DEAR MISS MANNERS: When I’m talking to someone who represents a company, I sometimes say something like, “This is the fourth time I have called you.” The representative nearly always replies with, “I’m not the person you talked to last time. I didn’t know about this issue before.” Sometimes I then say, “The word ‘you’ can be used as a plural; in this case, it refers to your company and the people who work there.” Am I wrong to use the word “you” to address a company in general? Do I have to say, at the beginning of every sentence, “I’m referring to the company you represent when I say the word…
