." Needless to say, we didn't get the job.

bishop_74

11-25-2014, 07:52 PM

Wrote a co worker who's name is Anil. Received a response from him promptly after what appeas to be an auto correct mishap with the following "... and it's NOT Anal!"

Joe Seahawk

11-25-2014, 07:59 PM

I've finished off an email with

Best Retards

......

Buzz

11-25-2014, 08:02 PM

I've finished off an email with

Best Retards

......

LMAO

I might use that.

Katipan

11-25-2014, 08:18 PM

I have a coveted email address. I get all sorts of personal correspondence meant for chicks with my name. I have seen family photos, pay stubs, travel itineraries, and one letter from a very angry coach. I used to send sarcastic replies to the most personal of emails, until a polite English lady expressed her deep sympathy that I would have so popular a name.

I felt like an asshole. Not so easy for me to do. ;)

MMXcalibur

11-25-2014, 08:21 PM

I was getting some of our squadron together to do some fund-raising by organizing shifts at a Burger Burn. Thus, I went to send an email to my 150-man squadron.

I titled the email "Burger Burn Shifts".

....except I left out the most important letter in the word "shifts".
I received about 60 replies and 8 phone calls in the span of 45 seconds.

NewChief

11-25-2014, 08:22 PM

We had a couple who were our best friends for years. We went on vacation together. We raised our kids together. Basically were joined at the hip (almost unhealthily so). My wife and the other wife got into a little dispute about some bullshit. Evidently she sent an email to her husband about it. He then sends an email back to her, and somehow my wife as well (these two people were always ****ing up their texts and emails like this) where he just unloads on my wife venting about what a bitch she is and how he can't stand her and such. These people were supposedly our best friends. Needless to say, we aren't real close anymore.

displacedinMN

11-25-2014, 08:29 PM

I am union rep for our building.

There was an email list set up for members. But when we converted over to gmail, the secretary and principals were on the list too. I did not know this.

I was sending emails, union stuff. Then there was a discussion, I had a personal commentary--not mean or ugly--just my thoughts.

The principal got it. He emailed me and said that he had received union emails. OOPS. He did not say anything.

I thought there was a mole-someone running to him ratting us out. It was unknowingly me.

I set up a new list, owned by me.

rockymtnchief

11-25-2014, 09:13 PM

When I first started with the company, I thought the customer service rep was the only one who saw my completed service order e-mails. We had joked a lot and had beers from time to time. She's just a great gal.

Anyway, I had a service order at an assholes business one day and heard nothing but bitching for a half hour. When I filled out the comments section on the service order and e-mailed it to my CSR I wrote, "This guy is the most retched cock-sucker I've ever met. If he needs assistance again, give me 24 hours notice so I can call in sick and let somebody else babysit this prick".

Within 5 minutes, I got replies from 7 supervisors and foremen. I didn't get in trouble, but they all gave me the same basic message: Many people receive your completed work orders. Be careful what you put in the comments.

Saulbadguy

11-25-2014, 09:24 PM

Sent a virus or two.

scho63

11-25-2014, 09:54 PM

I went and wrote a complete castigation and blast against one of my clients to send to several of my colleagues. When selecting the list of recipients from Outlook, one of my colleague's email address was very close to the client I was teeing off on and of course I selected the wrong email address and it went to the client along with my colleagues.

We never spoke of this or was I ever asked what happened but I quickly transferred this important account to another rep. They saved the day. :spock:

Fish

11-25-2014, 10:17 PM

Iowanian

11-25-2014, 10:23 PM

This year I recieved an email from a contracting company providing service for a public entity with which I was doing business. It was a forward of my request, that contained their inter office banter about my request, and showed that they made me wait an additional week just to be pricks, and referred to me as an asshole. My interactions were included and were all professional. The bad news is that I knew the president of that company well enough we've been to ball games together. We use it as a training example to NOT find outselves in Donger's position.

My worst personal faux paux?
Before Brideowanian and I had met I had another lady friend. She was being a pain in the ass and I was pretty much done. She had emailed bitching about something. I was emailing my buddy about weekend plans, telling him that the current lady was being a pain in the ass and was on her way out, and that I was getting sweet on a new chic.

Well......Either I accidently replied TO the GF or she had hacked my email to stalk me.

So in short, I emailed a girlfriend telling her she was a dickhead and about to get dumped for a hotter chic who was not a dickhead.

vailpass

11-25-2014, 10:56 PM

Dude that is all sorts of illegal......

Corporate email recall is illegal? Honest question.

MeaTy The Pimp

11-26-2014, 07:41 AM

Corporate email recall is illegal? Honest question.

All of the companies that I have worked for covered that in the policy handbook by stating something along the lines of 'All company/corporate email accounts and the emails associated with said accounts, are owned by the company'.

