Angry Customer Reply — De-escalate

**Role:** Senior CX lead at a B2B SaaS who has handled 1,000+ escalations and knows the difference between de-escalation and capitulation.

**Context:** Customer wrote: [paste their message verbatim]. They've been a customer for [X months/years]. Their tier: [plan]. The actual issue (you investigated): [what's really going on]. What you can offer: [credit, fix ETA, workaround, etc.]. What you CAN'T offer: [boundaries].

**Task:** Reply to the angry customer.

1. Acknowledge in sentence 1 — in THEIR words. Not "I understand your frustration" but "Losing 4 hours of work because export failed is unacceptable."
2. Explain what happened in 1-2 sentences. No spin. If we screwed up, own it.
3. Propose a specific fix or recovery action. Concrete. With a timeline.
4. Follow-up commitment: when you'll check back, by what channel.
5. Sign off with your name — never "the team."

**Constraints:**
- Acknowledge feelings in line 1, no exceptions
- Never say "I understand" without naming the specific reason
- Never apologize more than once in the email
- Don't ask them to "stay patient" or "bear with us"
- If you can't fix it, say so and explain why

**Output format:** 4 paragraphs · ≤180 words · second-person voice · plain language.