People not getting web store emails

News and information about the exxos store. Includes common questions and answers, plus information on new items for sale or items which will be coming off sale soon etc
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exxos
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People not getting web store emails

Post by exxos »

This seems to be on the rise lately :roll: A chap emailed me last week saying he had not had any emails or tracking, emailed me and emailed again in a bit of a grump because did not get a reply. This happened a few times over the past several weeks in fact. It is not just my web host either, peoples spam systems are even rejecting Stripe receipts!

Thing is, while a lot of web hosts have a spam box, a lot of web hosts are just outright rejecting emails and they are bouncing! So when people email me asking about their tracking or not have receipts etc, I simply cannot email them back because their mail server rejects my emails and I have no way of contacting them! :roll:

Part of this problem with my web server is someone was using my email address as a bounce to address, which got my IP address as a high spam score rating. So anyone which is using these third-party spam check sites are basically incorrectly rejecting email sent from my IP address. Spam was not originating from my server! Seems a lot of spam sites have incorrectly identified that the bounce to address was the sender, in the case of my server, it was not. As to why my email address got used in the first place is a bounce to was either pure coincidence or some malicious attack against me. Either way majority of contact should be by the forum not email. Just gets frustrating as well because of my RSI and taking the time to reply only to find the email is rejected :roll:

So aside from if your order actually failed, you will always get a email from stripe confirming credit card payment, A exxos web store receipt ( this information is displayed in your browser aswell after checkout, so please at least make a note of your order number!) Then you will receive a tracking email when your order is posted, this can be to a few days after your payment.

If you have had none of these emails then you really need to question why your mail server is rejecting them all and this is beyond my control so please don't moan to me about it! also if you email me and do not get a reply, I generally do reply to store related emails within a day, if you are not even getting those either then you definitely have a problem with your spam rules set up. You need to at least whitelist exxoshost if you expect to get any emails from my server reliably.

Also note if there is a problem with your order like missing parts of your address and we have no way to contact you, your order will simply get refunded and cancelled. The unusual thing is get an email six months later complaining because they have not received their order :roll:

Also as stated before, you can recover your order status on this page, but you need your order number at least, and you also need to fix your spam setup if you expect a copy to be emailed to you! https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/forum/viewt ... =90&t=2896

So people please stop blaming me for not sending out emails, I think maybe something your end which is messing up!
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
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Steve
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by Steve »

I'm not sure if you can with your hosting, but with mine I can request a different IP if that was happening. I can even move the site to different data centres around the world etc.
dalek
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by dalek »

You might be better off using your ISP's SMTP smarthost for outbound email rather than sending direct. You can still set up SPF records for your domain to include your ISP's smarthost IP addresses (or range).

It's so annoying that spam has made self-hosting one's own email very painful :(
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by exxos »

It is this company which is causing problems... If your email host uses this company then I suggest if you want to get emails from me that you stop using it.

I am not going to change my server's IP address every time some spam company thinks I am spamming people, they should fix their service not the other way around! I cannot do anything about people using my email address as a bounce to address, this could happen time and time again!

Capture.PNG
Capture.PNG (93.72 KiB) Viewed 13246 times


550-"JunkMail rejected - exxoshost.co.uk [81.4.101.12]:40134 is in an RBL
on 550-csi.cloudmark.com/reset-request/?ip=81.4.101.12 , see Poor
Reputation 550 Sender" (in reply to RCPT TO command)
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
troed
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by troed »

Do you have SPF and DKIM records for your domain? Usually that means that even if spammers use it in the From: field the antispam tools know that it has nothing to do with your domain.

/Troed
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by exxos »

troed wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 12:39 pm Do you have SPF and DKIM records for your domain? Usually that means that even if spammers use it in the From: field the antispam tools know that it has nothing to do with your domain.
It looks like I have a SPF on my new domain name and server, but I'm not really had chance to look into it yet, so basically no, and no idea how that works either.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Badwolf
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by Badwolf »

It's a royal pain, but basically these days the big guys are just clamping down and outright rejecting a lot of things if you don't jump through their hoops.

I working for a company where one of our big things is sending emails on other peoples' behalf (millions a month). It's an ongoing support job. No wonder plenty just give up and use Google or Outlook to do it for them. What was sufficient this year, isn't the next.

SPF, DKIM, DMARC are all pretty much requirements these days, as is a proper PTR record (as it mentions in the quoted passage).

'Suck it up, buttercup' is the loosely translated reply we get to most queries.

BW
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by exxos »

I'm all for the fight against spam.. but when companies outright refuse to unban you.. on that basis ultimately every IP address would get banned eventually.. Then what ? We all go back to writing letters I guess.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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Badwolf
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by Badwolf »

exxos wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 1:12 pm I'm all for the fight against spam.. but when companies outright refuse to unban you.. on that basis ultimately every IP address would get banned eventually.. Then what ? We all go back to writing letters I guess.
The 'solution' is you use Microsoft or Google to send you emails through. You would not be the first to speculate if this is, in part, the aim.

In the example you cite, they're not refusing to unblock you entirely, they're refusing to unblock you until you jump through their hoop. In this case they want to you to change your PTR record from "12.101.4.84.rev.sfr.net" to something more meaningful.

On the face of it, this isn't the worst request in the world as it's relatively easy to achieve (ask your IP provider to change your PTR record to 'exxoshost.co.uk'). It does (and probably will) get worse!

BW
DFB1 Open source 50MHz 030 and TT-RAM accelerator for the Falcon
DSTB1 Open source 16Mhz 68k and AltRAM accelerator for the ST
Smalliermouse ST-optimised USB mouse adapter based on SmallyMouse2
FrontBench The Frontier: Elite 2 intro as a benchmark
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Re: People not getting web store emails

Post by exxos »

Badwolf wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 1:25 pm The 'solution' is you use Microsoft or Google to send you emails through. You would not be the first to speculate if this is, in part, the aim.
This does not really help with how my web store works because emails are sent out automatically, order receipts and tracking emails etc. it is one reason I set up my server in the first place to automate all these tasks.

I'm honestly just thinking it would just be easier just not to bother send out emails at all. Then people just go on a dedicated webpage to check their order status and tracking etc.
Badwolf wrote: Thu May 06, 2021 1:25 pm On the face of it, this isn't the worst request in the world as it's relatively easy to achieve (ask your IP provider to change your PTR record to 'exxoshost.co.uk'). It does (and probably will) get worse!
I have access and control to everything, I just don't know where this option is supposed to be.
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/ All my hardware guides - mods - games - STOS
https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/store2/ - All my hardware mods for sale - Please help support by making a purchase.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1585 Have you done the Mandatory Fixes ?
Just because a lot of people agree on something, doesn't make it a fact. ~exxos ~
People should find solutions to problems, not find problems with solutions.
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