Distinguish a recurring condition from a single event
Was regelmäßig geschah und was einmal anders war
Preserve the scope of repeated observations, a one-off exception and a change that is only proposed.
Immer wenn introduces a recurring case and the response to it; it does not say that this case occurred for every customer on every Saturday. Als introduces the specific arrival on the seventh Saturday in this narrative. Goods were ready but the door was closed: readiness and opening hours are separate. The suggested clearer pickup window has not yet been implemented, so no observed improvement can be attributed to it.
Immer wenn jemand vorher eintraf, wurde zunächst um Geduld gebeten.
Whenever someone arrived beforehand, they were initially asked to wait.
Als die Kundin am siebten Samstag kam, war die Tür schon geschlossen.
When the customer came on the seventh Saturday, the door was already closed.
Die Ware lag bereit, obwohl keine Abholung mehr möglich war.
The goods were ready even though collection was no longer possible.
Ob die Nachricht gelesen worden war, blieb unbekannt.
Whether the message had been read remained unknown.
Für den nächsten Versuch wurde ein genaueres Zeitfenster vorgeschlagen.
A more precise time window was proposed for the next trial.
Eine noch nicht umgesetzte Änderung erklärt keine beobachtete Verbesserung.
A change not yet implemented does not explain an observed improvement.
Immer wenn introduces a recurring case and the response to it; it does not say that this case occurred for every customer on every Saturday. Als introduces the specific arrival on the seventh Saturday in this narrative. Goods were ready but the door was closed: readiness and opening hours are separate. The suggested clearer pickup window has not yet been implemented, so no observed improvement can be attributed to it.
Preserve the scope of repeated observations, a one-off exception and a change that is only proposed.
Do not generalise a holiday exception to all collections, infer deliberate disregard of a message, or report a proposed change as an already tested success.
In these contexts, als locates a particular past situation; immer wenn or sooft describe recurrence. A repeated conditional pattern does not establish how often its condition occurred, and a plan for the next trial is not evidence of a result already obtained.
Write a 250–300-word German evaluation for the shop team. Separate the six-Saturday routine, the seventh Saturday’s exception and the untested improvement. Use als and a repeated wenn construction, and include a question about missing evidence without assigning blame.