Bounce list labels/categories

[AliceF]

I know that the Bounce list labels/categories do have a quick definition in the Manage Bounce section. My question is though what is the actual difference between: Undeliverable -- address's receiving server was temporarily unavailable AND Blocked -- the receiving server is blocking email from Constant Contact?   I hope someone can explain this to me in detail that I can understand. Thanks.

[Marissa_R Moderator]

Hi Alice!

I'd be happy to go over the difference between Undeliverable and Blocked bounces!

Undeliverable means that for whatever reason, the server could not deliver the mail. It could be that the email address doesn't exist anymore, or that the server load time was taking too long.  These you can usually send again. If they continue to bounce back as undeliverable, I would remove them from your list.  Also, I would try to email them directly from your own email client (Outlook, Yahoo, etc) and see if they also bounce back to you.

Blocked means that the Internet Service Provider your contact uses is blocking one or more of our IP addresses that we send the email out on.   If you have contacts that are bouncing as blocked, you will want to send them the email that we've created in FAQ 2050: What should I do if my contact's ISP or spam filter is blocking my emails from your own email client.  It gives them an email to share with their ISP or their IT team so that they can unblock, or whitelist, our IP addresses. That would allow your email to get through.

I hope that helps!

[HeatherS2]

Hi-

One of our contacts appeared on the blocked list, then replied to our e-mail. How did she get the e-mail if she blocks it?

Does this mean others that show up as blocked are getting the e-mail?

Thanks!

Nancy

[Hannah_M Moderator]

Hi Nancy,

Blocked email addresses usually indicatethat something on the recieving end is preventing the email from getting to the inbox. This can also mean a delay of some sort but I would be happy to look into this more. What domain is this users email address? Aol, gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc?

Thanks,

[HeatherS2]

Hi Hannah,

This one is a hospital system - mmhnet.org -

She shows up as blocked, but then she replied to the e-mail. We don't want to send an e-mail to those on the blocked list asking them to unblock us if they can read our e-mails and reply to them already.

So I guess what I need to know is- are those on the blocked list actually blocking us or are we going into their junk mail where they still have access?

Best, Nancy

[Hannah_M Moderator]

HI Nancy,

Thanks for the extra information. The majority of the time email addresses that are blocked will not get your email but there is not a way to know if the filter is instead just delaying. Typically emails that are blocked will not go into the junk folder either. It looks like this could be a setting on her domains end as there are two addresses in your account from @mmhnegt.org bouncing back as blocked. To find this out we can do a couple of tests. First, you can try sending this person a blank email to see if their filter is stopping the email because of content. The second thing to test out would be to ask them to whitelist Constant Contact's sending IP addresses to allow emails through. We have a list of those addresses available here. This should allow all emails through without any problems. 

Thanks

[HeatherS2]

Thank you, Hannah!

We'll try sending the blank.

Best, Nancy