E-Mail Tips
| We receive a lot of e-mail almost
every day and we respond to all of it as soon as possible. We enjoy doing this
but there are many ways you can help us serve you better. Most of the following
tips apply to e-mail in general, not just your e-mail to us. Here are some ways
to make your e-mail more efficient and easier for those of us on the other end
to respond to. You probably would be very surprised to know how many people
don't think of these things.
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1. What is your name?
We try to respond in a
courteous and personal manner. Please "sign" your e-mail with at least
your first name. This is just simply "netiquette" and has nothing
whatsoever to do with Internet security. It is much more pleasant to feel like
we are responding to a message from you than to feel like we are
responding to your computer.
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2. Where are you?
If you are asking for a quote on
a restoration or a shipping quote then please tell us, at least generally, where
you are. At this point we probably won't need your exact postal address but to
answer your questions we need to know what city you are in (or near) and your
state and/or country.
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3. "Quoting" messages:
When we respond to your e-mail we
use the "Reply" function in our e-mail. Your original message
will then appear at the bottom of our response and each line of it will begin with
the > symbol, or a vertical bar will appear to the left of your original
message. This is called "quoting" your original message. When you
receive a response from us and you want to reply then please
"quote" our original message by using your "Reply" function or
button (if your software doesn't do this already then set it so that it will
"include message in reply". For instructions for setting up e-mail software, go to E-mail Setup). You can usually tell if this is happening by
looking at the bottom of your e-mail dialogue box that opens up when you press
the "Reply" button (some older e-mail software may put the quote
at the top of the message). Your original message should appear at the
bottom and each line should start with the > or some other symbol or a vertical
bar to the left of your message. This saves our having to find your original
message to us and opening it up. This in turn, saves an enormous amount of time
for us (please remember that this is a free service!) and you will benefit by not having to type in our e-mail address, the
"Reply" function should insert it automatically. We continually ask
that this be done but many people ignore our requests. If this
continues..........
Example:
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Now we don't have to search for Michelle's
original e-mail to know what type of trunk she has. (Note how an extra > or
vertical bar is added to each subsequent reply.)
4. Please put something
in the subject line.
I'm not composing all
of this just to express my pet peeves, there are reasons for these tips. We,
like most businesses archive our email periodically. The amount of email usually
demands this. Presently we are archiving our email at least once a week onto
CD-ROM. When we do this the subject line ends up being the file name for each
email. If we must go back into this archive (usually because tip #3 was not
honored) then the file names can be very useful. For example you have a trunk made by Acme Trunks then make your
subject line Acme Trunks.
In my opinion, the
Internet/World Wide Web is the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel.
I'm not the first to make that statement nor am I exaggerating. Email is the
next best thing. We can improve this wonderful facility by learning and abiding
by some simple rules and thereby making reading and handling of your email much
more pleasant for the person on the receiving end. By the way
(or BTW), I've taken the
liberty of spelling email the way I do because it's much easier than typing
e-mail which I think is accepted by most authorities to be correct.
Finally, and very
important: we consider your email to/from us private and confidential so you
don't have to worry about your address being sold or abused in any way.
Read our Privacy Statement for
more information on that.
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