Send to Coventry
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 11:37 am
Some of you may be aware of the expression "send them to coventry", some people might not, and well it basically means to ignore someone by not talking to them, no matter what, as a form of punishment. Well yesterday at work, i kinda had the complete opposite, which was quite entertaining 
if you don't know, my job involves supplying all the NHS hospitals, and some nursing homes and phsyiotheropy places with medical supplies, and one of those places is "University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust" which covers a few hospitals in that area, but mainly Coventry Hospital.
One thing that hospitals have to do is find out where to send purchase orders to so they can order products, and to make sure they don't have outdated information, or sending things through to wrong departments of companies, they'll send a request for confirmation of the correct address to send purchase orders to. Basically you reply saying "yes this is the correct address" and in the reply you can see how many emails they have sent it to, assuming the don't configure it to hide the sending to names. Coventy had about 1000 email addresses, so it's understandable that they needed to find out the correct addresses, after all, people's lives could be on the line if they send a purchase order and it goes to the wrong place.
This is where the fun started for me though, and a few others, but was the cause of many people raging at Coventry hospital
The person who had to send this email out was really lazy and didn't check what they were doing, because when you emailed your reply, it did the same thing as clicking "reply to all", and so it emailed your reply to approx 500 people. which didn't go down to well. I got emails like...
i also enjoyed seeing the people who were enjoying the random entertainment with messages like "ok i won't". It was also funny because these are rival companies trying to get business from the hospital, and so they want to complain, but in a nice way so they don't lose business. Though a few gave in, like for example this message...
if you don't know, my job involves supplying all the NHS hospitals, and some nursing homes and phsyiotheropy places with medical supplies, and one of those places is "University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust" which covers a few hospitals in that area, but mainly Coventry Hospital.
One thing that hospitals have to do is find out where to send purchase orders to so they can order products, and to make sure they don't have outdated information, or sending things through to wrong departments of companies, they'll send a request for confirmation of the correct address to send purchase orders to. Basically you reply saying "yes this is the correct address" and in the reply you can see how many emails they have sent it to, assuming the don't configure it to hide the sending to names. Coventy had about 1000 email addresses, so it's understandable that they needed to find out the correct addresses, after all, people's lives could be on the line if they send a purchase order and it goes to the wrong place.
This is where the fun started for me though, and a few others, but was the cause of many people raging at Coventry hospital
The person who had to send this email out was really lazy and didn't check what they were doing, because when you emailed your reply, it did the same thing as clicking "reply to all", and so it emailed your reply to approx 500 people. which didn't go down to well
. I got emails like...then as it went on...I think most people would appreciate not using the 'reply to all' function when replying to Yvonne's request
PLEASE STOP THE REPLY TO ALL ON EMAILS REGARDING THIS SUBJECT
people were assuming that everyone's clicking "reply to all", and since all names were in the "To" field, everyone would get the emails, and some people are that stupid to do that, but they were also stupid enough to realise that the emails were coming through from the original person, and not any specific companies.Come on all, common sense, ask questions directly and respond directly as per the Trusts simple request.
i also enjoyed seeing the people who were enjoying the random entertainment with messages like "ok i won't". It was also funny because these are rival companies trying to get business from the hospital, and so they want to complain, but in a nice way so they don't lose business
. Though a few gave in, like for example this message...though i had a classic one through which was either complete stupidity, or just trying to wind everyone up for a laugh...Apparently everyone is replying to all - I didn't but am seriously pissed off now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this started about 2pm yesterday and is still going on now, and is nice entertainment for slow days, as it always is for us in the summer.Just got back in. Can someone update me as to what I am supposed to do please? Am I meant to 'reply all' or 'reply all' with you all in the bcc box?
Should I set up a conference call so we can all agree the correct way forward?
