British Gas, my bank's courier and Royal Mail have taken to similar tactics, every letter, email and card through the postbox start with these words. As I doubt it's possible that it's true every time, I suspect it's a bit like hearing 'we are experiencing unusually large call volumes'--it's an idea 'going around' large organisations that we may be more likely to respond if we think they've worked so hard trying and we are the ones making life difficult.