They don't understand attachments... Wow.
When a butcher of 50 years old in a supermarket has to answer an email about meat prices, absenteeism of staff and supervision of the authorities on hygiene laws, expect things like: "had attached image? I did not notice."
People that sells like 1 million in meat, or fruits or cheese, etc.
Sad, I know
With all due respect, I don't think it always has to do with the non-technical nature of your correspondent. It takes two to
tango communicate.
I consider myself a very technical and computer-savvy person. If somebody sends me a message and doesn't mention the attachment explicitly, I can overlook it.
Just recently, I had the following e-mail exchange with my niece, who asked me to buy some particular medicine:
(I) -- How many? What flavor?
(she) - Two.
(I) -- OK, What flavor?
(she) --
I already answered...
Then I found that her first response contained an attached photo of the pack.
When I am sending an attachment, I always make sure that I explicitly reference
what is in the attachment. More over, usually, if there are several items attached, I make sure to explicitly mention each of them or the number of them, in case they are of a similar kind (e.g. "5 photos from the party"). I've had situations when people saw the first attachment and didn't notice the rest.
That's a part of the
efficient communication protocol/etiquette, if you wish.