ATT email Issue / lack of customer service.

[CRLLS]

This is a venting. I have no problem with the ATT (Yahoo) email itself. It works just fine, mostly. I have a problem with receiving emails from one person, and only them. His e-Mail goes directly to the Webmail's Spam folder. No matter what I do, I cannot fix it. I have setup a filter that is supposed to automatically move it to my Inbox. That didn't work. Remove the filter and still goes to the Spam folder.

I usually use Outlook as an email client and his emails show up in the Outlook "Bulk Mail" folder. If I set up a rule in Outlook to put all emails from him to my inbox, it still shows up in my "bulk" folder.

I went to the ATT customer service Chat. That chat was elevated twice to higher ups. The only thing they would recommend is a service subscription of $15 per month. I told him I would not pay for solving what I believe is an ATT internal issue. At last he gave me the Customer Service telephone number to call.

I called that number and spoke to a customer service person. After retelling my issue she could not solve my issue, but gave me 3 places I might go that possibly solve my problem. 1)A website (nothing there to help); 2)a phone number to their their Digital Assistance Center (no help their either. All they can do is reset passwords; 3) a phone number for their Connect Tech group.

I called the Connect Tech center and the first thing I got after entering my phone number was an automated reply that I don't have a paid service agreement. WTF? Why do I need a service agreement to fix their email account from mistakenly putting emails from a specific sender into my spam folder? I went thru their automated menu and finally got a live person. He listened to my story and said they would have a tech immediately start to work on it. All I needed to do was sign up for a $15 per month, minimum 12 month contract. Again? After considerable pushing back on my part, he offered a one time fee of $49 to fix this one problem. I declined.

Such a lack of service for a ~20 year customer. I will probably switch to a Gmail account and ditch ATT come the new year. Now that I have vented, I still don't feel any better

 

[target2019]

Mark the mail as Not Junk?

I'm not understanding the gist. Do you have Yahoo mail address?

 

[braumeister]

I have a problem with receiving emails from one person, and only them. His e-Mail goes directly to the Webmail's Spam folder.

I believe that would be because his emails are marked as spam by some server in between his outgoing server and your incoming server. So your filters would have no effect -- they are already considered spam before they get to the filter.

Believe it or not, this happens more than you might think. Usually a mistake, but it can be hell on wheels to correct it. Best of luck.

 

[txtig]

I used to be all-in on AT&T. Four cell phones, uVerse internet and uVerse cable with four or five rental set-top boxes. Twenty year plus customer. Monthly bill approaching $500. I got fed up with the poor customer service and high prices.

I’m now down to just internet service from AT&T ($65/mo). I still find it hard to believe that they do nothing to try to retain long term, high value customers. For whatever reason, they just don’t seem to give a sh*#.

 

[CRLLS]

Mark the mail as Not Junk?

I'm not understanding the gist. Do you have Yahoo mail address?

Yes Yahoo, sort of. It is an old Sbcglobal email that was combined with ATT some years back when the feds allowed them to re-merge. Att owns Yahoo now. so I can get webmail from wither my ATT signin or my Yahoo signin. Although 99% of the time I use Outlook as my email access. Both Yahoo and ATT webmail show his email as Spam.

I tried marking it as not junk. No effect. I tried all of the obvious filters/rules on the Webmail and in Outlook to no avail.

I believe that would be because his emails are marked as spam by some server in between his outgoing server and your incoming server. So your filters would have no effect -- they are already considered spam before they get to the filter.

Believe it or not, this happens more than you might think. Usually a mistake, but it can be hell on wheels to correct it. Best of luck.

I believe you hit the nail on the head. Any ideas? I do know that his email provider is a spammers hideout. Somewhere within the Yahoo/ATT system they have his email marked as spammer. I cannot find a way to fix it. ATT "people" cannot/will not confirm this is the case and will not fix it without demanding a ransom.

 

[braumeister]

YI believe you hit the nail on the head. Any ideas? I do know that his email provider is a spammers hideout.

Well, there you have it. Not as rare as you would think, and I don't know anything you can do about it on your end. He would have to change email providers, and he may not even understand the issue. Sorry, but I have no other solution to suggest.

 

[Walt34]

For whatever reason, they just don’t seem to give a sh*#.

"We don't care. We don't have to, we're the phone company."

 

[cathy63]

Have you tried looking at the message headers to see if there's something there that might be forcing it to the spam folder?

Here are some instructions on finding the Outlook headers in the desktop version or the web version: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-outlook-cd039382-dc6e-4264-ac74-c048563d212c

Look for words like Precedence, Importance, Priority, List-Unsubscribe; or a Return-Path different from the From header. Any of these could be telling AT&T that the mail is spam or bulk. If you see them, then the problem is caused by something the sender is doing. Maybe he's using a business email server that's also used to send out mass emailings or something like that.

Also, have you asked the sender if any of his other correspondents have mentioned having the same problems?

 

[MRG]

You're getting further with Yahoo email support than I did. We lost our long term account and the number I found was a travel agent.

 

[MissMolly]

There have been one or two occasions with my email that I have marked something "Not Junk" but it would still go in the Junk folder. I then put the sender's email address on a "Safe" list and that solved the problem. Have you tried that?

 

[CRLLS]

Have you tried looking at the message headers to see if there's something there that might be forcing it to the spam folder?

Here are some instructions on finding the Outlook headers in the desktop version or the web version: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-outlook-cd039382-dc6e-4264-ac74-c048563d212c

Look for words like Precedence, Importance, Priority, List-Unsubscribe; or a Return-Path different from the From header. Any of these could be telling AT&T that the mail is spam or bulk. If you see them, then the problem is caused by something the sender is doing. Maybe he's using a business email server that's also used to send out mass emailings or something like that.

Also, have you asked the sender if any of his other correspondents have mentioned having the same problems?

Cathy, thanks. I'm am not an IT expert. I do fairly well as an amateur though. Enough to get in trouble. I looked at the header and saw nothing glaring. I would have hoped that somebody at ATT would have at least looked at the suspect email and would have been able to tell me if the header had anything they were considering as spam.

This is his private eMail and not a business. To his knowledge, I am the only one that he eMails that is having this problem.

 

[CRLLS]

There have been one or two occasions with my email that I have marked something "Not Junk" but it would still go in the Junk folder. I then put the sender's email address on a "Safe" list and that solved the problem. Have you tried that?

Where would I enter in a safe list?

He and I both agreed that paying ATT the ransom was ridiculous just for that eMail. He did plan on changing his email and Today he decided was as good as ever to make the switch to a Gmail eMail account. That is received just fine.

 

[MissMolly]

Where would I enter in a safe list?

He and I both agreed that paying ATT the ransom was ridiculous just for that eMail. He did plan on changing his email and Today he decided was as good as ever to make the switch to a Gmail eMail account. That is received just fine.

I don't know where it would be on AT&T. I don't have AT&T. Look around in your settings/security. That's where it is on mine (Hotmail).

 

[Z3Dreamer]

Customer service issues - I can only rant with you. I was thinking of starting a thread about some other companies terrible, inability to solve problems. But I won't. Will do hard cardio instead.

Problem with email. In your browser, type in "blacklist email". You will get sights that are tools. You put in your friend's email address or maybe even the ISP's email server site and it will tell you if it is blacklisted and why. In some cases you can ask for the blacklisting to be removed. But you commented that his ISP is a spammer hangout or something similar.

 

[target2019]

Since the OP's friend is on a known spam server, it would probably go back on the blacklist in the future. So his friend getting a gmail account seems to be a good way out of the original problem.