Is it rude to send a late night email to a business?

[YellowPolkaDotBikini1980]

Just to clarify I don't mean WhatsApp or text or anything. An actual email.

I was up at 2 am, I remembered something and sent an email. Something along the lines of 'just to confirm the Birthday Cake we ordered has chocolate frosting but is a vanilla flavour cake'.

I just wanted to be clear because in the past, with a different bakery, we had verbally said 'chocolate frosting, vanilla cake' but ended up getting just a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.

When picking up the cake, my sister was told 'and by the way, I don't appreciate getting emails at all hours of the night.'

Surely you turn off email notifications for you phone if you don't want to be disturbed. I don't think the Nigerian Princes and the 'Manhood extenders' are waiting for business hours to spam people's inboxes.

AIBU to send emails late at night?

Text/WhatsApp at that time is no more rude than email. A phone call would be rude but email/text/WhatsApp are all asynchronous methods of communication. The sender sends at a time that suits them, the recipient responds at a time that suits them. If you don't want to get notifications outside certain hours, you set your device settings to ensure you don't.

How rude! I don't think I'd be using that bakery again. What an extraordinary attitude to take.

Too right that I "punish" rude, unprofessional behaviour with no return business.

Same way I am a walking advert for businesses that are professional and dependable.

Ugh. How rude of them. Ridiculous. I would not use them again.

No it's not rude, up to the business to open emails and read them in business hours.

However, if you are a customer, it's apparently bad form to answer the phone as a business at 1am 'because I wanted to leave a message not speak to someone'. Customer is always right of course.

In that case I'd be aware that there is no universal view on this and some people will mind and others won't. That possibly doesn't help you know how to behave in a similar future situation but does make you aware that some people don't want out of hours business contact and may comment negatively about it.

This

Most email apps allow you to delay sending to within office hours.

The only rude thing you’ve described is the snippy response from the owner.

Incredibly rude of them. I'd take your business elsewhere.

I send work emails at a time convenient to me.
My expectation is that you respond to them at a time convenient to you.

I wouldn't send Whasapp or texts in the middle of the night, but anything else is fair.

And these days you can set your phone to only let you know about certain things overnight. My husband can always get a notification from our teen at a party at midnight, but work message notifications shut off from 6pm to 9am.

There is nothing wrong with sending a text or whatsapp in the middle of the night. They are no different to email.

They are all asyncronous methods of communication. If you don't want to be disturbed by them either turn off push notifications or set up a do not disturb period overnight.

Totally! I keep my phone on do not disturb at night. If they are too thick to do that then maybe you don't want to work with them again.....

Unprofessional and very poor behaviour.
Basic manners would dictate that you would wish a polite good luck.
Suit yourself OP, and good luck.

One of my old managers used to have an email signature that read along the lines of ‘I am sending this email at at time that is convenient to me, which may be outside of usual working hours. Please do not feel that you must reply outside of your own working hours’ … mad that it even needs to be stated! Email is not a phone call!!

Several people I work with so similar. I think it is so patronising and self-important.

Thanks but I really don't need you to tell me it's OK to deal with your message as and when I see fit.

I am always sending emails at 2am, 4am etc…. I’m busy during the day, back and forth to clubs in the evenings, I get up at 4am to take DD swimming and regularly sit sending emails while she swims!…
my phone is on night mode between 10pm and 7am….. and actually I don’t get email notifications ever!….
its very daft if a business not to have time settings for notifications! And rude of them to raise it at collection!

YANBU. How could you know your recipient would take exception to an email arriving at outside business hours? The postman/lady regularly turns up before we're properly awake; would she object to that as well? The beauty of emails is that they can be used in the same way as letters without all the faffing about with stamps and envelopes. I regularly send my emails when I think about them rather than risk forgetting that they need to be done, but I don't expect or provide a speedy response. That's what texts and messaging are for, although my DH handles them in his own sweet time as well. . .and without berating the sender.

DRTWT but in case by some miracle, no one has suggested it yet, I’d email back at 2am and point out they might want to turn their notifications off. Bonus points for tonight (Saturday/Sunday)….

(edited out an autocorrect 🙄)

Totally fine to send emails at any time. They’re strange

YANBU. They should turn off notifications or have the phone on do not disturb if they don't wish to be disturbed. That's what it's there for. And yes, if they've got elderly parents or whatever it's very easy to set up an exception so that they can contact them at any time.
I really can't understand people who don't bother to use the functions of their phone and then complain at other people for doing something like sending a WhatsApp or e-mail in the middle of the night.
If you run a business you will get people calling or messaging at all hours so unless you have a specific business phone which can be switched off outside of working hours, you will need to work out a system to deal with that.

I'm self-employed. It's a bank holiday today in the country I'm in. I had 3 phone calls before 8 am from current clients. To be honest I think it's daft that they were phoning at that time on a bank holiday but it wasn't an issue because my phone is on do not disturb. Someone rang yesterday at 7.04 am. I get WhatsApp messages and emails at all sorts of times but none of that is an issue because I use the features of my phone so I'm not woken up at 2 am.

Small business is not IT literate enough to know how to mute emails out of business hours. Instead of sorting they have chosen to blame you.

its a bit odd to send it at 2am, you can also schedule the sending for a later date to prevent this but in no way are the asshole.

Of course YANBU.
As others have said, the only rudeness in this scenario is the snippy reply from the business owner.
It is up to the recipient when they open their e-mails.
I mean, I'd expect a business owner to have their business e-mails on their PC / laptop / or business phone, which they can choose to switch on or off at whatever time suits them.
But even without a business, I switch data / wifi off when I go to sleep. If she chooses not to, that is on her.

Phone calls at that time are rude obviously.
Texts, WhatsApp, emails, or any other typed message are not. I send them when I think of them, you read them when you're ready.
Not my fault if you don't manage the sound notifications on your own phone.

Definitely not unreasonable. If they choose to have their notifications on then that's on them. Forget about it and use someone else next time, I personally wouldn't return with that rudeness

Electronic devices have off buttons. If you don’t want to be disturbed by work switch off the work device! You can also choose the silence mail apps etc at specific times. As a business owner whinging about people emailing you at odd times is very unprofessional. I wouldn’t give my business to someone again if they weren’t even organised enough to take the appropriate action to silence emails. What else are they incapable of doing? Paying tax? Turning up on time?

I rang a business during my lunch hour once (think 1.15pm) only to get a sarky response it is a lunch hour and to call back later. Some businesses just have better customer service than others.