Aaarrrgggh, Flamin Out of office and Auto Reply Emails Grrr

Darren

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!
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Darren Griffin

GerryC · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:47 pm Post subject:

I have read your post.

Sorry, couldn't resist. Laughing

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Gerry
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Darren · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:59 pm Post subject:

Comedian

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Darren Griffin

GPS_fan

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:43 pm Post subject:

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

Darren

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:52 pm Post subject:

Darren · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:56 pm Post subject:

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.
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Darren Griffin

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:01 pm Post subject:

I'll have to tell you about the 90-10 rule sometime.....

GPS_fan · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:02 pm Post subject:

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?
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Andy
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Darren · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:19 pm Post subject:

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'!
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Darren Griffin

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject:

GPS_fan · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject:

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
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Andy
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Darren · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:32 pm Post subject:

! 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 Wink

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Darren Griffin

PaulB2005 · Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 2:34 pm Post subject:

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