My experiences from tonight. Unedited (except to anti-spam the email addresses). No judgements made, nothing inferred – just a factual transcript of what occurred.
[logged onto Register.com live support - hello, what seems to be the problem etc]
James: one of my email users (scott@[register.com domain]) was sent an email yesterday that didn’t arrive
James: it was sent from richard@[third party domain], it seems to have been dropped and the sender didn’t get a bounce message
James: wondering why it was not delivered
James: and why the sender didn’t get a bounce message
James: it’s worrying because now we’re not sure if other mail is being dropped with no notification to either sender or recipient
Kathy A.: Let me check your records.
Kathy A.: Is that the email sent to you was with an attachment of more than the available space?
James: it was yes
Kathy A.: I am sorry, you cannot send an receive an attachment of more than the available space.
James: ok, but why wasn’t the sender notified of the bounce?
Kathy A.: And for email accounts with 50 MB space, 10 MB is the size limit for attachments.
James: you can see why that would be an issue
James: I can accept that, but for it just to disappear with no notification is surely not standard
Kathy A.: James, you need to take care of this. If you are expecting bigger emails or emails with attachments, you need to have sufficient space in the email account.
Kathy A.: I suggest, you add the storage space or upgrade the email account.
Kathy A.: I am sorry for the inconvenience.
James: I understand that, really. However every email account I have ever had has sent a bounce message to the sender if an email is not delivered.
Kathy A.: That was the different case. In this case, your email account could have received the email if there was some space.
James: Upgrading doesn’t solve the problem. What if someone sends me an 11MB email? I don’t get it, they don’t get notified that it wasn’t delivered. Not acceptable for a business.
Kathy A.: Bounce back emails are sent if the email is not sent to the receipent at all.
James: I don’t think you’re understanding me
James: a bounce message was not sent, that is the whole issue
James: the message was not delivered, no bounce message was sent. problem for my business
Kathy A.: I understand. I am sorry but bounce back email messages are not sent if your email space is our of limit.
James: OK – great, now we’re getting somewhere. Why not?
James: No matter what the size limit of my account, or of my individual email limit, I can’t control other people. I can’t ensure that someone who isn’t particularly computer literate will try to attach a 60MB file to an email. However, if they do, I do expect them to be notified by the server that drops the mail. that is standard practice
James: hello…
Kathy A.: Okay. I am sorry for the delay.
James: no problem
Kathy A.: Any email that is sent will be received by the recipient and if not it should bounce back to the sender. If the sender did not receive a bounce back means that the email did not reach our mailservers at all. In such cases, the ISPs block the email and this what, it seems happened in your case.
James: Sorry Kathy, nice try. The email was delivered fine when sent to another email address. The problem is not with the senders’ ISP or SMTP.
James: Please look at it from my point of view. First you say that no bounce message will be sent if the email box is out of limit. Now you say it would have been sent, but it didn’t reach you because of the sender. It sounds like you’re trying to disown the problem.
Kathy A.: Okay. Now, it is not necessary that your ISP would block all mailservers or all the IP’s.
James: So please confirm for me: would a bounce message have been sent from register.com or not? because I’m getting conflicting reports here
James: if I send an 60mb file to myself using my register.com address, will I get a bounce?
Kathy A.: It is quite possible that the other mailserver was not blocked by that ISP and so the email was delivered.
Kathy A.: If at all, it reached Register.com’s mailservers and it could not be delivered to your email account, then the sender would surely get a bounce back message.
James: so what you said before was wrong?
James: [quoting]Kathy A.: I understand. I am sorry but bounce back email messages are not sent if your email space is our of limit.
James: you can understand why this looks like a backpedal from my perspective
Kathy A.: Yes, it seems I was not able to explain the things in a right way. The sentence should have been – I understand. I am sorry but bounce back email messages are sent if your email space is our of limit.
Kathy A.: I am sorry but bounce back email messages are sent if your email space is out of limit.
