How not to take a rejection letter

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

A woman who was called a "whore" after refusing a sponsorship invitation, got a bit of her own back by mass-mailing the message to colleagues and contacts.

Anna Isaac, a DB Breweries executive, told a woman asking for sponsorship for a gig at an Auckland nightclub that she couldn't support it.

Ms Isaac wished her well and sent the response to her and to Fergus Cleaver, an employee of Cleaver Richards Accountants who had been party to the original email.

She received a reply from Mr Cleaver's email account a few hours later that said: "whore".

Ms Isaac told the Herald she was "pretty thick-skinned", but was still shocked when she received the message.

She wanted to let her colleagues know because it was a "small industry" where you couldn't just send emails like that.

Her reply to Mr Cleaver: "Thanks for your intelligent response. You'll notice I've copied in the key members of the DB brand marketing team as well as our friends at Pernod Ricard, Lion Breweries, and Pead PR so best of luck with future events and gaining sponsorship for these."

Mr Cleaver rang her and apologised for any harm caused - but not for the actual email because he said he did not send it.

"He said it had been tampered with and he had some issues with his emails."

A statement from Mark Richards, of Cleaver Richards, said the company learned an offensive email was sent from its offices last Thursday night, allegedly from one of its employees.

It said Mr Cleaver became aware of it on Monday morning.

"He immediately apologised for any indirect offence caused. He was as equally shocked and offended by the email as the original recipient," Mark Richards said.

"We have taken steps to further restrict access to our electronic media to ensure an incident like this does not happen again."