No Reply = Red Flag

Imagine texting your friend and offering to pick up drinks on your way to their house, and then adding “btw texts from this number aren’t monitored.” That’s a great way to never get invited back to game night.

Have you ever gotten a no-reply email from a company? Or a text message that you can’t respond to?

We know you have. We get them too, almost every time we buy something from a big corporation. And then, they just keep coming until we muster the energy to unsubscribe. With the holidays upon us, you probably have seen a dozen this week alone.

The no reply isn’t the result of technical limitations. It’s a decision. And it’s also a clue that a business just doesn’t care. They are prioritizing themselves over you.

How We Got Here

There was a time, not that long ago, when anyone who sold you something and was mysteriously unavailable the next day was considered untrustworthy. In fact, the idea that it’s OK for companies to ghost you only became normalized in the last 20 years.

This trend took off in the mid-2000s, when “move fast and break things” began to actually mean ‘break things and don’t answer for them.’ Companies took a strategy used for simple automated emails, the no-reply, and started to form a conscious habit. Support got substituted for a maze of ‘FAQs’ and redirection loops. Whole customer service teams were laid off so companies wouldn’t have to pay to actually help you.

And hey, we also like to move fast and innovate. We break things too. But we believe our customers are an essential part of that process. We want to know where the problems are so we can keep solving them.

No reply emails inhibit that. They exist because:

• Shareholders decided support was a luxury expense
• The company didn’t want to deal with edge cases
• Someone decided efficiency mattered more than humans
• Someone was afwaid of a wittle hard work

Look, we get that businesses need systems and automation. It’s not evil. But when that automation is prioritized over the people you are serving, things get weird fast. In no time, emails become more of a way to sell stuff than real communication.

Coms Theater

We’re not here to invite you to our three-hour-long one-man college play about the time we missed that 50-yard pass in high school, just like we’re never going to send you an email you can’t respond to. We’re weird, but not like that.

It’s nearly 2026, so hopefully we’ve all heard of mansplaining by now. How have so many companies not picked up that always being the one talking at their customers and making no space for people to respond is just as infuriating? Your feedback shouldn’t have to come as a TikTok review.

Like so many things, it’s another example of companies putting profitability ahead of their clients. Their communications become all broadcast and up-sell, and no conversation.

It’s like they’re handing you a photo of a forest right after they sold you a car on its last legs and saying, “There’s a Sasquatch in there if you really look at those trees in the distance.” And then when you look up — POOF! They’re gone.

We know great things come out of listening. Our business tools wouldn’t be what they are without hearing from our clients.

Two Gifts for You

The first is a word we expect to be the word of the year in 2026: bizsplaining. It’s that one sided sales pitch that companies constantly send us with no chance to get a word in. We probably don’t even need to define it for you — it’s 99% of customer communication these days. Once you notice it, you’ll never stop seeing it.

Second, we will always get back to you. That shouldn’t feel like a gift, it should be the expectation. But these days, a little integrity often feels like Santa just left the keys to a brand-new Rivian under your tree.

We don’t see you wanting to reply as a problem. Maybe you’ll even have something nice to say. But whatever you want to tell us, we want to hear it. Ghosting you just isn’t our style.