What on earth is common decency?

You'll have been sent here because your message failed base "common decency" standards.

What on earth is a "common decency" standard?

This is where we assert that we don't have to tolerate your being rude. We're a business, but we're made up of people. Real people. So when you're having a bad day, or something breaks, or life isn't as lovely and rosy as you'd like it to be, and you send us an email that is rude, then as "real people", we don't really like that.

Make no mistake, whether you're a paying customer or using one of our free products, there's no excuse.

Being the internet and not being able to see us in-person shields you perhaps against the deep-down feeling that you have a responsibility to be courteous.

Being the internet and that you might say bad things about us on social media if you don't get what you want from our service, is no excuse to be rude.

So don't be rude. Don't demand of us to fix your stuff and "get back you ASAP". We don't work for you. And even more galling is if you're using one of our free services, and you're being rude to us, and you haven't actually had the decency to pay to support our work - if that's the case, you may need to take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror.

If you've been sent to this page, it's because you failed our common decency test, which basically means we expect you to communicate with us the way you'd talk to us in-person. And if that's not enough to get the message across, talk to us like we are your customers.

Being our customer, paid, free or otherwise doesn't give you freedom to be rude. At least not with us.

So if you've written to us because you've had a problem, try rewording it, try thanking us for the work we've done so far for you, and perhaps go into as much explanation as possible as to the nature of the problem. The more information, the more easily we can help you. Bearing in-mind all the while that we offer 1-to-1 technical support to paying customers only.

If the challenge of basic common decency is insurmountable, and how dare anyone such as us question you on it, then please, don't write to us again.