The other day, a customer (sort of) emailed me directly on my phone.
「Please stock the blue brake shoes from Swiss Stop
in the Campagnolo version for me」they said.
These blue brake shoes are a model called BXP, which is specialized for wet weather conditions,
and originally there was a green shoe called GHP that served that purpose.
GHP is still in production for V-brake shoes, but the road version has been discontinued.
Anyway,
the "Swiss Sutp" in the title and opening line isn't actually my typo —
it's exactly how it appeared in the original email,
but calling them out on it would just be nitpicking.
Asking in that Google-sensei way, "Did you perhaps mean Swiss Stop?"
might also hurt the customer's (sort of) feelings.
There's also the possibility they're genuinely half-remembering (※) the SWISSSTOP brand name as "Swiss Sutp".
※"Half-remembering" here is itself a half-remembered version of "vaguely remembering," and the correct term is actually "vaguely remembering."
So I thought about how to handle this without losing face for the customer
and keep things smooth,
I came to the conclusion that the best approach
was to stock SWISSSUTP (Swiss Sutp)
brake shoes.
I didn't go so far as to fake the shoe itself,
but as for the packaging — this way there's no problem.
「Please stock the blue brake shoes from Swiss Stop
in the Campagnolo version for me」they said.
These blue brake shoes are a model called BXP, which is specialized for wet weather conditions,
and originally there was a green shoe called GHP that served that purpose.
GHP is still in production for V-brake shoes, but the road version has been discontinued.
Anyway,
the "Swiss Sutp" in the title and opening line isn't actually my typo —
it's exactly how it appeared in the original email,
but calling them out on it would just be nitpicking.
Asking in that Google-sensei way, "Did you perhaps mean Swiss Stop?"
might also hurt the customer's (sort of) feelings.
There's also the possibility they're genuinely half-remembering (※) the SWISSSTOP brand name as "Swiss Sutp".
※"Half-remembering" here is itself a half-remembered version of "vaguely remembering," and the correct term is actually "vaguely remembering."
So I thought about how to handle this without losing face for the customer
and keep things smooth,
I came to the conclusion that the best approach
was to stock SWISSSUTP (Swiss Sutp)
brake shoes.
I didn't go so far as to fake the shoe itself,
but as for the packaging — this way there's no problem.