I exchanged these emails with Dennis Hooper, a business leader:
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On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 12:29 PM, Dennis Hooper <dhooper2@juno.com> wrote:
Dear friends–
I apologize deeply that I errantly delivered a personal e-mail to you. I do not know how it occurred, but I’m sure that something I did caused the problem. I assume responsibility for the mistake, though I have spent thirty minutes troubleshooting what happened—and I still do not know what I did. I believe it was associated with adding the person to my e-mail distribution list—something clearly occurred that I had not intended.
I realized the problem because two individuals cared enough about me and about the people I serve to notify me of the error.
As you can imagine, this is deeply embarrassing to me. It would be bad enough if I were to have done this with anyone, but I am especially embarrassed that it happened with someone with whom I have yet to build any substantial relationship. I will seek her forgiveness, and I ask for yours.
Please just delete my errant message to you. I apologize deeply for any inconvenience that I may have caused you. I will work to ensure that this does not happen again.
Dennis
Dennis Hooper
Your Leadership Coach
www.buildingfutureleaders.com
I replied with this:
Hi Dennis-
This is a perfectly lovely apology! I think others could learn from it and I wanted to ask if I might have your permission to remove your identifying information and then share it with others (as on my blog), please. If not, I understand.
My husband and I were just chatting about an error like this that he made yesterday. It happens to the best of us!
Jennifer
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Dennis kindly replied that I could post his apology with his name and website included. He invites readers to email him if you’re interested in hearing about the responses he got and/or to sign up for his free newsletters: www.buildingfutureleaders.com
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How about you? Have you experienced email errors? Was an apology offered? What were the results?