A customer in England wrote to a company asking if it sold blank CDs. All she wanted was a simple yes or no. Instead she received this reply:
We are currently in the process of consolidating our product range to ensure that the products that we stock are indicative of our brand aspirations. As part of our range consolidation we have also decided to revisit our supplier list and employ a more intelligent system for stock acquision. As a result of the above certain product lines are unavailable through jungle.com, whilst potentially remaining available from more mainstream suppliers.
This response earned the company the Golden Bull award from the Plain English Campaign, a British group dedicated to promoting plain language. The Golden Bull award is given each year to the worst example of communication.