Imagine you are the technical writer and general troubleshooter for your
company. The Data-Server Department of your company provides an online
database server for companies who operate "shopping cart-type" web-order
companies (like e-bay®, etc.). For a monthly fee, your company hosts the
database websites, maintains the customers' databases, validates credit card
purchases, and generally supplies and manages the entire storefront
operation. The Data-Server office of your company is located in Suite 16,
1616 Neil Sadaka Cresent, London, ON N3W 0I3..

On Monday morning, the London Free Press reported that a fire over the
weekend had destroyed many of the units at 1616 Neil Sadaka Cr., and that
others had been severely damaged by a mudslide. Your unit was unharmed. The
difficulty, however, is that the middleware that connects the customers'
websites with the database has become unstable. Orders are scrambled and
credit card validation is unreliable. The problem arises because the company
founder, Costa Fishent, commissioned an inexperienced programmer to write the
code in order to save money in the initial start up phase of the company. Up
until this time the IT specialist, Susan Webber, who is well known to the
customers, has been able to create patches to keep the system operating
satisfactorily.

Unfortunately, Susie (as you call her) has just accepted another position
with a competitor. Even so, she would have been willing and able to "patch"
the code once more had she not been involved in an automobile accident that
left her in a coma. The new IT worker will not be beginning for another week
and probably does not have the skills to rewrite the code in any case. The
only solution available is to send the code to a programming company in New
York for an entire rewriting. The process will take two weeks. Meanwhile,
you will have to send all of the clients' catalogues to their customers in
hard-copy form by mail, process their orders manually, and complete credit
card validations over the telephone, with the results being faxed to the
companies. This situation will be annoying for your customers who intend to
conduct their business interactively, online. Christmas is coming and many
of your customers may fear for their bottom line.

Your task is to compose a letter to Data-Server's customers explaining the
situation.

STEPS
Read the task above very carefully. Beware of all nuances of the situation.
Select only the points that you feel need to be explained to your customers.
Keep the details of your problem to a minimum: your customers are more
interested in how the situation will affect them and how you're going to
solve it.

Using MSWord, compose a one page letter that is tactful, ethical, and
effective. You want your customers to be aware of the disaster that has
affected their data service, while ensuring them that your company has the
situation under control. You want them to realize the inconveniences to their
operations but you don't want them to panic and find another company to
handle their business. The tone of your letter is all important. Refer to
McMurrey, Chapter 13, for advice and examples about using the indirect
(buffered) format.

Imagine that your biggest customer is ECommercePlus. Address the sample
letter to the manager, Ms Heda Honcho, at:

i need help on it