Has anybody accidentally sent an email they shouldn't have and couldn't retract it??

[Pea-n-Me]

I did this the other day. The minute I hit the send button I realized my mistake. Panic and nausea set in. I then spent an hour trying to retract it but realized I couldn't. I think I will forever have nightmares about it...

What did you do to rectify the situation? I wrote the unintended recipient a note of explanation and apology. I feel awful.

 

[SandrainNC]

I did! It was an instant message though. It happened at work. One of the attorneys I used to work for (he is gone now) was a pain! I meant to instant message one of my other attorneys and I put on there "your neighbor is an (another word for a donkey)". Well immediately I realized I had sent it to the guy I was talking about instead of the other guy. I about died. I very quickly went into the office of the one I accidentally sent the message too with a disgusted look on my face and pretended I had sent it to him about the other guy! I didn't know what else to do. At the end of the day, I went into the attorney's office who was supposed to get the message in the first place and told him that if the other guy told him that I called him an ___ I didn't mean it!

Now I never ever send messages like that because I know what can happen. Thank goodness I didn't put his name in the message or I would have been in big trouble!!

Sandra

 

[NMAmy]

I think once you do it, it teaches you never to do it again! I never say anything in an email that I wouldn't mind having posted on a big sign over my desk. You'd be amazed how diplomatic you can become.

When you hit that send button, it's like when you realize that you're locking your keys in the car. The door is closing and you try to stop it. Time just slows down and your brain is going....NOOOOO!!

Sounds like you did the right thing, though. Own up to your mistakes and apologize--that's always the right way to handle a situation like that.

 

[vettechick99]

Originally posted by SandrainNC
I did! It was an instant message though. It happened at work. One of the attorneys I used to work for (he is gone now) was a pain! I meant to instant message one of my other attorneys and I put on there "your neighbor is an (another word for a donkey)". Well immediately I realized I had sent it to the guy I was talking about instead of the other guy. I about died. I very quickly went into the office of the one I accidentally sent the message too with a disgusted look on my face and pretended I had sent it to him about the other guy! I didn't know what else to do. At the end of the day, I went into the attorney's office who was supposed to get the message in the first place and told him that if the other guy told him that I called him an ___ I didn't mean it!

Now I never ever send messages like that because I know what can happen. Thank goodness I didn't put his name in the message or I would have been in big trouble!!

Sandra

haha, good save!

I knew a guy that was a terrible flirt in my old office. His girlfriend also worked in the office, but she was out of town. That day he came over to my office and was hitting on me! So I sent my desk neighbor an IM saying, "When the mouse is away, the cat will play! Can you believe how Shane's flirting with me today?"

Well of course I sent it to him by accident. I freaked out and ran into his office and saw his computer was off. Relieved, I went back to my office only to see a response from him. His computer wasn't off, just the monitor!!

"I wasn't flirting, just being nice..." and went on to say I misjudged him, etc.

I felt terrible, but he really was a womanizer! I'm glad he finally got married...I think that wife of him calmed him down!

 

[DawnCt1]

Yes and thank goodness it was benign. It could have easily been otherwise. I check and double check the address before I hit "send".

 

[snoopy]

A former colleague did once, poor guy sent an inflammatory email out to a whole address book of people including our directors and vice presidents. And let me tell you, this email would have been embarrassing for his WIFE to read -- who it was intended for, let alone people he WORKED with. Taught me a BIG lesson about checking twice and thrice before I send an email.

 

[laurajetter]

I'm a designer at an ad agency that has some pretty large accounts. One particular client was making multiple revisions to an ad at the end of the day. A few minutes before 5pm I sent the latest revision to our account executive (the go-between for the artist and the client) with a note saying (jokingly) "I wonder how many more revisions they can make in the next 10 minutes?" Well, the account executive forwarded the whole email instead of creating a new email as they are supposed to. The client forwarded the email to the head of our company and added a note saying my comment was completely inappropriate; I was mortified. My boss was livid and told me that this type of behavior could lose the account and it's a good thing he was good friends with the client.

It honestly was just a light-hearted comment and I still feel bad about it; you can be sure I will never write anything like that again! I sent an email apology to the client; I sincerely hope he has accepted my apology because they are really great people to work with, and I was just joking around.

 

[MUFFYCAT]

I forwaded an e-mail I received about the elections to a vice president by accident. He had the same last name as my friend.
I felt terrible, I went in to tell my boss. Luckily he know the guy, so he called him to explain. From then on, I print the e-mails if I want to show someone and ALWAYS check before I click the send botton!

