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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:02 pm Post subject: Aaarrrgggh, Flamin Out of office and Auto Reply Emails Grrr |
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Why oh why oh why do people feel the need to configure auto-response emails on private email addresses? NTHell users seem the worst, I can only presume that NTL advertise the service and so their customers feel compelled to use it!
I've just sent out the Newsletter. This goes to about 100,000 recipients and every time it goes out we are then bombarded by 'I have received your email' messages. I really don't care, if you receive it then great but I don't need to know!
It's a complete waste of time and bandwidth. I can almost understand if it's a business and you need to let a customer know you have received the email or you are away and so cannot reply immediately but receiving thousands of 'The Jones Family have received your message' emails is maddening.
And yes I have configured rules to block the Out Of office and Auto reply emails but too many still get through as everyone uses a different title!
Oh and even though I have added the 'DO NOT REPLY TO THIS ADDRESS' in bold red text at the top of the email we still get a few hundred mails each week to the address!
There, I feel better now! _________________ Darren Griffin |
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GerryC Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Mar 01, 2005 Posts: 1513 Location: West Mids
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:47 pm Post subject: |
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I have read your post.
Sorry, couldn't resist. _________________ Gerry
TomTom730T
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:59 pm Post subject: |
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Comedian _________________ Darren Griffin |
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GPS_fan Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 2789 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:39 pm Post subject: Re: Aaarrrgggh, Flamin Out of office and Auto Reply Emails G |
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Darren wrote: | And yes I have configured rules to block the Out Of office and Auto reply emails but too many still get through as everyone uses a different title! |
Can you not configure it so that the newsletters are 'sent' from an invalid address so that these auto-replies just bounce back to 'the Jones family'?
At the moment, newsletterAT...exists and is valid, however, if xxxxxAT.... was not a valid address, 'the Jones family' would receive an error message saying that xxxxAT.... does not exist
Perhaps, after the Jones family's inbox fills up with bounced mail messages, they might take the hint and disable the auto-reply
Also, your message of 'do not reply' would become irrelevant because people would not be ABLE to reply to this address _________________ Andy
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PaulB2005 Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9323 Location: Durham, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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I suggest something similar what GPS_Fan said but you must have a mailbox for it. Bouncing messages again just wastes more bandwidth and doesn't solve the problem.
I set the same thing up for a customer and now he sends his messages from no-reply [at] xyz . co . uk . The mail box is set to delete ANY message that arrives there including spam.
edit: poor typing skills
Last edited by PaulB2005 on Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:51 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:44 pm Post subject: Re: Aaarrrgggh, Flamin Out of office and Auto Reply Emails G |
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GPS_fan wrote: | Can you not configure it so that the newsletters are 'sent' from an invalid address so that these auto-replies just bounce back to 'the Jones family'?
At the moment, newsletterAT...exists and is valid, however, if xxxxxAT.... was not a valid address, 'the Jones family' would receive an error message saying that xxxxAT.... does not exist
Also, your message of 'do not reply' would become irrelevant because people would not be ABLE to reply to this address |
Sadly not, we use a third party package to manage Newsletters because of the Spam issues. This understandably requires a valid email address be used. _________________ Darren Griffin |
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PaulB2005 Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9323 Location: Durham, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:52 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | Sadly not, we use a third party package to manage Newsletters because of the Spam issues. This understandably requires a valid email address be used. |
My idea no good then? |
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:56 pm Post subject: |
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The problem is (and my initial post was just me venting hot air) that there are pleas for help sent to the Newsletter address that we can't ignore simply because the sender has ignored the instructions.
Since posting this morning I have added 15 more rules to the filter to grab more of the auto responder posts and bin them. _________________ Darren Griffin |
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PaulB2005 Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9323 Location: Durham, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:01 pm Post subject: |
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I'll have to tell you about the 90-10 rule sometime..... |
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GPS_fan Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 2789 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:02 pm Post subject: |
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Could you invalidate the newsletterAT... address for a while (maybe an hour) before and after sending out the newsletter so that auto-replies are dealt with in that time. A simple process which would be quicker and easier than trawling through hundreds of messages.
If the mail servers do not recognise the e-mail address, then any bouncing of messages will not affect PGPSW bandwidth because it will occur before messages come near PGPSW.
Alternatively, do any valid e-mails come into this account (eg from the newsletter provider) or could you just forward all messages into a dormant account and forget about them? _________________ Andy
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject: |
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Again it would risk losing mails that need action, I'm aware of the 90/10 rule but we're not begin enough that we can afford to ignore emails just yet!
As I said, I was just blowing hot air, there isn't a solution that would work for us other than educating mail users that auto responders are there for a purpose, and saying 'Hi Got your email' isn't one of them'! _________________ Darren Griffin |
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PaulB2005 Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9323 Location: Durham, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | I'm aware of the 90/10 rule |
Was meant as a joke! Just Googled it! To be honest i didn't know there was a 90/10 rule - it was an in joke between myself and a client which actually turns out is true (for him at least). Your 90/10 rule might not be the same as ours! |
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GPS_fan Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 2789 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject: |
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This might sound crazy, but...
would it help if you sent out a message to the newsletter distribution list?
A greater proportion of members would see your message as opposed to just people who read 'off topic', for something which is 'on topic' to PGPSW, although difficult to categorise _________________ Andy
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Darren Frequent Visitor
Joined: 11/07/2002 14:36:40 Posts: 23848 Location: Hampshire, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject: |
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! I was thinking of the rule where you should not spend 90% of your time dealing with 10% of the work, i.e. if they're too stupid to email the correct addresses then ignore them, they'll either realise and email the correct address eventually or will stop bothering you _________________ Darren Griffin |
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PaulB2005 Pocket GPS Moderator
Joined: Jan 04, 2006 Posts: 9323 Location: Durham, UK
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Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:34 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | I was thinking of the rule where you should not spend 90% of your time dealing with 10% of the work, i.e. if they're too stupid to email the correct addresses then ignore them, they'll either realise and email the correct address eventually or will stop bothering you |
Yes. That's the fella..... Ah well, another original idea of mine that's not original...... |
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