posted on September 4, 2003 02:59:22 PM new
I had 2 winning bidders last night that have email addresses that come back "address unknown", but both have sent me a couple of emails today asking for postage, but again when I click on reply, they bounce back again.
My question is, how can they send an email from an address that is not valid?
posted on September 4, 2003 03:09:03 PM new
your account does not have to be valid to send, only to receive. It depends on your setup. They can also be asking through ebay, which bypasses their email completely. I have this problem with half all the time, people asking a question but when I reply back, it bounces. I usuall report them as invalid email since I don't have other options with half.
posted on September 4, 2003 03:09:45 PM new
amber there is an email program that you can install to make all or some of your emails appear to bounce. The assumption is spammers will take you off their list. That could be it, or not.
posted on September 4, 2003 03:18:39 PM new
The replies were not through eBay, but directly from their email address. They have both got over 200 pos. feedback, no negs, I hate to get people suspended, but it is so frustating when you can't get through to them!
The REPORT link is at the very bottom of the page.
-------------- sig file ----------- President John F. Kennedy said, "There are three things which are real: God, human folly and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third."
posted on September 4, 2003 03:38:27 PM new
I have had 3 or 4 of these in the last couple of weeks, never before. I was thinking maybe they had blocked emails due to the viruses that were going around in the last month?
I did get one suspended, they then emailed me with a new email address and we completed the transaction. They had been registered since 2000 on ebay, but my auction was their first purchase. The email they registered with was their old one.
posted on September 4, 2003 05:25:41 PM new
I have had only one of those and they did the eBay check out. I never communicated with the buyer all as all emails bounced, but I did receive the check.
posted on September 4, 2003 06:04:59 PM new
I see that no one has actually answered Amber's question.
Amber, maybe you remember when you configured your mailer before you used it the first time. I don't know if you use Outlook Express or Eudora or whatever, but there would have been a fill-in-the-blank for your return address. You can put anything in the world there, it doesn't have to be a valid email address.
For example, in the Sending Mail section of my Eudora setup, it asks for:
Real name: ***** *****
SMTP Server: smtp.***.com
Return address: fluffy@****.com
I could have put "[email protected]" in the return address slot and it wouldn't have made any difference to Eudora; it would forward it to the SMTP server all the same.
Our motto: Bright and shiny baubles for persons with low impulse control.
posted on September 4, 2003 06:11:40 PM new
This is becoming a bigger problem as ISPs install anti-spam software without informing their customers. A few weeks ago one of my clients was asking me for some updates for a program I wrote. I emailed them as I have in the past and it came back undeliverable. Turns out that AOL decided to block all Earthlink email.
I have already seen two articles about this. One place actually did a study and determined that a number of ISPs block a great deal of email. Mail.com and Netzero block close to 40%. AOL blocks about 25%. They do this without informing their customers and the senders often get undeliverable responses. Sometimes they get nothing at all and never realize that the mail wasn't delivered.
I believe that spam filtering is a good idea, but blocking it completely without informing customers is a terrible idea. In some ways, it's worse than censorship.
posted on September 4, 2003 09:22:10 PM new
I had the same thing happen to me last week...Ended up calling the bidder and she sent payment. She'd sent me several e-mails asking for payment info but my replies kept bouncing back. So, thought the best thing to do was to give her a call. Worked for me.
posted on September 4, 2003 09:42:38 PM new
Be patient. At least these buyers are trying to contact you. They will likely pay. Did either send their e-mail addresses in their e-mail message to you? If so, copy and paste it into your send a message to address bar. DO NOT HIT REPLY. Often times the reply does not work properly and this could be the case.
posted on September 4, 2003 09:57:43 PM new
Stonecold has a great idea for you here. I'd try that. Sometimes "reply" doesn't "take!"
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posted on September 5, 2003 03:47:09 AM new
No, neither sent a reply address, obviously assumed theirs was working. I live in Canada, so a phone call would be expensive. I'm going to wait a couple of days, both have several bids and recent wins, so they must soon realize something is wrong soon. I have had quite a few people tell me that they have tried to change their email addres on eBay, and had real difficulties, not sure why, when I did mine a year ago, there was no problem.
posted on September 5, 2003 08:16:46 AM new
Amber, I think they meant DO NOT HIT REPLY TO, from your mailbox. If they emailed you, the reply to address back should be in the header of the email - their email address?
If you try to just write an entirely new email, with the address from the header, from their email?
btw, you could get a phone card and the rates from/to Canada are fairly cheap. (Just a suggestion
posted on September 5, 2003 09:04:32 AM new
That's what I don't understand neroter12, the address in the header IS the one that comes back "invalid". It seems strange when she sent it from there, but can't get one back. She asked me to send a Paypal invoice, so I have tried that.
posted on September 5, 2003 12:07:11 PM new
I heard that story about being difficult to change thier email address. It's BS the truth is they don't have a credit card.
If you originally signed up with say AOL, ebay didn't require a credit card. But if they change it to something ...like a Yahoo email addy, then ebay wants a credit card.
posted on September 5, 2003 01:17:51 PM newThat's what I don't understand neroter12, the address in the header IS the one that comes back "invalid". It seems strange when she sent it from there, but can't get one back.
Would someone please tell me where I went wrong with the explanation I gave?
Amber, your miscreant buyers didn't send the email "from" the stated address. That is, they didn't have to login to their account on miscreant-isp.com to send mail.
You can send mail from ANYWHERE you have a modem or Internet connection.
They do have to login to READ mail.
Our motto: Bright and shiny baubles for persons with low impulse control.
posted on September 5, 2003 02:03:03 PM new
Sorry fluffythewondercat, I thought when I went to "properties" and got the header, that was the actual address it came from, not any old address that might be an old one etc.
