Lesikar's Business Communication: Connecting in a Digital World 13th Edition by Kathryn Rentz,Paula Lentz

Exercise 30

You're a communications intern at J. J. Brown's, a mail-order clothing and camping gear store, and you've been asked to revise the messages the company sends to customers whose orders have had to be delayed or canceled. When a customer calls to place an order, the call-center representative checks to see that each item being ordered is available, but if other customers are requesting the same item at around the same time, the computer shows the items to be in stock even though an item is sold out. Sometimes when this happens, you can tell customers that more of the desired item is being ordered and give them an estimated delivery date. Other times, when the item is gone, it's permanently gone, which is especially likely with clearance items.
Your boss feels that the current form emails informing customers of canceled or delayed orders are too stiff and impersonal. After all, the goods your company sells are associated with fun and adventure. The revised messages shouldn't be too cheerful (after all, they are bad-news messages), but they should convey a more positive image.
Write the two messages that are needed, one for canceled orders and one for delayed orders. In your messages, leave blanks where information specific to each order will be included and indicate in brackets what kind of information that will be.