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by ared38 2800 days ago
While I agree jumping to the conclusion that they're unreliable and flaky is ridiculous, being "polite" like that does no one any favors.

Just be honest and explain you've been caught up with higher priority issues and haven't made progress. That gives the asker an opportunity to explain why the task is more important than you thought, find someone else with less on their plate to do it, or at the very least understand what's taking so long.