An abusive email telling a New Zealand couple their wedding plans were “cheap, nasty and tacky” and urging them to stay within their class is now blazing across the Internet and has seen one wife fired in ignominy by her employer-husband.
When Auckland couple Steve Hausman and Paula Brosnahan cancelled their wedding tent (known as a marquee in New Zealand) booking this month, they were fairly direct. They had viewed the tent set up by the Great Marquee Company, and didn't like what they saw.
Mr. Hausman wrote a blunt but polite email telling the company as much, and two hours later was stunned by the reply, reports the New Zealand Herald.
The firm's office manager, Katrina Jorgensen, had written: “Your wedding sounded cheap, nasty and tacky anyway, so we only ever considered you time wasters. Our marquees are for upper class clients which unfortunately you are not. Why don't you stay within your class levels and buy something from Payless Plastics instead.”
Mr. Hausman, a builder, forwarded the exchange to Ms. Brosnahan, a lawyer, who sent it to friends. When she later asked them to keep the email exchange private, she was told: “It is too late.”
Now, the company has fired the office manager -- who is also the company owner's wife -- and posted a public apology on its website
“We know that planning a wedding is one of the most stressful times in a person's life and we do what we can to make it easy,” wrote The Great Marquee Company CEO Klaus Jorgensen.
“You may be aware that the email that was forwarded by our customer has now reached some thousands of people. We do not believe it is fairly representative of the service that we usually provide, and perhaps more importantly, it is generating many calls to the former customer which is stressful for him.
“We would rather not comment any further but move on having learned from this situation. Again, we pass our apologies on to this customer.”
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