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iGary's Rant of The Day™

iGary

iGary

Guest
Original poster
May 26, 2004
19,580
7
Randy's House
You know what I hate?

People that take two weeks to answer their e-mails or never do.

I have sent three or four e-mails to one of my sisters who lives in Miami over the last month and nothing back.

I sent my nephew Alexander (Miami) an iTunes gift certificate for his 13th birthday and his mother said "well Gary didn't get Alex anything for his birthday" when she was visiting another sister's house (I have 18 nieces and nephews, so everyone is always asking what Uncle Gary got them, and my sister said "nothing.")

Well maybe if you checked and answered your fracking e-mail.

Then there are those who check their e-mail once a week. Once a week? I might as well mail the effing note.

Christ.
 
Man... that's rough. You can send me a gift and I'll even send you a thank you note. :D
 
Yeah I hear that. Everyone should have gmail notifier. (or the equivilant to whatever email they use)
 
Melkor said:
Yeah I hear that. Everyone should have gmail notifier. (or the equivilant to whatever email they use)
Click to expand...

I mean seriously, what is the point of e-mail if you check it like....never?
 
That is a perfectly legitimate gripe and, like many others, I have experienced similar unresponsiveness. The end result has been an end to the exchange of e-mail with casual online friends who put very little effort into such matters.
 
iGary said:
I mean seriously, what is the point of e-mail if you check it like....never?
Click to expand...

Especially since with the speed most people type these days it's not like it takes THAT much time and effort.
 
I still have some friends relatives who will send me an e-mail, and then immediately phone to say, "Hey, I just sent you an e-mail." And like Gary's sister, when I send them an e-mail I have to call those people up and ask them to download it -- otherwise weeks may go by before they see it.
 
iGary said:
I mean seriously, what is the point of e-mail if you check it like....never?
Click to expand...

Not everyone sits and sleeps at their computer. Hard to believe I know but there is a real world outside. :eek:
 
If I don't hear from anyone after I mail or email a gift, I call them. I wait about ten days or so. I don't expect a hand-written note, but some sort of acknowledgement would be nice. Call the nephew directly to see if he got it!
 
toothpaste said:
Not everyone sits and sleeps at their computer. Hard to believe I know but there is a real world outside. :eek:
Click to expand...

There's a difference between not living at your computer and not checking your email.

If you're going to give out your email address, you should have the decency to check it a couple of times a week. Would you leave your physical mailbox without checking it for that long?
 
iSaint said:
If I don't hear from anyone after I mail or email a gift, I call them. I wait about ten days or so. I don't expect a hand-written note, but some sort of acknowledgement would be nice. Call the nephew directly to see if he got it!
Click to expand...

Here here! People have just forgotten how to be respectful these days, I think. Sometimes you just have to take the initiative and remind them of what they are supposed to do. In my case, my aunt put her foot down one year when I was about 10 or so years old. She said she'd stop sending Christmas gifts every year if she didn't start getting thank yous from her nieces. I've written her, and anyone else I get a gift from, a thank you note of some form or other ever since. My husband thinks I'm silly to do it, especially when it's family and I've already given them a verbal thanks, but I don't care. Better to give too many thank yous and displays of appreciation than too few.

Now, with that said I've thought about it a little bit, and I have to say that there have been a couple of times I've gotten an email or gift from someone and I forgot to acknowledge it right away.... Those were times when the gift or email came in amidst a slew of other things and it got temporarily missed or forgotten. One of the times the person did have to do as you did and contact me about what she had sent, in which case I promptly let her know that I'd gotten it and thanked her (felt rather sheepish for having forgotten).

All in all, though, it doesn't take that much of a concerted effort to try and send an acknowledgement and thanks. We have our lives to live and jobs and things to do, but, while mistakes do happen and we may forget on rare occasions, I don't think we're ever really THAT busy (or at least we shouldn't be) to forget our friends and loved ones.
 
