Is it time to stop using noreply email addresses?

Forums › ICT Policies and Regulation › Is it time to stop using noreply email addresses?

openmedia

3449 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 878

Trusted

#295276 18-Mar-2022 11:54

The sheer amount of wasted time dealing with corporate emails where I can't simply hit reply is becoming increasingly frustrating.

I think we need similar regulations to our TXT anti spam rules and require all B2C emails to come from an address we can actually respond to!!

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

openmedia

3449 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 878

Trusted

#2888117 18-Mar-2022 12:02

And here are a couple of scenarios.

First there are the unwanted emails meant for someone else where the wrong email address was provided.

I recently had to phone a US Bank to avoid a bad debtor score because someone had used my email address on a loan application.
In another case someone almost missed a flight because their e-tickets were sent to me
3rd where I can only respond if I login to their customer platform. I can't login as they only send password rests to the user's phone number. Their entire CSR process requires you to be logged in, or phone a per minute premium US number (ARGH)

Secondly there are actual messages meant to me, and aside from an unsubscribe button there is no way to interact without spending 10 minutes trying to find an actually contact email or phone number via their website.

And don't get me started on helping my relatives who aren't tech-savvy and generally give up (or call me) when they need help.

Am I alone here or is anyone else also frustrated?

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

ShinyChrome

1603 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 686

ID Verified

Trusted

#2888169 18-Mar-2022 12:13

It's always smacked of poor UX design to me. Companies talk about "every door is the right door" when referring to not putting up any more barriers to your users than you have to, but a no reply email address makes it sound more like "don't call us, we'll call you"

I'm particularly funny about email addresses though; for instance, if I see a company using a gmail/xtra/hotmail account for their business, it instantly makes me think they have a bit of a lackluster attitude in general towards their business profile/brand. Or they just CBF investing in digital services.

engedib

254 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 93

#2888173 18-Mar-2022 12:18

openmedia:

The sheer amount of wasted time dealing with corporate emails where I can't simply hit reply is becoming increasingly frustrating.

I think we need similar regulations to our TXT anti spam rules and require all B2C emails to come from an address we can actually respond to!!

Not sure why it would be better to have the emails received from john.doe@company.com and it would go to the same black hole if you would reply :D

openmedia

3449 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 878

Trusted

#2888182 18-Mar-2022 12:32

engedib:

openmedia:

The sheer amount of wasted time dealing with corporate emails where I can't simply hit reply is becoming increasingly frustrating.

I think we need similar regulations to our TXT anti spam rules and require all B2C emails to come from an address we can actually respond to!!

Not sure why it would be better to have the emails received from john.doe@company.com and it would go to the same black hole if you would reply :D

Hence some similar rules to TXT.

EG a response with Unsubscribe or STOP has to be honoured.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

engedib

254 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 93

#2888185 18-Mar-2022 12:37

openmedia:

Hence some similar rules to TXT.

EG a response with Unsubscribe or STOP has to be honoured.

How are you planning to validate if the sender mailbox is actually existing, and if exists, someone reading the emails, replying, and following up?

everettpsycho

668 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 270

#2888193 18-Mar-2022 12:57

engedib:
openmedia:

Hence some similar rules to TXT.

EG a response with Unsubscribe or STOP has to be honoured.

How are you planning to validate if the sender mailbox is actually existing, and if exists, someone reading the emails, replying, and following up?

Follow up is even if they are supposed to go in to an inbox how do you know companies using systems like Jira or zendesk have it set up to actually look at those tickets and don't just file those responses with macros to a bin. I've seen all sorts happen in those systems where emails just didn't show up, emails get blacklisted or tickets get rebadged to completely the wrong thing and lost in a sea of other tickets.

Whilst I hate noreply@xyz.com being a thing at least I know it's a black hole so don't respond and then get grumpy they haven't replied. My real bigger peeve is lack of ways to communicate all together, it's webforms or nothing for so many companies, and whilst that's my go to method if it's an option when they fail to respond other options would be useful for follow ups.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

openmedia

3449 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 878

Trusted

#2888211 18-Mar-2022 13:24

I agree this also needs a change of process by the companies involved. Directing the reply address to /dev/null simply isn't appropriate if you want to retain or grow your customers.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

richms

29098 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10208

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2888341 18-Mar-2022 15:46

Plenty of use cases for noreply addresses. So long as there is a working link in it to unsub or action the notification then no big deal at all.

Do you expect companies to have someone reading every reply from people that are emailed tracking numbers or details of special deals etc?

What should be dealt with is businesses that call you from a blocked number or a fake caller ID that you cant call back on. That genuinely is annoying.

Richard rich.ms

openmedia

3449 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 878

Trusted

#2888364 18-Mar-2022 17:15

richms:

Plenty of use cases for noreply addresses. So long as there is a working link in it to unsub or action the notification then no big deal at all.

Do you expect companies to have someone reading every reply from people that are emailed tracking numbers or details of special deals etc?

What should be dealt with is businesses that call you from a blocked number or a fake caller ID that you cant call back on. That genuinely is annoying.