James: OK. so that I get this straight – your story is that the senders’ mailserver for some reason was blocking register.com mailservers for delivery, but not blocking iinet mailservers. the mail never reached register.com. is that right?
James: (iinet being the provider of the address that did successfully receive the big message)
James: so by your reasoning, no mail from that sender should reach register.com address, right?
James: so you’d be surprised to hear that many emails have been exchanged between those two addresses, just not this large one?
James: so the possibilities are: the senders’ server blocks attachments, but not regular mail, to register.com servers, and allows mail with attachments to other servers. or – register.com didn’t send a bounce. which is more likely?
Kathy A.: Yes, to the first Question. If the particular email server is blocked by the ISP, then ofcourse no one would be able to send emails to that email address. The ISPs also keep updating their policies and the list of blocked mailservers. So it is not necessary that always the email will not be delivered. The ISP would be in better position to explain these things.
Kathy A.: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
James: you could help me with this problem instead of trying to wriggle out of it
James: I’m sorry, but this sounds like you’re out of your depth and trying to shift the blame elsewhere
James: can I speak to your supervisor please
Kathy A.: Well, this is not the fact. Okay, let me have the Supervisor to assist you.
James: thank you
Kathy A.: Please wait for a few minutes while I transfer this Chat.
James: thank you
[long delay]
Transferred To Stacy S.
Stacy S.: Hi, James.
Stacy S.: Thank you for waiting.
James: Hi Stacy!
James: no problem
James: has Kathy brought you up to date?
Stacy S.: Yes, I am going through the chat transcript you had with her.
James: great
Stacy S.: If you want, you could brief me up on the issue.
James: well, basically a large email was sent from a client to one of my register.com addresses. the email never arrived, and the sender never got a bounce message. I accept that emails that are too large are not delivered. what I don’t accept is that the sender is not notified.
James: I’m sure Kathy is doing her best to help, but the answer she has provided is clearly intended to shift the focus elsewhere and disown the problem.
James: I have had some experience with technical phone support, so I understand her dilemma, but I have conducted several experiments to verify her theories and none of them stand up.
James: I send a 6MB attachment from james@[register.com domain] (a register.com address) via a register.com SMTP to scott@[register.com domain] (also register.com). he did not receive the email, nor did I get a bounce. the only servers involved were the register.com SMTP and the register.com POP3. it is clearly a problem at register.com
Stacy S.: In that case, let me have the technical department and myself look into the email account and work on it.
Stacy S.: I would need to follow the same with your email account and check that before I decide upon any resolution.
James: OK, I’ll go make dinner and check back here every 15 mins or so
Stacy S.: Will that be fine with you?
Stacy S.: I will send an email to you once we have found a solution to your problem.
Stacy S.: I cannot assure you that we would hit a solution in a few minutes or so.
James: when could I expect that Stacey?
Stacy S.: In another few hours, may be another couple or so.
James: OK, so how do I get in touch with you if I don’t hear from you?
Stacy S.: You can contact us through this Live Chat support or call us at any time to check the status of your inquiry.
Stacy S.: If I need any more time, I would email you and let you know about it.
James: OK – I believe you really want to help, so I’ll trust you not to just blow me off on this. It’s quite important and you know how word gets around the net when people have poor customer service experiences! Could I have a support ticket number please?
Stacy S.: Yes, I do understand what effects it could have on a company.
Stacy S.: You can make a note of the Reference number 061220-000539.
James: fantastic, thank you for being so helpful Stacy
Stacy S.: You are most welcome and I apologize for the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.
Stacy S.: I will do my best to provide any plausible explanation on this.
James: look forward to hearing from you soon – no need to apologise
Stacy S.: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
James: solving this will be more than enough assistance, thanks!
James: gnight
Stacy S.: If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us again.
Stacy S.: Thank you for contacting Register.com.
Stacy S.: Bye.
Stay tuned…
