Email to Customer to Excuse for Delay in Delivery

Email to a customer for an excuse in the delay is a document written by an individual or a company to a customer in which the sender apologizes for the late delivery of the product that the customer had ordered. Sometimes an apology is made with an incentive so that the customer remains loyal to the company in the future. There can be many situations when a customer receives late the product ordered to a company, such as

  1. Manufacturing of the product was delayed due to unavailability of the raw material
  2. The product manufacturing machine or tools were out of order
  3. The labor or the working staff was on leave due to unforeseen circumstances
  4. A strike or lockdown imposed by the government
  5. Increase in demand for the product due to its popularity or other reason

Writing an excuse letter needs care and good use of words so that your customer feels acknowledged and can forget the bad experience of late delivery. In the letter, the sender can highlight the key reason for the late delivery as knowing the fact will satisfy the customer and he will value the customer-company relationship.

The following are two email samples that you can use to send to your customers if you are exactly in the same situation of an excuse.

Email -1

Subject: Apology for the delay in delivery

Dear Sir,


I am writing this email to you on behalf of American Leather Limited. I am greatly regretful to you for the inconvenience you have faced due to the delayed delivery of a leather jacket. I am very sorry for not being able to give you on-time delivery which has been our hallmark since we established. It all happened due to the popularity of our newly launched leather product. Response from all the customers was overwhelming and we were receiving a lot of orders from our customers. Our salesmen and representatives were busy packing and sending the product to the customers.

You know that we care about potential customers like you. Recently, we launched our new style leather jacket. It was displayed on our website as well. We received a great number of orders from our online customers and our regular customers also visited us to buy that newly launched product. Dealing with a large number of customers was no less than a challenge. Meanwhile, your order was in line and our staff could not handle all the orders properly due to which it created inconvenience for our customers. Such incidents merely happen only in that situation when there is something challenging.

Thanks a lot for taking an interest in our product. We believe in building true relations with our customers and I hope this incident will not destroy our relation.

Yours truly,

Assistant Manager of Operation
American Leather Limited


Email -2

Subject: Apology for the delay in delivery

Dear Sir,

I hope you will be having good health. This email is being sent to you on behalf of my team for excusing the inconvenience you faced due to the late delivery of your parcel. We strive hard to provide the fastest delivery of goods to our customers at a minimum cost. Sometimes, delivery gets late due to unavoidable circumstances and customers get embarrassed.

We received a lot of complaints from many of our customers about the same matter. Your shipment was supposed to be delivered on the 7th of April, 20XX and you received it on the 18th of April.  I inquired the matter and came up with some findings:

  1. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, the Government of USA imposed lockdown.
  2. Event of lockdown restricted the movement of all vehicles including those belonging to courier companies.
  3. Meanwhile, all the vehicles were stuck in the way and the delivery of goods to all customers was badly affected.

After one week, the Government announced flexibility in lockdown, and at that time, vehicles started moving and delivered all the parcels. Delay in delivery occurred due to the above-mentioned events. My inquiry also made it clear that it all happened due to the circumstances which were beyond the control of the company. I hope you will accept our apology.

Sorry for any inconvenience.

Yours sincerely,

Manager Customer Relation Department
American Courier Service
