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Undeliverable - feedback from Amazon SES

edited February 2013 in Questions

Hi,

We've just started using Sendy 2 days ago and currently we are using sendy's Double-Opt in to collect our client's subscriber data. It went well until I noticed that 55% of new subscribers was "unconfirmed"... as you can view it here http://d.pr/i/1Ixb. At first we thought it was because of spam but when i check the Feedback/bounce message from Amazon, it says:

Subject: "UNDELIVERABLE: Message-Subject-Name"
Message:
"Delivery failed to xxxxxxx@domain.com.
An error occurred while trying to deliver this message to the recipient's email
address. We will not try to redeliver this message for you. Please try resending this message, or provide the following diagnostic text to your system administrator."

We've also learnt that the above feedback message is different from another message with a subject "Delivery Status Notification (Failure)"... which I believe was caused by some user's typo or people trying to spam.

My questions:

  1. What is the cause of UNDELIVERABLE message above. If there was an error while sending the email, will Sendy try to resend the message?
  2. Will it affect my Amazon bounce reputation?

By the way, we've implemented the anti-spam guide as suggested http://sendy.co/discussion/161/lots-of-spam-signups-on-double-opt-in-list and when we check some "UNDELIVERABLE" email addresses randomly it really looks like their real email address.. not 100% sure though.

Thanks.

Comments

  • Hi @marwazihs,

    What is the cause of UNDELIVERABLE message above

    It means an email had bounced.

    We will not try to redeliver this message for you

    This further instates that the email bounced permanently (different from soft bounce), hence Amazon will not retry sending the email.

    If there was an error while sending the email, will Sendy try to resend the message?

    According to Amazon SES's email sending best practices, Amazon will retry sending on their side if the bounce is a 'soft bounce', eg. inbox is full, or email server is temporarily unavailable.

    Will it affect my Amazon bounce reputation?

    As long as your bounce rate is below 5%, you're fine.

    To learn more, read Amazon SES's email sending best practices http://media.amazonwebservices.com/AWS_Amazon_SES_Best_Practices.pdf

    Thanks.

    Ben

  • Hi Ben,

    Thank you for prompt response and explanation... so can I assume that whatever response came back from amazon then it will recognised as bounce? and I should take attention on it?

    Sorry, but i have one more question... I also received a complaint email (spam report) from amazon from 1 recipient, but it did not recorded as "marked as spam" in the list. Since we have not started any campaign yet, Im sure the subscriber marks the Thank You email (as set in the List Settings) after he received it.

    Is it normal that Sendy did not mark the subscriber as "marked as spam" for thank you email? as I was expecting Sendy would do so..

    Thanks.
    Marwazi

  • Hi @marwazihs,

    Thank you for prompt response and explanation... so can I assume that whatever response came back from amazon then it will recognised as bounce? and I should take attention on it?

    If your recipient did not click the confirmation in the double opt-in confirmation email, that email address will remain as unconfirmed. When you send a campaign in future, it will not be sent to them because they are 'unconfirmed'. So there's nothing you need to do.

    I also received a complaint email (spam report) from amazon from 1 recipient, but it did not recorded as "marked as spam" in the list. Since we have not started any campaign yet, Im sure the subscriber marks the Thank You email (as set in the List Settings) after he received it.

    Complaints aren't registered for 'thank you emails'. It's unusual someone would opt-in to receive your newsletter, then mark your email as spam. Someone obviously did this intentionally. But not to worry, their email will remain as 'unconfirmed' in your list, future emails will not be sent to them.

    The purpose of registering emails as 'bounced', 'spam', 'unconfirmed' or 'unsubscribed' is such that your future emails will not be sent to them. As the record of the person who sabotaged you remains as 'unconfirmed', it's as good as being marked as 'bounced', 'spam' or 'unsubscribed'.

    Thanks.

    Ben

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