The Tale of 1000 Emails - we have an explanation

Problem is now solved, thank goodness - here is the explanation and a copy of my letter to the affected referrers.

Re: Latimer Hinks Client Alert Email
The Tale of a thousand emails… and more

Wednesday 10th October I sent to you a Client Alert relating to Inheritance Tax and the transferability of the nil rate band allowance. Please believe me when I say I sent out the email once only!

Due to a technical problem which is explained below, you may have received hundreds, if not thousands of the same email. Not surprisingly (but very sensibly) you have probably blocked my address. This email address is now “safe” so please feel free to unblock me.

Following is an explanation from a customer relations representative at Demon:

“there were issues with another demon customer and the system that they use to collect and relay e-mails. This caused them to bounce e-mails back to Latimer Hinks as undeliverable, and started an e-mail loop. Whilst all clients would have seen this as originated by Latimer Hinks, this was not the case, as investigation showed it was linked to an addressee on the original e-mail.
After speaking with our Network Abuse team and the customer in question, it was confirmed that there was an issue with their system (Microsoft SBS2000), and they needed to either use an alternative mail system, or upgrade their system.
Further investigation has shown that no further looped e-mails are appearing, and it appears that this matter has been resolved.”

I hope that you found the first Client Alert of interest. Latimer Hinks do try to keep Clients/referrers informed of changes relevant to them – however we generally prefer a subtler approach to marketing which does not include the bombardment of email addresses.

If you do not wish to receive further Client Alerts, please let me know.

Undeliverable, Undeliverable....

So, Tuesday came - exactly 6 days after the Client Alert was despatched from my Latimer Hinks email system (see here) and as you can see, the bounce backs keep coming in.

A little headway has been made. Demon "kind of" admitted it could be their fault. BUT numerous calls later to India and I don't have a direct contact to speak to or a direct line to call.

Apparently they are "looking into it" and "something strange is happening". When I mention that a few of the recipients network systems have crashed they say " we will escalate our response"

6 hours later, no escalation, no calls and no fix.

We manage to speak to a "Demon respresentative" (great job title) in the UK and are given a contact name and contact number. He will personally handle the problem.

FINALLY!

It's now Wednesday. One week from the start of this disaster. The emails have stopped pouring in. I have received no further calls from the recipients of the email. The recipients i have spoken to say that the emails have also stopped for them.

GREAT - but what went wrong!?

I am waiting for a reason from Demon as to what the problem was. I will let you know the outcome. In the meantime I can now get on with some work - although I am reticent of sending further emails to more than one contact at the same time.

The Tale of a Thousand Emails.. and counting!

What a week!

On Wednesday, just before I left work I sent a Client Alert to 55 Clients/referrers detailing INHERITANCE TAX and transferability of the nil rate band allowance.

I was so pleased to have managed to:

• print the Alert as a presentable document for posting
• create a letter to go with the printed Alert
• add the Alert to the website
• bookmark the Alert
• inform staff of the Alert
• email all relevant Clients/referrers

and all within two hours. I was now ready to leave the office and relax until Thursday morning.

BUT, Li'l Monster took poorly overnight, Dramaqueen demanded the same attention and Hubby was working nights. I had very little sleep and L'il Monster was no better the next day.

So I called work to say I was taking a days holiday to look after L'il Monster.

Reception immediately informed me that they had been inundated with phone calls regarding the Client Alert. GREAT thought I, the information must have been of great interest to them.

Sadly this was not so, the contacts had received the email hundreds and thousands of times.

Not good. Now that work knew I was taking a holiday the matter was passed on.

What had I done? Nothing out of the ordinary - just sent the same email to a number of contacts.

Well, I returned to work on Monday with fingers crossed that everthing had been sorted, but no! 922 bounce back emails greeted me from one day alone.

Apparently this is what was happening... the email left Latimer Hinks, travelled to Demon then to despatch. Something seems to have happened between Demon and despatch.

The Clients are receiving the Alert but a message is bouncing back to me to say Undeliverable. The computer is then resending and resending.

On Monday 2 of the contacts had a system overload and their networks crashed.

No-one is admiiting liability. Our IT guys say Latimer Hinks have not caused the problem. Demon say we have a virus. Whilst those two providers are arguing it out the emails keep on coming.

Obviously I've had quite a few calls asking me to STOP sending the emails. On the whole the recipients of the thousands of emails have been very understanding - many thanks to them for their professional attitude.