To whom it may concern: I contacted you politely; please respond | Opinion
As a newly minted octogenarian, I give you permission to call me a dinosaur or an old fogy. I’m grieving the loss and erosion of some heretofore matters of social etiquette, primarily in communications.
Rule 1 requires the recipient of a letter — that’s a piece of actual paper on which one writes or types, inserted into an addressed envelope — to either respond or at the least, acknowledge the receipt.
Five months ago I wrote to the commissioner of baseball in New York. I suggested that he’s in a position to communicate with franchise owners to direct public address announcers at games to follow a federal statute signed in October 2008 allowing veterans and active duty persons in civilian clothes to keep their hats on and render the salute during the national anthem. I see this as a professional courtesy to our veterans in this era when we’ve (finally!) become veteran-conscious. (Me, Air Force.)
I never received either a response or even an acknowledgment of receipt. I just sent a follow-up letter (by certified mail) pointing out to the commissioner this discourtesy and allowing that his failure renders my topic trite and not worthy of his attention.
I don’t care who you are, I never came across an exception to Rule 1. If you have, please let me know.
Rule 2 requires that the recipient of a letter respond in the same manner, that is, by letter. It seems that the present generation believes that email is the same as a letter, that actual piece of paper thing.
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Last spring, I wrote to an on-air radio announcer at the NPR affiliate in Gainesville about his mispronunciation of the word “a” and misuse of “the.” He was a recent graduate of the University of Florida in broadcast journalism. I was scandalized that he did not learn about “a” and “the” in his courses or a practicum. (FYI, the word “a” is always pronounced “uh,” not “ay.” “Thu” is used when the word following begins with a consonant and “thee” when the following word begins with a vowel. See YouTube for pronunciation specialists.)
The young man did respond, but by email. I guess that I should have been eternally grateful that I heard from him in any form.
Three times I have written to the NPR affiliate in Orlando about the same topic, twice to the on-air person and once to the station manager. You guessed it — deafening silence from their side. I had pledged a monthly membership amount to support the station, but when I was stonewalled, I called and canceled my membership support.
I like to use ghee in cooking, which is clarified butter, done by removing the milk fat from butter. Some companies jar it as a soft solid, others in liquid form.
I purchased a jar of the liquid variety. I noticed that there were tiny white balls throughout. I hesitated, but I used the jar, thinking that it could be a factory anomaly. When I purchased another jar, there were the same tiny white balls. No matter what I used, I could not break down those things.
Suspecting, but not knowing, that they were unbroken milk fat, I composed a letter to the company inquiring about them. I have never received a response.
I decided to vote with my wallet and purchased another company’s liquid ghee.
You don’t care about your customer, I don’t care about patronizing you.
Francis J. Clifford, a retired attorney, lives in Suntree.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Social etiquette: I contacted you politely; please respond | Opinion