I get plenty of overseas noreply emails with no unsubscribe link - usually someone else's bank details or something else quite important.
Yes I do - if you contact me you should be able to deal with my response
Totally agree. And NZ Gov departments that use blocked numbers .. ARGH

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

dacraka

771 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 165

ID Verified

Trusted

#2888584 18-Mar-2022 22:54

It's good practise to never use a noreply@ email. You are right, it's like they don't want you to contact them.

I just did a quick search for the kind of emails that use noreply@ and they are things like

Daycare invoice notifications (which should be changed to the daycare admin email address so it's easy to communicate questions about your daycare invoice)
LinkedIn notifications (I guess this is fine to have a noreply actually).
Reddit post notifications (another valid one)
NZ Police (they do have email addresses available to email so this should be sent from one of these)
Ridesharing companies
Power companies (this is a good example where they should not use a noreply email)

openmedia

3449 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 878

Trusted

#2888588 18-Mar-2022 23:35

dacraka:

It's good practise to never use a noreply@ email. You are right, it's like they don't want you to contact them.

I just did a quick search for the kind of emails that use noreply@ and they are things like

Daycare invoice notifications (which should be changed to the daycare admin email address so it's easy to communicate questions about your daycare invoice)
LinkedIn notifications (I guess this is fine to have a noreply actually).
Reddit post notifications (another valid one)
NZ Police (they do have email addresses available to email so this should be sent from one of these)
Ridesharing companies
Power companies (this is a good example where they should not use a noreply email)

Interesting, I'll raise you

Updates from my child's school - which usually require some kind of feedback!!!
Banks - not mine
Credit card companies - also not mine and usually US based
Debt collectors - also US based and not my debt
Airlines - US and European when issuing tickets
Cars servicing companies - reminders for other people's cars to be serviced
Phone repair services
Courier updates - usually with a link that lets me re-route someone else's parcel, but have no way to let the courier company know I'm not the correct email address
Verification requests - usually for services I didn't sign up for and usually, but not always, outside of NZ that require the use of a toll number.

I also get linkedIn, google and reddit etc

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC as a Technology Evangelist and Portfolio Architect. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

Geekzone

Want to support Geekzone and browse the site without the ads? Subscribe to Geekzone now (monthly, annual and lifetime options).

Rikkitic

Awrrr
19062 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 16302

Lifetime subscriber

#2888591 18-Mar-2022 23:56

openmedia:

And here are a couple of scenarios.

First there are the unwanted emails meant for someone else where the wrong email address was provided.

I recently had to phone a US Bank to avoid a bad debtor score because someone had used my email address on a loan application.
In another case someone almost missed a flight because their e-tickets were sent to me
3rd where I can only respond if I login to their customer platform. I can't login as they only send password rests to the user's phone number. Their entire CSR process requires you to be logged in, or phone a per minute premium US number (ARGH)
Secondly there are actual messages meant to me, and aside from an unsubscribe button there is no way to interact without spending 10 minutes trying to find an actually contact email or phone number via their website.

And don't get me started on helping my relatives who aren't tech-savvy and generally give up (or call me) when they need help.

Am I alone here or is anyone else also frustrated?

I had this with Contact Energy. They started sending me no reply emails that meter readers could not access my property. This was incorrect but there was no way to discuss the matter and it was impossible to reach them by either email or phone. I finally had to submit a complaint to force them to communicate with me. Once I was able to clear things up with their complaints person everything was fine. But it would have been a lot simpler for both of us without the bureaucratic runaround.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

MikeAqua

8024 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3817

#2889543 21-Mar-2022 12:57

I very rarely experience this (joys of an obscure email address and a family name from an obscure ethnicity). But if I do, I just block the sender.

Mike

BlakJak

1330 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 735

Trusted

#2889715 21-Mar-2022 20:06

An organisation choosing to use a noreply address is explicitly deciding that:

- It's a broadcast email; no reply is expected or desired (unless a reply-to is set)

- Bounces - backscatter of any sort - will go into a blackhole (unless custom values are used in the envelope-sender to allow individual emails that bounce, to be attributed to a sender)

I'm usually quite strenuously against noreply, but at a certain scale level there's no other viable way to manage.

If you want to talk about 'spam' and 'unsubscribe' type stuff, ensure you are familiar with the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act before you start talking about what our obligations here are.

https://www.dia.govt.nz/Spam-Frequently-Asked-Questions

So.. I think it's ugly but also necessary.

Organisations who use it, are asserting their lack of care (or lack of capacity) around what happens if delivery failures (unless they're doing the envelope thing).

Most of the complaints in the above can be solved by an organisation doing the right thing... even emails that use 'noreply' should be complying with the UEM Act and providing ways for you to contact the source.

No signature to see here, move along...

dacraka

771 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 165

ID Verified

Trusted

#2889870 22-Mar-2022 08:39

As a Developer, I know half the reason why these are set as "noreply@". It's because the Developer was too lazy or could not be bothered to ask the client (either themselves or via their Project Manager), what the "from" email should be set to. Sometimes the systems that send these emails are "out-of-the-box" and is simply set to noreply as it's the easiest option, instead of setting it to a user-changeable setting. Another option is that the user of the system doesn't know how to set this option. Mailchimp is a good example where they highly encourage their users to set the from address correctly (unlike other systems).