[Sigia-l] Re: SIGIA-L: Most abusive user experience?

[Bonnie Becker Ramsey]

I have to disagree, from a personal standpoint, with Lee's contention that
an automated response telling someone that their e-mail message was
received and will be replied to in a certain amount of time meets the
criteria for "abusive."

Lee wrote:
"How would a customer feel, if every time they snail mailed a letter or a
complaint to a company, the company initially wrote back a form letter that
stated they're 'really going to answer my letter the right way, but in the
meantime here's another
piece of paper that just says we got your letter but no human being has
even looked at it." 

When I snail mail something I assume a number of days for the mail to reach
its destination, be opened, replied to and sent back on its way.  Once I
send the letter I know it will be a while until I hear something back.  

My "sense" of e-mail is more immediate and my expectation in the realm of
minutes to hours, rather than days to weeks.  For me, an auto-generated
message saying "we heard you" and "we'll be replying in about xx hours or
days" sets me up with a realistic expectation so that I can move on to
other things (or find another solution if the time indicated is too long).

Cheers,

Bonnie

---  Bonnie Becker Ramsey
---  RavynGrae Interactive
---  214 Church Lane
---  Pikesville, MD 21208
---  (phone) 443 854 8287
---  (fax) 410 484 8827
---  rginteractive at earthlink.net