To receive reply from dept not named person

[HowToDealWithItAll]

I sent an important (non-work) email to a team who use a shared email address for enquiries. My salutation named individuals e.g. Dear Mrs Bloggs and Mr Smith.

The reply is from the shared email address but signed off in the body of the text as "The xxx Department"

AIBU to want to know which human being wrote the reply? What is a polite way of requesting their name? I don't want ill-feeling in further correspondence but I also don't like personal responsibility being shirked.

I suspect they don't want their name associated with my enquiry because someone at their end has failed to do something they should have done.

We have generic signatures at work for some emails there is no conspiracy behind it

Lots of teams work this way. It stops people from requesting specific individuals, when it’s a service desk, for example.

We sign off like that. The reason is because if I sign off as Balloons they will address future correspondence to me and if I'm not there the others won't respond to an email that is addressed specifically to me. Which means it could be weeks before you get a reply if I'm working at another store.

If its generic, it just means that whoever is there will respond and deal with it.

The department may not be working your issue as an individual. It very much could be that the next time you reply, it goes to a different person who simply reviews the case history.

Generic inbox usually has a generic signature.

Does it really matter who replies?

I don’t see how it really matters?

Do you actually need to know who didn't do something that should have happened? Or is that just to satisfy your knowledge?

We have a shared mailbox at work, with a generic signature. We occasionally pop our names at the end just when sending out emails, but not most of the time - it's not to shirk responsibility, it's because we work as a team and the email signature reflects that.

The team will know who did / didn't do something, what does it serve for you to also know? Either it's fixed now or not?

I once worked for a company had a 'Lucy' in the accounts department who apparently dealt with the queries. Saved a lot of hassle because we just took messages for the actual accounts lady who was snowed under. She rang back as 'Lucy' and resolved their issues. I blamed the sales department as they were useless at paperwork.

My colleague and I are PT so we use our shared email address and often sign emails from "X team". By design, 90% of our duties overlap / can be done by either of us.

If you were currently waiting for "me" you wouldn't recieve a response for another week as I'm on leave.

Internally we do tend to sign our names but we're so interchangeable that most internal emails come through addressed to "X team" as they know both /either of us can deal with there query.

Generic team inbox generally means everyone takes a turn at working it. So while one person might deal with your initial email, someone else might deal with a follow up. Or one person might respond to your email but pass to someone else to work.

Does it really matter?

It matters to me. I want to know which human is communicating with me.

If it’s outlook it usually says which individual sent it from a shared mailbox at the top of the message

They are responding on behalf of the company though

So you'd rather you only dealt with the same person all the time rather than the issue being resolved quickly?
Or are you just wanting a named person to have a go at?

I can totally relate @HowToDealWithItAll. It does my head in. I emailed a generic email address shared by two people in that department. One replied and the second hadn't seen what had been agreed between me and the person I was email. I received an email with one of the two- unknown who initially- saying I hadn't replied when I had! It was a right faff explaining what had happened and in the end, I insisted that the person replying add their name to the end of the email. It's not rocket science.

when I do this it’s because I don’t want to reveal my name to someone who is a complete lunatic or PITA. Just something to bear in mind

I just can't see how this is good practice.

People should be personally responsible for their actions and advice they give in an email.

I don't sign off as "One of the parents of DD", I write "Kind regards, Mrs HowToDealWithItAll" and I expect the same from the other party.

But do you want resolution or someone to yell at??
Re the 'one of the parents of'...analogy, is it the school you're having an issue with and is the admin team email box?

I agree OP. I have seen emails go out from our team inbox with incorrect information. How can the person be trained if no-one knows who sent it?

I answer enquiries from a shared email and always include my name. It's an important element of customer service. However you also said this was not work related so I'm a bit confused about what you were doing and expecting.

I don't yell. It's not a school admin team. It's health related.

And when I follow up I want to reference the communication.

I actually get a communication from elsewhere which I didn't realise is automated (I thought it was standard wording from a professional) so I think it's important to know when a human has been involved.

And when I follow up I want to reference the communication.
So just keep the email chain going?

Worth considering that they probably see it as good practice because it protects their staff from angry or vexatious correspondents.

That is what an email trail for, just because you demand what you want or what you think has to happen does not meant it will

My old workplace had this for one of their teams, in their case it was so (rightly or wrongly) disgruntled members of the public couldn’t track them down