Are you courteous and a respectful communicator?

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I have a scenario and I want to see people's opinions.
I get emails and pms quite often asking me to quote on jobs or just general info.
I reply to every pm and email I receive (except for spam of course.)
However, I often face no reply at all. No thank you or no thanks but we decided to go elsewhere. Not even an acknowledgement of my reply.

Is it only me but do others think the same as I do. If you reply to somebody with a quote or answer their question, they should at least have the common courtesy to reply, even if it's just to say thank you but no thank you.

Some people even lead me on and say they do have work and will get back to me "tomorrow" or whenever they say but I never hear from them again.

Is it me or is this behaviour and lack of communication discourteous?

I look forward to replies (I hope) with great interest.

P.S. Please don't be a "smarty" and not reply just because I asked people to do so.
#communcation #courtesy #people #quotes #reply
  • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
    Thanks for the reminder, sometimes I'm not sure if a support helpline expects an answer when they respond to query, for information. Reason being it may take up more of their time to read a redundant email.

    Knowing that they appreciate a reply, I'll now make sure I thank them, in future.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    Thanks for the reply Madison but I obviously did not make myself clear in the email. I am not talking about a support line. I am taking about me working as a writer and proofreader and giving quotes and people not even bothering to reply.

    But thank you for your reply anyway. It shows that somebody reads the threads.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by laurencewins View Post

    Is it me or is this behaviour and lack of communication discourteous?
    It is, but it's very common, I think.

    You're in the same situation, on this front, that I used to be when I was writing for people: you get a lot of people who (for various reasons, known to many of the better writers here and not worth enumerating all over again) want a price for a job that typically involves writing "articles".

    What's actually happening is that their concept of "an article" is fundamentally different from yours: often, they're thinking of what you and I would call a "chunk of keyword-rich text to which a backlink can be attached", because in their perception, article marketing is "part of SEO"!

    When you send them for a quotation for something that actually is "an article", they don't and can't understand why your quotation is 5 or 10 times as much as others they've seen. Not realizing that they're not actually comparing like with like in any realistic sense, they just dismiss it out of hand and don't even bother to acknowledge it.

    It's still impolite, of course, but I think that's a big part of the underlying "reason".
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      I don't see it as impolite. The person asks a question (for a quote) - and you answer with a price.

      The ball is then in their court and there's only need to communicate if they have further questions or want you to do the work. If you don't hear back from them - the message is clear. I think that is common practice.

      kay
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  • Profile picture of the author Lucian Lada
    I think that online it's a bit different, because a person has to actually press some keys and do some work, even if it takes just a minute. That's perceived as "work", whereas in real life scenarios this happens almost automatically, as it's easier to spit out a few words than to type them down and press the send button. It's more natural to talk and takes less time to say something than to type it down.

    Also, there's no social pressure of answering in the online medium, because you won't get weird looks if you don't answer as you'd get if you'd just walk out of a store after getting a price quote, for example.

    Bottom line: I wouldn't call it impolite when someone doesn't reply back to your first response, but if you have a conversation going about price, terms and so on, and the other part just stops getting back to you after he gets all the details he wants, leaving you in the air, then that's definitely rude and impolite.
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    • Profile picture of the author fin
      The last thing I would ever want is someone filling up my inbox with useless guff. I would rather save myself 2 seconds than care what people think.

      It's a fast moving world lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    I guess maybe everyone does think differently then. It is good to hear other people's opinions. I personally prefer to reply because that is the way I would prefer people to behave towards me but if some of you think that it isn't always necessary then I guess I have to live with it.
    It is interesting to hear the various arguments for and against though. Makes me realise that values are today very different to what they used to be.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Burritt
    Banned
    EVERYBODY SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!

    Oh, sorry about that sir, didn't know you were listening. It's just these damn kids. If I were the principal and not just a teacher, I'd make some new rules around here
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    I have worked in the theatre and film industry....although much more in the BUT I am not talking about those industries.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Ten
    I don't think that it is a big deal, but yeah, it is not the most professional thing to do, to say that you will call and not do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    It's not that sending an email is even difficult. Hit reply, type a few words and hit "send." Maybe it is laziness or apathy?
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    Maybe it is just me being frustrated and thinking everyone should do what I do but should realise that they don't
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author Jacqueline Smith
    I agree with Alexa.......if your quote isn't what they are looking for, they just ignore it.

    However, my personal favorite is when I get a response like this:

    "WHAT? Why would I pay you $XXX for an article when I can get one for $2?"

    At one point I actually made the effort to respond to these types of emails........now I just ignore them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Jacqueline Smith View Post

      I agree with Alexa.......if your quote isn't what they are looking for, they just ignore it.

      However, my personal favorite is when I get a response like this:

      "WHAT? Why would I pay you for an article when I can get one for $2?"

      At one point I actually made the effort to respond to these types of emails........now I just ignore them.
      I agree with you there. I often got as far as writing or half-writing a reply before realising that there was absolutely no point in sending it. And originally I even used to send some. My burning desire to try to re-educate people isn't always an altogether healthy or productive one. :rolleyes:
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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    Yes, I used to reply to those too but now I don't waste my time. If they want to pay peanuts they get monkeys lol

    I have had people ask me to proofread articles other people have written and eventually they got wise that they should sack their writer and just get me to do it as it was quicker and cheaper overall.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    I guess we can't expect people to behave the way we want them to.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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  • Profile picture of the author laurencewins
    I don't worry if people can't call. I am in Australia and many of my clients are interstate or overseas. I am happy to talk via Skype if necessary but email is fine for most things for me.
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    Cheers, Laurence.
    Writer/Editor/Proofreader.

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