 

[mbw12]

Yup. I overheard someone talking about bonuses at our company. I wrote an e-mail to my friend about what I heard.....but instead I sent it TO the person that I was writing about. Luckily for me, she was such a ditz....she actually replied to my e-mail and thought I was asking her a question regarding the bonuses, and she went on to explain her thoughts to me....she had no idea that I was sort of bashing her....Thank God!!!

the minute I hit "send" on the e-mail...I realized my mistake...I grabbed my monitor and shook it and went "OH NO!!!" a co-worker looked over at me and started laughing their head off.....but didn't really "know" what I did, but had a feeling!

 

[Mom2Ashli]

Been there done that. I sent a X-rated photo Joke to some of the guys that I work with. Well I hear the Boss yell out "I can't believe you sent that to me" At first I had no clue what he was talking about. Than when I realized I sent "the" Photo to him, I wanted to crawl under my desk. I picked his name instead of one of my friends.

I always double check now.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I once wrote an email to my mother ranting about my MIL, and accidentally sent it to my DH at work.

 

[cats7494]

Well,

I wrote a nice "I love you" type e-mail to my husband telling him just how much I loved him and how happy he made me, etc....but I sent it to his brother on accident!

We all worked at the same company and I thought I clicked on my DH address but oh no! I clicked on his brother's name in my address book...

Just little embarrassing! At least the brother understood but he still teases me about it sometimes

 

[SC Minnie]

Someone in our company sent out a nasty joke to ALL USERS a few years ago. There were probably 5000 people on email at the time. This went to EVERYBODY including the CEO. Needless to say HR sent an apology to everyone a few days later accompanied by the company email and internet policy.

 

[CamColt]

Ive done it twice here on the Dis.

Once I thought I was replying to an email DH had sent to me and I was going off about a letter we got fromt he insurance company saying something wasnt paid,blah blah blah....THEN I realized I had replied to the email above DH's which was a notification of a pm from the Dis. Oops!

Another time my mother had emailed me a thread from the dis. I wanted to reply to her so I quickly hit reply and typed wht I was saying about it. As soon as I hit send I realized I was sending that back to the Dis and not to my DM.

I try to be very careful with emails now, but Im still always paranoid I will send one to the wrong person.

 

[goofy4tink]

Not me but my ds. He was at work and like everyone else in the world, forwarded an off-color joke to one of his email groups. Only problem was that he was in a different group and forgot about it. The email joke got sent to the entire company and all their accounts. Keep in mind this in an international financial advisor type company!! Although HR understood how it could happen they had no other recourse but to 'terminate' my ds. Especially after several accounts said they would pull their business if he wasn't terminated. He sure did learn a valuable lesson!!! He's very careful about hitting 'send' now.

 

[shelbyjosh]

I did this several years ago and have not spoken to that person since. I unintentionally sent it to her and it was one of those joke emails. I will regret this for a long time.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

Almost did once but was on my toes and thought to retract it as soon as I realized what I'd done. Luckily it never reached the person I sent it to in error.

I always double check now.

 

[caitycaity]

I think once you do it, it teaches you never to do it again! I never say anything in an email that I wouldn't mind having posted on a big sign over my desk. You'd be amazed how diplomatic you can become.

isn't that the truth! i definitely learned my lesson on this one!

at my old job one of the people i worked with and i used to IM about this other girl we worked with who was really a snot. of course, i accidentally sent it to her instead of him!

i was mortified! he had the quick thinking to help me out and he ran to her cube and closed it. thank god she was away from her desk!!!

since then i've refrained from doing anything like that.

 

[Pin Wizard]

I did that once. Meant to send it to one person in my address book but accidentally sent it to the person below...and it was about him! I knew I couldn't get it back since we're on different ISPs, but I tried. Then I called the office for his ISP and talked to about 6 people up the line. The final guy said they were "of the opinion that once it's in their mailbox, it no longer belongs to the sender" and wouldn't delete it! My friend actually got a laugh out of it and said it was fine. Now I'm very careful to check where it's going!

 

[Kallison]

Originally posted by MaryAnnDVC
I once wrote an email to my mother ranting about my MIL, and accidentally sent it to my DH at work.

Too funny I did the exact same thing except I sent it to my best friend. DH was furious with me -- but got over it. It could have been worse, I could have been venting about him! I think since I was thinking about her, I hit our last name in the address book. DH didn't like me venting to my friend about his mother, even though I explained that is what women do -- complain to each other. You know how guys are, they keep everything bottled up until their grave! Now I am very, very careful before I send the send. I also have two friends with the same name and mixed them up once. Nothing bad was said, just one friend was really confused. In our school district someone replied to a human resources memo once and hit reply to all and it went out to every single person -- something like 4,000 people. He tried to cover and say he meant to send everyone the big joke. It was a smart alecky reply too. I've received two emails from someone I went to high school with, who was replying to a mutual friend. The friend forwarded my email and then forwarded person replied to me instead of to the forwardee. Once he even talked about me, but luckily for him it was about how good I looked at the class reunion and that I aged well.