Bug report acknowledgment email
A customer who writes a bug report did free QA for you — the reply should honor that. Confirm whether you can reproduce it, hand over any workaround, and promise to tell them when it's fixed. That last promise is cheap to make, and keeping it turns bug reporters into fans.
Subject: Re: [original subject] — confirmed, and a workaround
Hi [first name], Thanks for the clear report — this is a real bug, and your description helped us reproduce it. [If not yet reproduced: "We're working to reproduce it now, and I'll confirm either way by [time]."] What's happening: [one plain-language sentence, e.g. "exports over 10,000 rows time out before the file finishes building"]. In the meantime: [workaround if one exists, e.g. "filtering the export to under 10,000 rows per file works reliably" — otherwise: "I won't pretend there's a good workaround for this one"]. I've filed this with engineering [reference number if you use them], and I'll email you on this thread when the fix ships — you won't have to check back. Thanks again for taking the time to report it. [your name]
Replace every [bracketed] placeholder before sending — the brackets are there so an unfilled field is impossible to miss.
How to use this template well
- Say "this is a bug" plainly when it is one. Customers respect the admission and distrust the corporate "working as intended" dodge.
- "I'll email you when the fix ships" — then actually do it. A shared inbox with snoozed conversations makes this promise keepable at scale.
- If there's no workaround, say so directly. An honest "there's no good workaround" beats a workaround that doesn't work.
Related templates
Escalation status update emailThe unprompted check-in that keeps an escalated customer from having to chase you.Feature request response emailThank them, tell the truth about likelihood, and never promise the roadmap.Asking a customer for more informationAsk for everything in one round-trip, and explain what each item unlocks.
Your team's replies, one snippet away.
Repliqo turns templates like this one into shared snippets your whole team inserts in two keystrokes — with variables that fill in the customer's name automatically.