Not receiving emails

[JaneT0465]

I am not always receiving the emails that I should. This is not a new issue, it has been happening for a while and I have reported it before with no resolution. I can't tell the full scale of the issue but I know I have missed important emails from HMRC, Transport for Wales (ticket bookings), and other reliable websites which I have signed up to receive information from. One has reported to me that their email has been rejected by my mail provider with a "hard bounce". I have also tried to forward emails to myself from the same email address, some have got through to me, others haven't.

This affects all platforms - PC (Outlook), phone (Samsung email app), Talk Talk webmail. There is nothing in my spam folder.

[JaneT0465]

With respect, I'm going to have to disagree with you. You haven't said that you've done anything to fix the problem. All you have told me is that you can't find any instances of bounces from those particular emails in the last 30 days. That doesn't actually surprise me, I know it's an intermittent problem and I only find out about it if someone (human or tech) tells me about it or chases a response to an email that I haven't received. I also know that one of those websites has given up sending me emails because of the "hard bounce" issue.

In particular you don't seem to have responded to that specific request to lift the "hard bounce". I have now advertised again on that website, and I have 3 messages waiting for me on their portal which were sent in the last 24hrs. I did not receive the notification emails that I should have done, to tell me those messages were there. So either they have bounced (in which case hopefully you can track them), or their system didn't bother sending them because of the "hard bounce" issue previously experienced.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

I don't believe we have the same sites bouncing today as back then. If you find you still have problems please let me know. 

Ady

[JaneT0465]

But can you please lift the "hard boucne" as requested by this particular website provider, of which I gave you the details in September? Then when I advertise on that site in the next few days, I will know whether I'm successfully receiving their notifications or not. If the hard bounce is still in place I won't get them anyway.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

I can't do anything about mail missing from April. I can help with mail bouncing in the last 30 days but that doesn't mean you'll receive it, it will still need to be resent by the original sender. 

Ady

[JaneT0465]

Hi Ady, this is frustrating! It is not easy for me to know when I am missing an email - if I find out at all, it's usually much later when I discover that the email was important. From the ones I'm aware of, there isn't generally an error message, so the sender doesn't know that I'm not receiving the message.

I do know for sure that there were a bunch of emails which I did not receive in April 2024 from a particular website. This was really irritating, it was notifications of messages which were in my inbox on that website, and in the absence of reliable notifications it meant that I had to constantly log into the website to check if I had any mesasges. When I contacted the website about it they said that their system had generated a message 'We were not able to send email to this address because it hard bounced, and will not attempt to send to it again. We will resume email sending to this user if they update their email address.'.

This is obviously not a technical message but one that their system has produced - I have already given you these details in my DM in September.

I am also about to advertise on that site again, but unless you are able to lift the "hard bounce" their system may not attempt to send the notifications anyway so it may not give us any evidence.

[TrevorAtNo16]

Hi Ady,
Thanks, I've raised a new topic and added the affected email address to my private notes,
Trevor

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi TrevorAtNo16, please start a new topic with as much information as possible and be sure that you've added the affected email address to private notes in your community profile. 

Ady

[TrevorAtNo16]

I had the same problem yesterday, which prevented some 2 stage verifications as did not receive the verification codes.  I sent some test emails and got the following response on one sent to my TalkTalk mailbox:

- These recipients of your message have been processed by the mail server:
xxxxxxxx@homecall.co.uk; Failed; 5.3.0 (other or undefined mail system status)
Remote MTA mx003.tt.xion.oxcs.net: network error
- SMTP protocol diagnostic: 550 5.7.1 Message rejected per sender's SPF policy - OXSEU001_514 - https://postmaster-oxseu.vadesecure.com/inbound_error_codes/#_514

Please raise a ticket

[Ady-TalkTalk]

I just ran a 30 day scan for your address and the 3 provided. None show any bounced or deferred messages. I can't raise a ticket without evidence I'm afraid. If you can provide examples of sent and no received with error messages I can log a ticket.

Ady

[JaneT0465]

Difficult to tell - as I've already said, it's not a consistent problem - I have proved that by sending myself 2 emails one after the other, one of them got through and the other didn't. I can't be certain if the same senders are still blocked because I can't tell if they're trying to send me emails. I know at least one has given up until the "hard block" has been lifted. I didn't know my pension provider was blocked until I got the letter through the post telling me they didn't have a valid email address for me. But unless you've done something specific to resolve the problem, I have to assume that the problem is still there.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi JaneT0465, I must apologise. Your personal message never appeared in the workflow tool we used so I had no idea you'd provided the information. Are the same senders still being blocked now? 

Ady

[ferguson]

I have re-escalated this for you. 

[JaneT0465]

Can you give me an update on this please? I supplied the info requested back in September but as far as I can tell nothing has changed. In addition I have recently had a letter from my pension provider telling me that they do not have a valid email address for me - they do, they have this one - so I guess that means their emails have bounced too.

[JaneT0465]

I'll try but I don't know what addresses some of them would be using (eg HMRC). The problem is also inconsistent in some cases - as previously mentioned I have sent myself 2 messages one after the other - one of them arrived, the other didn't.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Could you send me a personal message with the senders addresses that you are aware of please?

Ady

[JaneT0465]

Hi Ady ... I assume so although it's difficult to tell because the problem is that I'm not receiving emails! I'll only find out that I've missed one, if someone tells me they've sent one and I haven't received it. I know I didn't receive a routine database mailing email last week from something I'm signed up for, so I have no reason to think the problem has gone away.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi JaneT0465, are still having the same problem?

Ady

[JaneT0465]

Hi guys ... is there any update on this yet please, it's been a while now.

[Ady-TalkTalk]

Hi JaneT0465, I've raised many of these issues and I'm still waiting on a response. I've chased it again today and will provide updates as soon as I hear anything.

Ady

[Gliwmaeden2]

@JaneT0465, if you responded to the notification email it would not show on the thread, and is not received by staff, as it's from a No Reply address.

So always do reply via the thread, as you did just now.