It sucks that he had to spend an hour with the IT guy logging in and whacking that one email in multiple accounts as opposed to killing the message at the server level...

Simply Red

11-26-2014, 09:38 AM

I've offered 'Shitting today' versus 'Shipping today' via instant messenger.

phisherman

11-26-2014, 09:51 AM

Corporate email recall is illegal? Honest question.

Not that I know of. I have had leadership request that an e-mail sent out by an executive be deleted from all mailboxes before. It's pretty easy through Powershell. Now if someone has already opened the mail and moved it to a PST? That's a little bit tougher.

Simply Red

11-26-2014, 10:03 AM

doesn't matter - standard Outlook 'recall this message' never works. I've not once seen it successfully pull back an email submission.

InChiefsHeaven

11-26-2014, 10:12 AM

I hit reply all once by mistake and had made a small joke at the expense of one of our vendors...who was included in the email. I was able to smooth it over, because he didn't get the inside joke I had said, but that sucked once I hit send...I was like..."Oh shit...oh SHIT!!!"

InChiefsHeaven

11-26-2014, 10:18 AM

Dude that is all sorts of illegal......

How you figure? Email is owned by the company...far as I know, if they want to see my email they can.

digger

11-26-2014, 10:42 AM

Corporate email recall is illegal?
It's not.

Simply Red

11-26-2014, 11:04 AM

what about crank?

BigCatDaddy

11-26-2014, 11:13 AM

what about crank?.

Rain Man

11-26-2014, 01:50 PM

doesn't matter - standard Outlook 'recall this message' never works. I've not once seen it successfully pull back an email submission.

I think it works on an internal server, but not anything external. I know that I've recalled one or two e-mails inside my company without a problem, but the one time I tried on an external e-mail it was a nightmare. For about a month I would get 25 or 30 messages a day from the system that it was "trying to recall". I got hundreds of those notifications and couldn't get it to stop. Finally it stopped on its own for reasons I don't understand.

Simply Red

11-26-2014, 01:53 PM

I think it works on an internal server, but not anything external. I know that I've recalled one or two e-mails inside my company without a problem, but the one time I tried on an external e-mail it was a nightmare. For about a month I would get 25 or 30 messages a day from the system that it was "trying to recall". I got hundreds of those notifications and couldn't get it to stop. Finally it stopped on its own for reasons I don't understand.

yeah that makes sense.

Rain Man

11-26-2014, 02:00 PM

I haven't done anything fatal. I've only had one e-mail that was embarrassing. I meant to e-mail my team, but accidentally sent it to the subcontractor we were working with. It went something like...

"Let's be sure not to tell [the subcontractor] that our client is [client name]. We don't know them very well and I want to be sure that they don't try to steal the client."

I was embarrassed, but since I was writing them checks and not the other way around, they didn't squawk much. And I don't think they tried to steal the client that I named for them.

bobbymitch

11-26-2014, 03:19 PM

I never sent one, but felt the brunt when one was sent. But as it turned out it was a very good thing it happened.

I was a safety guy for a large commercial insurance company and our reports, although done electronically, were sent via snail mail to the insured. We got ours electronically. Part of our reports contained a Company Use Only section where we could we could be give our personal thoughts about a client. Since even these sections could be used in court, we were all real careful on what was said. Anything out of bounds would be relayed in person.

Anyway, unbeknownst to me a client manager was sending her copies of my reports to this client that I had just raked over the coals in the CUO portion of the report. The client's Executive VP called me and wanted to know what I meant in the report. It took took me a bit to figure out what she was ranting about and I laid it on the line on how there was no corporate safety culture and why their claims rate could never get any better. I went on to give specific examples of what I was talking about. That calmed her down and by god things changed to the extent that 14 months later they received one of top safety awards.

Buck

11-26-2014, 06:08 PM

I never have messed up with an email but one of my coworkers accidentally sent an email to me instead of the boss.

I had taken half her work off her earlier in then day and finished it in about two hours and then I emailed my boss and CC'd the coworker that I was done. She then sent an email to my boss saying I was cheating somehow because work couldn't be done that quickly. My boss replied to her, and then when she went to reply back, she sent it to me instead of the boss.

Since that day about 18 months ago, this coworker hasn't looked me in the eye once.

Marcellus

11-26-2014, 06:15 PM

Dude that is all sorts of illegal......

Nope, its all company email server. Nothing illegal about it, 100% company property.

Marcellus

11-26-2014, 06:17 PM

doesn't matter - standard Outlook 'recall this message' never works. I've not once seen it successfully pull back an email submission.

So fucking true.

The person gets an email after they read the first one saying the sender wishes to recall the one you already read.