One of life’s little annoyances are the no-reply email addresses vendors like to use to send their communications. When you are writing to me to ell me about a change you’ve made or about a problem with my order I might want to know more. So why, oh why, do you send me an email from an account that no one is monitoring?

For some, myself amongst them, the act of writing is a sacred privilege granted when one forms a bond with another. That bond is permission to communicate, collaborate and achieve common goals. No-reply email addresses are the corporate equivalent of “talk to the hand”, with the same disrespect and dismissiveness. This takes rude to a new level because it is the act of a mindless system programmed by, one assumes, someone whose grandmother was not consulted on the matter of manners.

If you are responsible for an automated system that sends out no-reply responses, please don’t. If your customers, clients, employees, vendors, partners, friends and neighbors do you the courtesy of replying, don’t you think you should read what they have to say?

Or just talk to your grandma and she what she thinks.