Good luck.  Have you tried tilting at windmills?  (FWIW, I share your pain.)

-Hoot.

I think it's a good way to screen out undesirables.  If they present themselves that way in email, just imagine what they're like in person!  Just ignore them and be happy you found out sooner rather than later.  Those are not the kind of clients you want.

i am sorry ypu have to deal with bad e-mail- you have to remember you are in california-the land of fruits and nuts.

and some of it's probably professional computer geeks.  A true computer professional uses "telegraphic speech" in email communications out of habit.  There's no greeting and rarely a complete sentence.  Oh, did I mention that capitalization is optional.  Hey, that all "wastes" keystrokes.

I should know.  I'm one myself, and I've literally been reprimanded on occassion for not making my emails sufficiently succint.

Educated people understand that even their email communications convey tremendous insight into their persona and strive for excellence in the written word.
Akro

eom

I would think...

that it is not too much to ask.  Also that is probably or should probably be one of your first criteria in screening your clients.
If the fellow is such a boor that he cannot write a polite note, what kind of person is he going to be in person?
Keep your standards high.  You won't be disappointed.

--Marty

Ok, let me go against the flow here, but I find short/brief emails preferable -- maybe not on the first email of a chain, but assuredly on the reply, and the reply-to-the-reply, etc.  It seems to me that it's like a conversation -- you begin by saying Hello, using the other party's name, etc, but then you can respond to the other person's thought without repeating the "Hi Howareya's".

I, too, am a bit put off by some of the poor manners displayed not only in e-mails and phone calls, but in all aspects of life.  If there's one positive point here, though, it's this:  Those comparative few of us who still maintain even the basics of good manners, tend to shine in the eyes of those who've become jaded to the barrage of boors in our culture.  My son, whom I raised to be a gentleman, often receives compliments on his upbringing, simply because he expresses himself well, and treats people with dignitgy and good manners.  He confesses to me, though, that he's not even aware of his behavior.  It's just second nature.  I'm glad I gave him a means of standing out from the crowd.

But all courtesans are not as polite or as thoughtful as you.

You know how we Americans can get sometimes

Usually an email is supposed to just be a quick note, not a formal written letter.  I try to be polite but I am very quick and to the point, and I've been taken as very rude more than once in emails because of it.  I don't want to waste your time and I don't want you wasting mine.  Besides, if I had to put together a nice formal letter for every email I sent I'd literally spend all day doing just that.

I guarantee you I am the epitome of manners and generosity in person though

Besides that, people have different rules for themselves.  It shouldn't be a huge judge of character.  Some of the nicest people I know have the most atrocius email manners ("r u coming 2nite? lol!" -- argh)

Hi Carrie,

Courtesy is a skill all too lacking in society overall, and the internet seems to make people even more brusque. :/

Many times it's a variation on this simple line:

you available?

That I send back a note saying:

available for what? when?

I mean, really. Why can't people address me, compose a few sentences stating what they are looking for and when they are available, then sign off with their NAME.

MM

A lot is to be read in emails and between the lines, but my dear Carrie, please don't sweat the small stuff.  Isn't it better to receive such an email, rather than have someone in front of you who is disrespectful and maybe haven't showered for a week or two?

Annja
Los Angeles

I also posted this rant on the uk.local.london newsgroups on October 2001, but I thought I'd post it here too.

A little over a week right before the tragic 9/11 attacks, I was at a Starbuck's UK shop on Leicester Square on early Saturday afternoon, September 1, 2001.  I ordered a sugar-free vanilla steamer.  I paid for my order and politely waited.  There was this one young English fellow (about 19-20) with bushy dark hair giving out drinks without calling names.  After a while, I asked him if my steamer ever came out.  He told me that I needed to pay more attention when the drinks are announced, or someone else would take my drink.  Being a person of restraint, I didn't say a word to him, but I personally didn't feel he responded to this in the proper manner, so I rolled my eyes upward.  Noticing this, he then says "It's not my fault!".  Again, with my patience tested, I asked him sternly "am I blaming you?  No!"

He then immediately gives me my steamer, but I was still just as steamed as my drink, all because of his rude and childish attitude.  I didn't ask to speak with the manager, because I assumed in the UK (as in the rest of Europe) that customer service workers don't get sacked for behaving in a rude manner to the public.

This post is not meant to be a dig at Carrie, but I don't like it when anybody from Britain (or anywhere in Europe for that manner, especially the French) lectures us Americans on how to be polite, when in reality they are just as "rude" as we are or, in the Starbuck's UK case, even more rude.