Bart Everson
2839 Palmer
New Orleans, LA 70118
April 23, 2001
Karen Artz Ash
90 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016
Dear Ms. Ash:
I received your rather curt letter today. I was perplexed, as you made reference to an "April 9, 2001 e-mail" of which I had no knowledge.
Upon checking my deleted e-mail files, I found a mysterious message, dated April 9, which I had forgotten. It was not from you, nor from anyone listed in your firm's letterhead, but from one Susan Zablocki, who is unknown to me. This message had no subject and contained no text. There was an attached file named "b@roxcom.WPD" which is not a file format recognized by my computer.
I could not read this file. In fact, I was afraid that it was a virus.
Is this message from your office? If so, is it your standard procedure to send unreadable files to people? This seems very unprofessional. I recommend that you begin communicating using plain text rather than exotic file formats.
I particularly take exception to the tone of your cover letter. You say that I have been "placed on notice" and that my "conduct is now deemed intentional." Please be advised that this is the first notice I have received on this matter. Your transmission of a digital file encoded in a proprietery file format hardly constitutes a good faith effort at communication.
As to the substance of your letter dated April 9 (but only received by me on April 23): I believe you raise some valid concerns. I will revise my website and notify you when the changes have been completed. As a show of good faith, I am temporarily removing the site from the Internet for the interim period.
As I am eager to avoid litigation (and further unfriendly letters), I hope that you will work with me to revise the site in a manner that is acceptable to both myself and your client.
Sincerely,
Bart Everson
BPE/cmp
cc: Joe Nickell
Note: I never received the courtesy of a reply. I sent a follow-up letter follow-up letter one year later.