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Email template to ask a business for written confirmation of what they agreed

Someone at a business told you something over the phone or in person that matters: the price is locked, the fee will be refunded, the technician is coming Tuesday between 8 and noon, the cancellation went through. Verbal promises are easy to make and easy to forget, and when a different person answers next time there is no record. A confirmation email is how you fix that. You write down what was agreed, in your own words, and ask them to reply confirming it. Even if they never reply, you have a dated record of what you understood, sent right after the conversation, which counts for a great deal in any later dispute.

Before you send

  • The date and time of the conversation, and the name or employee ID of the person you spoke with. Ask for it at the end of every call.
  • The exact terms as you understood them: amounts, dates, time windows, what is included, what was waived. Write them as short bullet points before you start the email.
  • Any reference number given during the call, such as a confirmation, case, or cancellation number.
  • The best email address for the business's records. A generic support address is fine; the point is that it lands in their system.
  • A deadline for their reply that comes before the thing itself happens. If the appointment is Tuesday, ask for confirmation by Friday.
Subject Confirming our conversation on [date] - [topic in a few words] 
Hi [name of the person you spoke with, or the business name],

Thanks for your help on the phone [today / on date] at about [time]. I want to make sure I have the details right, so I'm writing them down here.

As I understood it, we agreed on the following:

- [First term, such as "The total for the repair is $640, including parts and labor, with no additional charges"]
- [Second term, such as "The work will be done on Tuesday, March 12, between 8 a.m. and noon"]
- [Third term, such as "The $75 diagnostic fee from my last visit will be credited against this total"]
- Reference number: [number given on the call, if any]

Could you reply to confirm that this matches your records? If anything above is different from what you have, please let me know what the correct terms are. I'd appreciate a reply by [date], before [the appointment / the next billing date].

Thanks again,
[Your name]
[Account or order number, if any]
[Your phone number]

Everything in brackets is yours to fill in. Keep the rest as it is or change the tone to match how you write.

After you send

  • A good reply is one line: "Confirmed, that's correct." Save the email. If they correct a detail, and the correction is not what you were told, say so at once and ask them to honor what was said on the call.
  • A reply that dodges, such as "please call us to discuss," usually means the promise was not written down on their end. Call, get it entered, and then send this email again with the new reference number.
  • No reply at all still leaves you with a dated record. If the business later disputes the terms, forward the original email and ask why they did not correct it at the time.
  • For anything involving money changing hands, do not pay or let work start until you have the confirmation, or at least until the deadline you set has passed with no objection.

Or don't send it yourself

Forward the job to myagent@standinfor.me and let StandIn run the whole thread.

StandIn is an email assistant that handles conversations with businesses for you. You write it one email saying what you need. It writes to the business, waits for the answer, follows up when they go quiet, pushes back on the number when it should, and brings the results back to your inbox for you to decide. You don't need to install an app or sign up. The first email you send is already the start of the task.

Hand this to StandIn opens an email to myagent@standinfor.me with the job already written out

To myagent@standinfor.me Subject Get a business to confirm in writing what they told me 
Hi StandIn,

Please get [business name] to confirm in writing what they agreed with me over the phone.

The business: [name, email address or contact page].
The conversation: [date, time, and the name or ID of the person I spoke with].
What was agreed: [each term as a short list: price, date, what's included, what's waived].
Reference number: [number given on the call, or "none"].
When I need it confirmed: [date, before the appointment or billing date].

If they don't reply, follow up once, and if they correct any term to something different from what I was told, flag it to me straight away rather than accepting it.

Thanks,
[Your name]

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