How To Deal With Difficult Emailers

You’ve had it happen before. You apply for something, you meet all the criteria, and get a canned response saying you don’t actually meet the criteria. You send a reply, explaining and asking for more details, only to hear nothing.

Or, you email that PR contact with the perfect questions… only to hear nothing back at all. It’s their job to respond (even to say that they have no comment), but they just don’t.

You’re doing everything right, and they’re doing everything wrong. But, if all you hear is silence in return… what are you to do?

Welcome to my world friends. This is what I have to deal with on a daily basis at PhoneNews.com. Just check the daily news feed, and you only see the tip of the iceberg. What do I do about these painful people that don’t do their due diligence? Simple. I spam them.

In my IMAP folders, I have a special folder called Brute Force. When I get a canned response, or I even think that I won’t get a reply, the email goes there.

This is basically a watch folder. I give the emailer a reasonable time to reply, and I have a small queue of emails to monitor. When they don’t reply (say, within three business days), I hit the re-send button.

The squeeky wheel gets the oil, and in the case of email, it actually raises the recipient’s stress level until they reply. And, if they don’t… you’re building quite a case against the individual or company. It’s one thing to say they didn’t reply. It’s another thing to say they haven’t replied 10 times in a row over the course of a month.

Does it work? That depends on the recipient. Some it works wonders on, and others it just makes them more angry. But, what do you care? You’re in the right, and if they don’t respond… that’s their evil-doing in the first place.

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