Lots of pain to go around on this one!
I needed to sign out some documents from a vendor.
I needed new documents so we could add content and then sign the documents back in.
I carefully filled out the request form and triple checked it to make sure I had the data right.
(I'm on a bit of a personal mission to improve my accuracy.)
So I emailed my request, mentioning several times that I needed them to please create *new* documents for us.
The very polite reply was:
"I'm sorry, we can't sign these out to you as they are already signed out to you."

Ummm...huh? How can we already have these if
they don't exist yet?Double checked the form - yes, it clearly asked for new documents.
Checked all the hidden sections and other pages. Nope, nothing.
Had my supervisor check the request form. Yes, it was 100% correct.
By now, we were going "What on earth are they smoking over there???"
I sent a very polite email back:
"I’m sorry, but I’m really confused.
We are asking for new, not existing documents.
Did I fill out the request incorrectly??"
And I re-attached my request form. (You see where this is going, don't you?)
Shortly I got my reply:
"The attachment on the first email was very different than this one." And she sent back the form I *originally* submitted.
Which was, of course, the wrong one.

It was a completed request (even said so in the name!) so yes, of course we already had the documents.

My response was a very humble apology for wasting her time and a polite request to please pretend it never happened and could she please process the *correct* form for me?

Some days, I look in the mirror and remind myself that sometimes, I'm a maroon!
My zeal for accuracy got the form right, but I selected the wrong file.
