How quickly do establishments reply to your email where you're at?

[u/n0sugacoat]

1) Businesses 2) Government entities

Please don't forget to mention which country that is

[u/Ordinary-Finger-8595]

Finland

1. Varies
2. Varies

Impossible to give an answer because it varies SO MUCH

[u/Masseyrati80 → u/Ordinary-Finger-8595]

I kind of feel like businesses realize the speed of their customer service is a major factor in being competitive, and answering times have become shorter by the year.

However, a lot of attention is nowadays put into chat services, and email messages are lower in priority than that constant chiming of the chat system.

[u/WhiteBlackGoose]

Somewhere at [0; +oo) for any country on this planet, hope it helps

[u/utsuriga]

Hungary:

1. Varies

2. What is this "email" you speak of? Is it something tasty?

[u/_x_oOo_x_]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Well I've had a council reply about an anti-social behaviour complaint 17 years later, so...

[u/Grouchy_Fan_2236]

1. Large companies usually reply by the end of next business day. Or in worst case by the end of the week. This could vary depending on how much they are willing to spend on customer support, but if you reach out directly to the department or person you are willing to contact it could be just a few hours. However there are a lot of e-mail addresses left on sites that may no longer be in use or in some cases even the company went out of business. Especially for SMEs it is often the case that they created a template website with a default email inbox years ago and they haven't checked back ever since.
2. Law mandates officials must reply within 30 days to inquiries made through physical mail or e-mail. But in many cases it's just a pre-written text of "Thank your for reaching out, we'll look into it."

[u/Fredericia]

It varies. And some of them don't have e-mail addresses you can write to - you have to write through their contact form on their web site.

[u/HrabiaVulpes]

Poland:

Businesses: if you owe them money they will respond within an hour, if they owe you money you may wait a month or more.

Government: never had response slower than a week, no matter if it was about error in a form I filled or simple clarification about government program I asked for.

[u/TheFoxer1]

A reply happens comes on the day or the next work day of making the inquiry.

[u/wijnandsj]

Business: usually within a week

Government entities: almost never reply at all

Netherlands

[u/erikkll → u/wijnandsj]

Government depends on who you’re emailing. I don’t have many bad experiences tbh. City replies the same day, i’ve also emailed the police and our fire department. Both were fast.

[u/wijnandsj → u/erikkll]

ok, now I'm curious. I live in Haarlemmermeer. If I get an email reply at all it takes weeks. And how on earth do you email the police/

[u/TukkerWolf → u/erikkll]

The only e-mail-encounter I've had with the government was our gemeente (Enschede) and I also got pretty quick replies. The answer to my question took longer, but that had a legal background. The public servant answered within a day or so when I had a question about the case.

[u/thanatica → u/wijnandsj]

It's interesting to me that if you message a company through a crappy social media site, they'll often respond within minutes. Of course, the same for calling them (if you can find the phone number buried deep within the caverns of the "support" site)

But e-mailing the same company takes more than a day. How do they fuck up e-mail that badly?

[u/nevenoe]

Businesses : never ever.

Government entities : depends on which.

Country : Malta.

[u/Chezaranta]

Spain: 1. Within a week tops, usually sooner 2. Varies.

[u/mike_es_br → u/Chezaranta]

Some businesses don't reply at all to emails, I never understood why they even advertise having a contact email...

Govt definitely varies, but they usually always answer back within a week at the most.

[u/Ok-Sandwich-364]

Northern Ireland/UK Depends.

Want to find out a bus time for a local bus? You have to call like it’s the 90s so there isn’t even an option to email.

On the other hand, I recently dealt with Land and Property Services as I needed some maps showing a property boundary. They replied to me within 15mins and I managed to get everything done via email in one afternoon (despite them recommending an in person appointment as the easiest option 🙄)

Generally I find anything from 1-2 days to never is pretty common across the board.

[u/the_pianist91]

1: Often fast, often never.

2: Within some time (2 weeks), sometimes never.

[u/PositionCautious6454]

Czechia: 1) In 24 hours 2) Probably never. You have to use oficial communication chanels so they are obliged to answer you within legal period (varies from 3 to 90 days).

[u/MrTopHatMan90]

This kinda depends on the business and what you want? (UK)

Like I guess like 1-2 or 5 working days for businesses

Government I have no idea