Embarrassing stories of drunken e-mails

All but the luckiest of us know that horrifying lurch of the stomach and burning of the ears that rush upon us when we realise we've texted someone we shouldn't have or accidentally hit Reply All. We also know that the only cure is to share our misfortune with a sympathetic audience.

So, in response to Google's new Mail Goggles service, we introduce a public service: use the comment box below to send us your toe-curling tales of ill-advised e-mails and misdirected texts. We'll all cringe together and feel much better for it...

Comments

[full name]

i once typed up an erotic email for my lover at the time and sent it to the wrong person, whom i swear didn't recieve it because they kept quiet for a good 8 months. alas i was wrong.
choose your recipients wisely, or an ugly girl may fall for you.

[gary]

I was splitting up with an ex-girlfriend and I decided to go through her phone to get one of her friends numbers as I liked her.I sent an email to my "friend" in the morning explaining what I'd done and thought it was funny. I pressed send and it actually went to one of our clients instead of my friend and she berated me!

[There are idiots and then there are complete idiots]

I lost my job in April through sending an email to my boss instead of my friend as follows" I'm going to F*******g kill H-----s". Shortly after that, I send a text to my friend Carol saying I'd met a mutual friend the night before and that I'd paid as usual..except I sent it to the mutual friend. I'm shaking sending this.

[Eugene Wong]

I use a blackberry and have had it for 2 years now. Due to constant use (yes, I have no life) the trackwheel on the side is now very loose and with the slightest pressure it will move, causing the cursor to scroll up or down. My former firm hired a new employee who I thought was a complete idiot. When I got word of this, I sent an email to a good friend of mine who worked for that firm, basically saying "I can't believe you've hired this bumbling fool". When I went to the address book to find my friend's email address, I accidentally scrolled down one name and just hit send - so the email went to the next person down the list instead of to the intended recipient. Unfortunately, that person was a good friend of the bumbling fool in question and promptly recirculated my email.

[nick]

I had a business lunch with an important client a few years ago before I came 'out'. spent much of it talking about girls, dating, general bloke stuff. That night, plastered, i sent an erotic e-mail to my latest boyfriend but hit the wrong button and instead it went to the client... who i had to face at breakfast the next morning.....

[Paul Scofield]

As the IT Director, you'd think I knew better than to use the f word in an email when commenting on contract amendments. Jokingly, in 2001 I followed up a coffee room chat to my peers where we discussed having 'F Off' tee-shirts printed, with an email about said contract amendments saying "I'd prefer the F-Off' approach....". Unfortunately, hidden in the list of names was our client.....

[Christine]

I received an email from a close friend, which appeared to be criticising another friend. Incensed, I forwarded it to another friend pointing out the intolerance, the fact that one day she might be alone, that she didn't have many friends, etc. I accidentally sent it to the original friend who was absolutely furious. She forgave me, but I have never forgiven myself for being so foolish and hurting her feelings.

[Martyn]

I once text my girlfriend called Karen, telling her exactly what i was going to do to her that night.... but accidentally sent it to my boss who was called Kevan. He never mentioned it......!

[Dan]

I once sent my girlfriend a text saying 'I love you very very very much you funny thing', but accidentally sent it to a builder who was working on my flat. He wrote back: 'I never knew you cared'.

[A]

I sent an email requesting information to my assistant asking him to deal with "these Muppets" (clients). He then sent it to his assistant who attached the requested information to the same email and sent it to the muppets. Too many assistants. The muppets then sent it to my boss (muppets)and a lot of quick talking was required.

[Sarah]

I sent an e-mail to Shirley my best friend. Talking about a colleague- Sue's wedding but slagging off some other male creep I worked with. Known to Sue of course. Luckily I only said sweet things about Sue as I had just been to her wedding & it was detailed minutely in the e-mail as was my total slagg off of said male colleague. I sent the mail to Sue not Shirley. Very embarrasing. Thak GOD Sue's wedding was fab.

[Ella]

The day of my second-ever date with my partner, he sent me a text asking me where we should meet that evening, followed straight away by another stating 'Balls are dry, will be there in 5', then another very embarrassed one apologising for the second mis-sent text message. Whilst i was a bit puzzled and gave him the benefit of the doubt re the meaning of the text (maybe he was cleaning some sporting equipment?!?) he later admitted that he was known amongst his close friends for being extra careful to dry his bits after showering, sometimes even using a hairdryer. Lots of cringing on his side and lots of laughing on mine. We got married three weeks ago so it wasn't that bad!!

