An e-mail from me that became a nightmare

I accidentally turned into a ‘scammer’ a few months ago…

We were switching our brand's e-shop platform to Shopify. Everyone was a bit on edge, but things were going well. Then, the new invoice tool got turned on and... well, it decided to throw a wild party.

And by that, I mean it sent an invoice e-mail to thousands of customers.

All this happened from my own e-mail account, as the tool was registered under it.

What did the e-mail say?

"Hey, I just created this invoice for you. Link: ..."

Most people had paid these invoices months ago. Some had canceled their orders. They were confused, and, to be honest, so was I. I was in a meeting, totally unaware of what was going on in my inbox.

Suddenly, I'm also swamped with DMs on Instagram and Twitter. "Just a heads up, some scammer is sending e-mails in your name."

Wait, what?!

So I rush to my inbox. I see e-mails... LOTS of e-mails.

Most are nice and understanding, just folks letting me know about a possible misunderstanding.

Some share screenshots of their credit card statements.

A few of them... let's just say they were less than pleased.

And a couple of them replying "f*ck you, you f*cking scammer".

Amid the chaos, a few kind souls thought it was an honest mistake and offered to pay right away.

As a business, we take our customers' data very seriously. This looked like a huge security breach and we quickly sent an apology e-mail to all our customers.

Then, I thought, why not go the extra mile?

I decided to respond to every single e-mail personally!

The message was plain: "Hey, Please ignore the previous e-mail - this was a technical error. We were switching to a new system and the invoice was sent by mistake. Everything's set, I'm very sorry for the trouble!"

And, why not add a little cherry on top...

"PS: Here's a code for 11% off your next order: sorrynotsorry."

You wouldn't believe the reactions!

Most were surprised, some relieved, others were amazed that I was personally writing to them... But everyone loved the unexpected discount.

It took me hours, and a lot of copy-pasting, but it was so worth it.

And here's the funny bit: Pretty much everyone thought they were the only one who got the weird invoice. Funny, right?

The key takeaway here?

Technology can go wrong. And it will go wrong. Anything can get messed up. But it's how you react that counts.

I turned a tech glitch into a connection moment with my customers. And, as a happy little bonus, I even made some sales!

Remember, when life throws you lemons, make lemonade...and then give everyone an 11% discount.

Carpe diem,

Tino