More formal way of saying: "Sorry to bug you again about this, but ..."
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Chapters
00:00 More Formal Way Of Saying: &Quot;Sorry To Bug You Again About This, But ...&Quot;
00:51 Answer 1 Score 16
00:59 Accepted Answer Score 72
02:21 Answer 3 Score 23
02:59 Answer 4 Score 16
03:29 Thank you
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Full question
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Content licensed under CC BY-SA
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Tags
#phraserequests #formality #politeness
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 72
I assume by "Sorry to bug you again about this" that you were already given help with "X", so instead of an apology, perhaps a thank you would work better:
Thank you for your help with X, but we are still having problems with it and...
This is most likely how I would write it, an apology seems to be an admission that you feel "bad" for asking and can sound "whiny", while a thank you gives the idea that you feel "good" about their previous help and appreciate it.
If you are paying for this service or for support (which you may not be), I wouldn't worry about apologizing for requesting it, especially if your previous request was not attended to.
I would like to use examples of the two sentences above in an email directed to an organization, but I would like to avoid using "you" or "bug", if possible.
I don't think it's quite necessary to avoid these two words, but there are a number of options if this is your goal. For example:
- Sorry to be a bother...
- Sorry to burden your staff with this... (still uses a form of "you")
- I/We apologize for the repeated request...
Personally, in any case I would drop the apology or thank you, in fact all extraneous parts of the email altogether. Busy people like to get things done quickly, and if their staff has a lot of work they'll appreciate a to-the-point email. However, it depends, and I recognize that this viewpoint avoids the literal question of what to replace those two words with.
ANSWER 2
Score 23
The phrase "we do not mean to be burdensome" is very close to the "sorry to bug you" phrase, yet has more of a formal feel. It also indicates that your intention is not to be a bother.
Examples:
We do not mean to be burdensome, but we are still having issues with x.
and
We do not mean to be burdensome, but we still have not received a response about X ....
You may substitute "annoying", "bothersome", "aggravating", or "irritating" for "burdensome" for similar results.
ANSWER 3
Score 16
I'm sorry to have to bring this up again, but […].
ANSWER 4
Score 16
Rather than bug I would say bother, but otherwise keep your phrasing: "Sorry to bother you about this...".
Since you don't want to say you (Why not? It's appropriate!), we can rephrase it passively as: Sorry to be bothersome... or Sorry to be troublesome...
But I have to say, the active voice is better writing.
My recommendation: go with 'Sorry to bother you...' or even better 'We're sorry to bother you...'