Cannot contact a buyer

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Dale Allen

Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2012
Messages
1,384
Location
Massillon, OH
I have been unsuccessful in getting an email to someone who bought something to tell them it has shipped. The MAILER DAEMON keeps telling me there was a delivery failure. I even tried from work on the email provider's website and it still does not go through. I tried another email with the same psu.edu extension that looked to be the same person and that too failed.:mad:
At this point, what would you do?
I'm thinking of just waiting and watching since I am tracking the package and will know when it is delivered.
 
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Based on the email address I assume they work at Penn State? Any way you know what department they work at, if not call a general number there? Know it's a big school but I would think that'd be a start
 
I would give it a wait for at least another day. Sometimes the fault is on the receiving side and may still either go through or allow you to forward the message tomorrow.
 
Try sending it from an email address with a different extension, or you are mistaken on the email. He may have sent a bogus one with fear of getting spammed. Some extensions get marked as spam or undefined so their filters block it.
 
Don't lose a minute of sleep over it...sometimes it happens, what you need to be concerned about is that they get the package, not that they know it's been mailed. If it says undeliverable then it is probably a bad address but it doesn't need to be.
 
What's the reason code in the bounce message? Mailbox full? Unknown user? or is their server not accepting mail from your domain?
 
Jeff; Not sure what it means. I even stripped out everything in the email except 3 short text lines that I put in.
Still came back with this:

Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address.

<mbsmith@psu.edu>:
Remote host said: 550 5.1.1 <mbsmith@psu.edu>... User unknown [RCPT_TO]

Anybody want to try and email this guy and tell him his package should be there tomorrow?
 
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Dale Allen said:
Well, the payment was made and that was the email used. I did a cut and paste so it wasn't a data entry error. Sure seems odd!
Click to expand...
Nah, not odd at all - he/she changed emails but didn't make the change at PayPal, when you send money, paypal does not check that the "from email" they send to the recipient is valid....it was valid at one time.
 
OK, thanks Smitty. That makes sense.
Perhaps he will contact me after it is delivered.
Although it has been my experience that more often than not, the customer does not send a message later.
 
Um, couldn't it also be one of the thousands of students there - at any of the campuses around the state?

Additionally, I'm guessing the college cuts them off from email access after graduation at some point which may also have happened.
 
Thanks for the offer Steve, but I'll wait to see if he emails my business email.
I always include a letter and a business card with the order so there is sufficient reason to use that for communication.
This email was supplied via Paypal so any future emails will need to come from a valid address, if he chooses to do so.
The package was delivered today and the address is in MA, not PA so something more is afoot here.
I'll just wait as I have made a noble attempt at this point and do not feel the need to spend any more time with it.
While I do feel an established communication with a customer is valuable, there is a point at which it is not worth more effort.
 
Dale Allen said:
Thanks for the offer Steve, but I'll wait to see if he emails my business email.
I always include a letter and a business card with the order so there is sufficient reason to use that for communication.
This email was supplied via Paypal so any future emails will need to come from a valid address, if he chooses to do so.
The package was delivered today and the address is in MA, not PA so something more is afoot here.
I'll just wait as I have made a noble attempt at this point and do not feel the need to spend any more time with it.
While I do feel an established communication with a customer is valuable, there is a point at which it is not worth more effort.
Click to expand...
Well that means the address you put on the package had a MA zip code easy to spot MA zips have 1st two digits 01 or 02and PA first two are 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19. Not all 19 zips are in PA

I've found if the customer needs to contact you he/she will find you(they always find me - sometimes even months after the transaction)...I assume if they don't contact me they're happy. Not always a valid assumption but nearly always.
 
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Yep, zip is 02139.
From the get-go I wondered why the zip was different than the psu.edu.
I figured it was someone who lived in MA and went to Penn.
Hey, I'm a pen turner, what do I know anyway!:rolleyes::biggrin:
 
Well, if you ever get to do a lot of shipping, you'll find that PayPal provided email addresses are not always updated. I have notified PayPal once or twice because sometimes (like in my own case) they have two or three alternate email addresses besides the default and can contact the buyer to tell them to update their email address. Most of the time they just shrug their shoulders. At any rate the post office said it was delivered.
Dale Allen said:
Yep, zip is 02139.
From the get-go I wondered why the zip was different than the psu.edu.
I figured it was someone who lived in MA and went to Penn.
Hey, I'm a pen turner, what do I know anyway!:rolleyes::biggrin:
Click to expand...
 
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