Spark blocking all emails - how do we penetrate the bureaucracy?

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#2235305 12-May-2019 13:23

sciascia: Thanks guys, the experiences shared seem to be common and certainly backup up our experience with Spark support - the polite ‘talk to the hand’ method!

I'll raise the concern.

As noted before the business email folk should assist with this.

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1101

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#2235760 13-May-2019 09:16

chevrolux: I've said it loads before, SMX just need to pull their heads put of their as5es!

There is absolutely no justification for the ridiculous level of spam filtering they employ. .

Sure, and we get @xtra users who complain endlessly about having just 2 spams get through .

Cant have it both ways .

chevrolux

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#2238408 15-May-2019 15:06

1101:
chevrolux: I've said it loads before, SMX just need to pull their heads put of their as5es!

There is absolutely no justification for the ridiculous level of spam filtering they employ. .
Sure, and we get @xtra users who complain endlessly about having just 2 spams get through . Cant have it both ways .

Well those people simply need to be educated that it's just part of life when you smack your email address in to every text box possible on any random website.

Delphinus

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#2238425 15-May-2019 15:33

We were having issues last year, got in touch with business support, and they fixed it, and then it's happening again.

I send the same person I was dealing with examples of the bounce message, the email headers from message we were trying to send, and a couple of email addresses that were bouncing. They reply asking for:

Email address you are sending from

A Copy of Email you are sending - Click File > Save As (add as attachment)

A Copy of the Bounceback / Error Message – Click File > Save As (add as attachment) or add as a screenshot

List of Email accounts unable to send to (if there are many please restrict to at least 5) –

I realise they have to follow a script, but did they even LOOK at what I sent them?

allio

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#2238427 15-May-2019 15:37

I work at a fairly large, household-name type NZ organisation (won't name it here) and we've had nothing but trouble sending regular emails (not automated or marketing emails) to xtra addresses this year. Virtually everything is blocked as spam. The problem comes and goes but is present for weeks at a time.

Our IT department have apparently been told by Spark that there is nothing they can do. We've had to ask our customers to sign up for gmail addresses so we can communicate with them.

sciascia

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#2239151 16-May-2019 14:20

Thanks for all the replies,

I contacted business email support and sent examples, will report back once I've heard.

The agent said emails without unsubscribe links get blocked which sounds weird because while our marketing emails contain a link, our order/shipping notifications and business emails don't contain unsubscribe links - do anyone's?

Cheers

Ben

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#2239179 16-May-2019 14:35

sciascia:

Thanks for all the replies,

I contacted business email support and sent examples, will report back once I've heard.

The agent said emails without unsubscribe links get blocked which sounds weird because while our marketing emails contain a link, our order/shipping notifications and business emails don't contain unsubscribe links - do anyone's?

Cheers

Ben

There is no requirement for emails to have 'unsubscribe ' links in any emails as far as I am aware. Just as long as there is a way to subsubscribe, such as emailing back as reply requesting to be unsubscribed. Details are at https://www.dia.govt.nz/Spam-Frequently-Asked-Questions#uns

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sciascia

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#2239192 16-May-2019 14:58

Well, I didn't come away with much confidence but now I'm not holding my breath.

What the agent told me didn't make sense as people getting our purchase or shipping notifications are buying stuff from us, it's not about marketing/subscribing/unsubscribing etc.

Same goes for people who've emailed me using my business card, my reply doesn't contain an unsubscribe link.

sciascia

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#2239363 16-May-2019 16:57

Received this reply from the Spark email team...

'Domain is marked as clean. It is now resolved.'

Will monitor and see how we go.

sciascia

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#2324742 25-Sep-2019 18:20

And this problem is back. And of course front-line staff blame us, mind-numbing.

The money lost to this issue each year must be enormous, the frustration caused to Spark customers is incalculable.

For the good of New Zealanders, Spark should be forced to setup a page were effected businesses can send .eml files directly to tier two staff.

1101

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#2325747 27-Sep-2019 09:46

sciascia:

And this problem is back. And of course front-line staff blame us, mind-numbing.

The money lost to this issue each year must be enormous, the frustration caused to Spark customers is incalculable.

For the good of New Zealanders, Spark should be forced to setup a page were effected businesses can send .eml files directly to tier two staff.

Perhaps its time for Spark to yet again find another email host for @xtra
SMX simply just cant get spam filtering right .
When the issues are so bad they make the newspapers ......

This has been going on for how long now . Surely its time to accept the hosting service just isnt good enough .

Spark need to front up and let customers now that @xtra is simply now not suitable for anything but a secondary,temporary home email a/c . Certainly no longer
suited for spark customers main email a/c and definitely unsuited for any sort of business use .

matisyahu

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#2327250 30-Sep-2019 18:38

1101:

sciascia:

And this problem is back. And of course front-line staff blame us, mind-numbing.

The money lost to this issue each year must be enormous, the frustration caused to Spark customers is incalculable.

For the good of New Zealanders, Spark should be forced to setup a page were effected businesses can send .eml files directly to tier two staff.

Perhaps its time for Spark to yet again find another email host for @xtra
SMX simply just cant get spam filtering right .
When the issues are so bad they make the newspapers ......

This has been going on for how long now . Surely its time to accept the hosting service just isnt good enough .

Spark need to front up and let customers now that @xtra is simply now not suitable for anything but a secondary,temporary home email a/c . Certainly no longer
suited for spark customers main email a/c and definitely unsuited for any sort of business use .

The obvious choice would be Google's G-Suite so I assume that if they move they won't be going with Google but instead choose some strange vendor no one has ever heard of and has a grand total of 3 employees but the executive were really impressed at their use of buzzwords.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

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#2327347 30-Sep-2019 22:53

1101: Perhaps its time for Spark to yet again find another email host for @xtra ...

🤯 Perhaps it is time for the general public to act & find another email provider. 😡

At least with /dev/null you know what is happening to your emails.

Please keep this GZ community vibrant by contributing in a constructive & respectful manner.

hio77

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#2327349 30-Sep-2019 22:56

1101:

definitely unsuited for any sort of business use .

xtramail is not a business product. we have Spark Business Mail for that, which has the support structure one should expect for a business.

I'm of the opinion businesses should never be allowed to consume free email services. It just looks tacky, when you actually need the support it should be right there etc.

Note, i'm deliberately avoiding the spam topic, I've got far too much on my plate to be picking up those sorts of things.

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

sciascia

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#2327371 1-Oct-2019 06:01

OP here,

We’re not using xtra mail services for our business, Spark is blocking emails to our customers that use xtra.co.nz email addresses.

The customers are often elderly, so don’t understand why order and shipping notifications, exchange and refund emails, and general queries go unanswered - Spark confirms their worst fears about online shopping.

Further compounding the issue is that Spark’s front-line staff aren’t aware that this is a huge problem, so it takes several goes to get through to a person who inspires confidence.

A page which collects the required info and allows us to upload .eml files would bypass front-line support but the whole situation is still mind-numbing.

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