I'm horrible at replying to some e-mails. :eek:

I still haven't replied to an e-mail sent months ago from a cousin I haven't seen in years. As well as 3 subsequent e-mails from my step aunt sent within the last month (the latter two e-mails asking if I had received the first). I'm not sure if it's that I have nothing worthwhile to say or that I'm subconsciously avoiding them.
 
iGary said:
Then there are those who check their e-mail once a week. Once a week? I might as well mail the effing note.
Click to expand...
Yup. You got it in one.

A snail mail with a hand-signed Happy Birthday, Love, Uncle Gary" is appropriate for a gift. A package gift-wrapped is even better.

Not an email.

Sorry. <class="rant" keyword="sympathy" value="none">
 
CanadaRAM said:
Yup. You got it in one.

A snail mail with a hand-signed Happy Birthday, Love, Uncle Gary" is appropriate for a gift. A package gift-wrapped is even better.

Not an email.

Sorry. <class="rant" keyword="sympathy" value="none">
Click to expand...

I disagree. These social rules should be changed, the younger generation is using email as a primary means of communication. When the telephone was first introduced, I'm sure it was poor etiquette to call someone when it would have been more appropriate for face to face or mail. The times change and I think in this instance its for the better.
 
toothpaste said:
...there is a real world outside. :eek:
Click to expand...
But it's cold and harsh and the people are horrid. At least here I've got heating and am only ever a credit card and a hyper-link from virtually unlimited boobs.
 
Some of my friends have the same attitude towards email. either it takes at least two weeks for a reply or it will never happen. You don't have to reply right away but in two or three days would be nice.
 
yeah I can understand it both ways. when I am running on just map laptop I dont check my email every day (maybe be every few days). My desktop is checking it everyone 30 mins or so and it tells me when I get one in with a little icon. Yeah I may not know I gotten it until I sit down at my computer before I go to bed (or when I wake up in the morning). Really people should just have a pop3 for there email and have it handle everything. You get your emails about every 30mins or so. And it tells you when it gets one in and it does it all automaticly
 
njmac said:
I disagree. These social rules should be changed, the younger generation is using email as a primary means of communication. When the telephone was first introduced, I'm sure it was poor etiquette to call someone when it would have been more appropriate for face to face or mail. The times change and I think in this instance its for the better.
Click to expand...
Oh I agree for birthday cards -- not the "greetingcard-website-which-may-be-malware" ones, I trash those without opening -- but I do make personalized HTML birthday cards for my friends and send via email. The point is the communication and the personalization -- so I'm good with email for that.

But not email for me for gifts.
 
I have family members for whom email seems to be more like an appliance than a communication tool. My email is up 24/7. They, on the other hand, turn on their computer, check email, and turn the computer off again until the next time they get the urge to "do email," usually in a week or so.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Yup. You got it in one.

A snail mail with a hand-signed Happy Birthday, Love, Uncle Gary" is appropriate for a gift. A package gift-wrapped is even better.

Not an email.

Sorry. <class="rant" keyword="sympathy" value="none">
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand.

I have 35 birthdays of close family members a year. E-mail gift certificates they get. ;)
 
I know the feeling. I sent my dad an Amazon Gift Certificate once. After a day or two I had to call him up and make sure he checked his email (he hadn't). Personally I like the idea of being able to send email gifts. I don't see any difference between them and a card in the mail. Both are nice and both are apprecieated.
 
iGary said:
I have 35 birthdays of close family members a year. E-mail gift certificates they get. ;)
Click to expand...

Geez! 35 close family members??! :eek: :confused: And I'm assuming there's still time for that number to grow?? You must have one of those big Catholic or Mormon families.... I know about those. My grandma has 45 grandchildren and 19 kids (including spouses). Sheesh. I still don't know how she keeps them all straight. I have a hard enough time remembering all the cousins names and faces let alone send them birthday and Christmas cards/gifts every year.
 
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