"I'm on a deadline"

[snowball's chance]

I work at a book publishing company, and I handle all the author contacts (letters and emails people send to the webiste that the Customeer Service people forward to me, that people send to authors in c/o of us).  I got an email from A. Guy (for purposes of story) wanting the address for John Smith (for purposes of the story) author of HisBook; can he have his email address?

John Smith doesn't ring a bell, so I do some digging & realize:

We published HisBook 15 years ago, and the book has been out of print & out of stock for almost 12 (as an aside, this means any interest for the book an interview could possibly drum up would net us a big fat Zero, since there are no new books for sale)

= no one from our company has corresponded with him for almost 12 years, and we never HAD an email address for him, or a phone #
= I have a mailing address from 15 years ago; Accounting's last mailing address is from almost 12 years ago

I email A. Guy back & explain the above, & tell him that even though the address is old, and it may not reach John Smith, I'd be happy to forward the interview request & A. Guy's contact info in a letter via snail mail, but that is unfortunately all I can do.

A. Guy emails back almost immediately & asks if I can FedEx the letter to John Smith overnight because his deadline is tomorrow.

So I write back,

"I'm afraid it won't be possible for to overnight a package to John Smith, especially to an address where he may or may not still be living.  I respect that you are on a deadline; however, your first contact to us was an email to our website at [five hours ago] so there's only so much we can do for you at this late stage."

I would have loved to have had to explain an $80. shipping charge to Accounting . . . .

[GotSquatch]

Lack of planning on his part don't you think?

[SportsFan88]

This kind of thing really gets on my nerves. 

I work as a publicist in college athletics - I am the media liaison for the coaches and student-athletes. While the sports are in season they have regular practices where the media can come do interviews, but during the summer or off season, it can frequently take a few days to track them down - people go on vacation, they have classes, etc. The major media outlets and experienced reporters understand this - but student/intern reporters often do not. I have had to tell more than one reporter that 'that won't be possible.'

What kind of book was it? It might have been an interview for a school paper.