By the way, did you know that the French army still has a special corps of carrier pigeons at its disposal - just in case all other means of communication suddenly become unavailable? Yes, communication formats are constantly being improved, but there are always people who adhere to old traditions.
For example, like some random company in this story from the user u/Valpo1996, which recently appeared in the Malicious Compliance community on Reddit, and has since amassed over 2.5K upvotes and nearly 200 various comments. Well, let's sit back and delve into reading - it's even more worth it!
More info: Reddit
The author of the post once got an email from a title company demanding some important data over their upcoming deal
Image credits: Karolina Grabowska (not the actual photo)
The employee sent everything via email, but the client demanded it in letter form only
Image credits: Valpo1996
So the author printed out the email chain and tossed it in the mailbox. However, it was Friday and they needed the data by Monday...
Image credits: Solen Feyissa (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Valpo1996
So on Monday, the title company employees called and demanded the author send everything via email anyway
Image credits: Abstrakt Xxcellence Studios (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Valpo1996
The author replied that they'd already sent the email on Friday and wouldn't do the same job twice
So, the Original Poster (OP) says that among the contractors with whom their employer usually works, there is a title company, which one day urgently needed information about the payoff amount of one of the clients who had a $1500 lien on a piece of property.
The request came by email, so the author of the post did what they had done more than once or twice before - in the response email, they sent information about the payoff amount. Moreover, as the author specifically noted in the comments, in the state where they live, the law has long allowed the sending of such data via email, and such messages have official status.
Imagine the OP’s surprise when the title company's employee replied that they needed this information ‘in letter form’ only. And, of course, it was needed urgently, because the deal was scheduled to close on Monday. Oh yes, we completely forgot to say that it was on Friday afternoon!
So the original poster shrugged and did as they were told. They simply printed out the whole email chain, put the papers in a properly addressed envelope and tossed it in the outgoing mail. Unfortunately, the author states, the post office has already closed. And, as Scottie Pippen once said, "the mailman doesn't deliver on Sunday!"
On Monday morning, the OP got a hysterical call from the title company, who urgently needed information. The author calmly said that they had sent the printout by mail, as required. On the other side of the conversation, they excitedly said something like “Screw that letter! Just send us an email!” To this, the employee responded no less melancholy that they had already sent an email - on Friday.
Some time later, the company's attorney called the original poster with a similar question. The author reasonably objected that the attorney was also in CC of the Friday email. The OP doesn’t know how it all ended in that title company, but “we got our $1500 the day by personal courier. It was a 2 hr 1 way drive for the courier.” Malicious compliance per se, isn't it?
Image credits: Mikhail Nilov (not the actual photo)
“Well, I understand perfectly well that in some areas of activity it is still required that certain types of information be sent exclusively in letter form, and I also encountered something similar,” says Alexei Shkurat, the founder and CEO of the Peach Studio, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment here. “However, if an employee says that the law allows emails, and they have done this more than once before, I don’t get why this option wasn't suitable for their counterparties...”
“Moreover, the telephone conversation on Monday clearly confirms that email was still an absolutely legitimate option. Therefore, I can imagine two options: either the title company had some kind of outdated procedural instruction that ordered them to require information in letter form only, or simply one of the employees showed obvious negligence. Moreover, the first does not exclude the second... Unfortunately, this also happens in business," Alexei summarizes.
By the way, some commenters on the original post also confirmed that they've encountered something similar in their work practice as well. And things didn’t end well in their situation either. "Banks, HOAs and mortgage companies love doing this stupid s**t," one of the commenters wrote.
When asked by commenters about services like Adobe Sign, the author replied that the email was officially signed, so there could be no disputes to its legitimacy. The only question that may arise here is about the competence of the employees of that title company. "Someone at that title company had their butt in a sling after that," another person in the comments mused.
However, in order for this story to turn out to be truly perfect, according to some folks in the comments, only one thing was missing - and this, by the way, was actually confirmed by the author themselves. "My reply will be: 'Please send us your request in writing.' And then wait," someone wittily wrote in the comments. And by the way, what would you do if you were the author of this story?
People in the comments cracked up at this story and confirmed that many companies still demand printed letters in their work
