Watch Your Wording

All right, so today I got an email in my SPAM folder which notified me that my email address was randomly drawn in a promotional lottery, and that I am entitled to some large sum. Just the usual spam, hit delete and forget about it, you think? Never ever even react to it? Oh no, not in this case!

You see, the email explicitly told me that I have won, and that I am entitled to the money. This is important in so far that they make a promise in this email. They have worded it in a way that can't be mistaken for something else. In their email, they asked me to contact them as soon as possible to receive further information as to how to receive my money. I did; I sent them an email with the required information (name, address, phone number, email address, occupation, my ticket numer which they sent in their email). All information that is available online anyway.

Then, I sent another email, this time to my union. You have to know, in Germany, there have been several law suits against companies like this, promising money they don't intend to pay out. Those companies have lost every law suit so far (as far as I know, I found several cases online). I don't know about American law, but I could easily imagine that law suits like those would be successful in the United States as well.

Anyway, I forwarded both the winning notification and my response to my union, asking them whether they would take on the case and sue the company on my behalf. I offered them 50% of any money I'd get from that company, a promise I intend to keep since they already have done a lot for me, and I wouldn't be able to sue them without their help.

Sure, the question is whether I'd see any money from them at all even with court ruling against them, but hey, they have to learn they can't just pull this BS, right?

I guess what I want to tell you with this story is that you should always watch how you word things, or how your business partners word things. Sometimes, a slightly different wording can result in quite different results, and especially in business, communication should be as clear as possible to ensure both parties are satisfied in the end. Then, on another note, I guess my message is just: If someone tries to take advantage of you and you have a means of paying them back legally, go for it!