How to email a reminder after several months have passed?

April 21, 2020 7:31 PM

An expert in a field I want to work in promised to send me some materials, but never did. Now, several months have passed and I don't know if it's strange for me to send a reminder email asking if he could still send me the materials.

I'm in the process of learning more about a new career that I'm very interested in transitioning to. The career is very niche and only a handful of people perform this work. Last August, I spoke to one person on the phone who had retired from this work. In September, he emailed me and said that he enjoyed speaking with me and hadn't forgotten that he promised me some material. And he apologized for taking so long. I told him that I enjoyed speaking to him, too, and not to worry about taking so long. And then I didn't hear anything. Now, several months have passed and I'm wondering if it's awkward to email him and remind him and ask again if he could send the material after so much time has passed? If it's not strange to email him after so long, can anyone suggest a way to phrase such an email?

posted by NoneOfTheAbove to Human Relations (7 answers total)

Best answer: I think it's fine, these are crazy times and stuff has lots of stuff has accidently fallen away. Just say that you have alot of time to look at things right now and you'd really love to read them if they could be made available to you. Say something at the end if he if unable to you understand and thank him for his time and wish him well.
posted by AlexiaSky at 7:36 PM on April 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: It's fine. I would say something like 'Hope you're well. I just happened to think of [x thing that he promised to send.] If you have time, could you share that now?'
posted by pinochiette at 7:53 PM on April 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Best answer: One way to approach it is to send him an email and let him know that you were thinking about purchasing those materials (if you are), but wanted to double check with him first, to see if he was still planning to send (who knows, it might be on its way in the mail!). This will do two things: 1) it may put a sense of urgency on him that doesn't seem to have been there before, because now it might cost you; 2) it feels like more than just emailing him, but doing do-diligence financially. If something like this didn't work, though, he might just be the kind of person who has a really hard time following up on commitments, even though the intention is there. I would probably leave that as the last correspondence attempt.
posted by SpacemanStix at 8:01 PM on April 21, 2020

Best answer: Yeah it’s totally fine. When I follow up on something much later I like to phrase it like I’ve just got around to it also. So something like “I was just reviewing this again” or “I was catching up on xxx and realized the documents would be helpful” or even just “I was just getting around to this”, as long as in this situation that doesn’t make it sound like you were ignoring something you shouldn’t have been.

(Which it doesn’t sound like it would in this situation, but in some work situations it might)
posted by sillysally at 8:03 PM on April 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you all. I sent the email.
posted by NoneOfTheAbove at 8:21 PM on April 21, 2020

Best answer: Totally send it, I forget stuff like this too and would feel terrible and get back to you right away.
posted by fshgrl at 10:57 PM on April 21, 2020

Best answer: A little late, but you might check your spam mail. Google Mail is very good at spam detection but once in a while an attachment will send good mail into the spam folder.
posted by tmdonahue at 5:01 AM on April 22, 2020