It bothers me when people break commitments (even when I break commitments.) It does not bother me when people renegotiate commitments. Consider the recent real-life example of a commitment that "Jack" will respond to my request for feedback on some potential screenshots by 11am the next morning.
If, at 10:50am the next morning, I run into Jack in the hallway and ask about it and Jack tells me he got held up in morning traffic, then had something else to work on, so doesn't have it done, that's breaking a commitment. It's worse when Jack doesn't even give me a new time.
If, as Jack sits in traffic, concerned that he is delayed and that it will affect his ability to deliver on his commitment, he gives me a call and tells me the problem, the impact, and the proposed alternatives, that's renegotiating a commitment. While consistently renegotiating every commitment or many commitments can in aggregate still become frustrating to others, the need to renegotiate a commitment is understandable and it's appreciated when it's done.
So, to sum up, if you tell someone you're going to get something done for him by a particular time, then part of your responsibility is to renegotiate the delivery time as soon as you know that you can't meet the original one, and you should expect frustration over the missed deadline if you don't do so.
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