[sian]

My ex-PA kept in touch with me after she left our organisation to go travelling and I used our exchanges as the perfect forum for letting off steam about my line manager and my director. My comments included my line manager's resemblance to a hungry hippo and I referred to my director as Mr Whippy throughout the entire exchange. One day she mentioned that she had finished travelling and wanted her job back; as her replacement was useless and was about to fail her probation I was quite excited. So excited in fact that I forwarded her email expressing an interest to my line manager and my director, with it went the history of every email we had ever exchanged.

I resigned the following day.

[Dave]

I sent my wife a text telling her I love her and couldnt wait to get home. The window cleaner replied that he wasnt sure if I should have sent it to him.

[Tanya]

I once sent an email to my male colleague, telling him to check out a girl who sat in our office. My email said 'check out X on the way to the boardroom. Her t*ts look massive. Do you think she is pregnant?'. On my return I got the email forwarded to me from her saying 'I don't think you meant this for me'...

[Sean Langstone]

A few years ago I changed my mobile phone, so with my new number sent an erotic text to my girlfriend at the time. Expecting a 'Who is this?' reply and getting one, I launched into further detail of what I was going to do later. After receiving a further 'Who is this - i'm phoning the police' reply I cautiously answered saying who it was.
It turned out I had sent texts to a complete stranger after wrongly transposing the mobile number. Grovelling apologies were accepted and a lesson learned.

[DC]

i was on a 'romantic' weekend once - i text my best friend in the bathroom about how horribly wrong it was going and how he only lasted 10 seconds and what happened to all the promised lust!...i heard the beep beep going off in the bedroom!

[Deni]

I was new in the company where I worked and had to meet a client. In order to arrange the meeting I have sent her an email saying: 'Shall I come to your office and Pick you up'? But the thing was that instead of Pick you up I wrote Lick you up. Of course, this email got curculated around her office.. Then I had her boss on the phone to my boss which was very funny.... Well, I bought all of them lolipops when I met them

[Lucas Harley]

I am a high school student in Canada. One day, my Geography teacher sent the class marks for a test to the whole class. I had not scored so well, but a close friend of mine had. I usually spoke casually with this friend, so I wrote an e-mail to the friend using the words F*** and B****, about the fact that she had gotten a higher mark than me. My mistake was that I hit reply, so the e-mail was sent to the teacher, not the friend. I immediately sent a second e-mail to the teacher apologising for the message, and explaining the original intention. Fortunately, the teacher was understanding, and there were no consequences, but the ordeal was mortifying, awkward, and stressful, to say the least. I've got a long life, full of technology, ahead of me. Let's hope it does not contain any other situations such as this.

[Anonymous]

I started flirting with a fellow student called Sarah, who gave me her number. One weekend I had to go home, and so I sent some flirtatious messages to her throughout the weekend.
On sunday evening I'd received no reply, and then my uncle phoned me to find out who I was. My 10 year old COUSIN is ALSO called Sarah. oops/.

[Gary]

I once was trying to get with a work colleague from another office we had met during a training event. We were flirting via email for sometime but didn't know if she was truly interested in me. So what I did was I wrote a message with the previous correspondence intended to be sent to a friend as if him if I thought she was up for it etc and hit reply! However I didn't change the email address and sent it back to her, after that I never heard from her again. Shame I really liked her who knows where the relationship may of ended if not for the silly error.

[James]

If only they could now apply this to facebook! I spent a regrettable 2 hours on it when i got back from a night out last week...with the angst only being compounded by the fact that the evidence from my moment of weakness is there for all to see! The only saving grace being that, if you're quick enough, you can attempt a cleanup operation the next morning... Although the condition of the poster at the time of posting generally means any significant brain function the next morning, and possibly afternoon, is out of the question! Either way, I think I will be best served by staying away from lectures for a while longer!

[Alan]

be careful with predictive texting - I once sent a sms that should have ssid "thanks for the ace party", but actually said "thanks for the bad party"...

[Tim]

I'd only just started using email and saved the email address of the guy I was sleeping with as a contact called Mikey Big D*** (because he had one!) and then wondered why our liasisons stopped happening!

[Owen Dearing]

I wrote an email to a client to apologise for a slip up. As a closing line I meant to write "Apologies for any inconvenience caused" but misspelt it, and accepted the spelling correction of "Apologies for any incontinence caused".