Why do so many companies assume – or hope – so often that people understand things that often cause inconvenience but is very rarely explained sufficiently to actually understand it? Whether it’s about railway delays and cancellations, or a banality such as Tchibo’s desk fan (which uses electronic buttons, thus must be using some juice even when “turned off”) – my translation:

“Regrettably, the information you wanted about the standby power consumption has not been provided to us by the supplier. Therefore, we cannot answer your question.

We are sorry that we cannot give you a more positive reply and thank you for your understanding.”

But how should one – even though they are sorry – understand that they cannot get such information even from their exclusive own brand TCM?

Who has so much understanding understanding, anyway? “We apologize for the inconvenience” or something like that (native English speakers may find a better formulation here), that would be an apt phrase here and elsewhere.

Update Aug 13: The don’t reply fast (on Aug 11 to my mail from Aug 3 with roughly aforementioned content), but at least they do reply – with nice standard texts (my translation):

“Your mail is a very valuable hint for optimizing Tchibo’s service. It is very important to us that our customers enjoy shopping at Tchibo and feel well. Rest assured that our quality requirements are continuously being developed further to be able to offer all customers a constantly high quality and service.

Tchibo takes customer orientation very seriously and is fundamentally interested in its customers’ opinion. Through your help, we are notified of our strengths and weaknesses and can make sure that you feel welcome also in the future. Of course we enjoy to pass your criticism on to the responsible department.”