Troubleshooting Miscommunication

Errors can also be blamed on the medium of the message such as the technology and the environment - some of which can slide back to choices the sender makes, but others are out of anyone's control. If you need to work out the terms of a sale with a supplier a few towns over before you draw up the invoice and time is of the essence, sending an email and expecting a quick response would be foolish when you (a) have no idea if anyone's there to write back right away, and (b) would potentially need to go back and forth over the terms; this exchange could potentially take days, but you only have an hour. The smart move is instead to phone the supplier so that you can have a quick back-and-forth. If you need to, you could also text them to say that you're calling to hammer out the details before writing it up. Of course, you wouldn't call using a cellphone from inside a parking garage because blame for problems with the reception (or interference) would slide back on you for not positioning yourself appropriately given the available environments. If phone lines and the internet are down due to equipment malfunction (despite paying your bills and buying trustworthy equipment), however rare that might be, the problem is obviously out of your hands and in the environment. Otherwise, it's entirely up to you to use the right channels the correct way in the environments best suited to clear communication to get the job done.