Start by assuming they misunderstood

When someone lets you down, you can guess they did it on purpose, or guess they did not understand. Start with the second guess.

You may well have been wronged. But if that is where you begin, every reply comes out sharp, and the other person starts defending instead of listening.

A woman sells honey from her family's hives in southern Saudi Arabia. A customer messages to say the jar has gone cloudy and hard, so the honey must be fake. In fact, raw honey does that in a cool kitchen, and the customer has simply never seen it happen. One kind reply explaining this, with a tip to stand the jar in warm water, keeps a buyer who was about to leave.

Most people who seem to be working against you are not thinking about you at all. They are busy with their own day, and nobody told them what you were hoping for.

So when something stings, ask what they might not know. Then tell them, plainly and kindly.

Usually there was no bad intent, only a gap in what someone knew.

Explaining fixes more than blaming ever will.