Annoying Email Problem

[scrabbler1]

Just in case I became bored in ER, one of these annoying email issues arose in the last few weeks to take up a few hours of my time finally resolving it (or, at least, figuring a way to get around it).

I have online banking which includes receiving email alerts when certain activities take place, from the mundane such as inviting me to take a survey following a phone call to their customer service department, to the more meaningful, such as letting me know when my online bill-pay is proceeding.

But many times in the last year or so, when I sign into online banking, I get these little warnings telling me some of my email contact info needs updating. I go to my user profile page and see that nothing has changed or needs changing despite seeing those icons which tell me it needs to be changed. My emails are still arriving just fine as they have in the 4 years I have been using the service. My email address has not changed in the last 20 years.

But, just for kicks, I go to my secondary email service provider (one I very rarely access) and I see a few recent emails in there which I did not receive at my primary one. Now, I am becoming a little concerned. It looks like my primary email is not receiving these emails so the secondary one is getting them. This is not fatal but not good.

I call my bank and they go into some other user profile, one I can't view or change within my online banking. The rep makes some changes and asks me to sign back in to see if the warning messages disappear. They do not. She asks her tech support people about my mystery and they tell her the problem is with my primary email provider. That service is, for some reason, blocking emails sent by the bank and I should contact them. Ugh, I don't really want to deal with them, they are a PITA, remembering a similar problem 2 years ago a vendor had with my service blocking his emails to me and anyone else with that domain name. (It did get fixed, though.)

I call the bank again and speak to a different rep who told me that they can't send my primary email service provider any detailed transcripts of the failed emails, something which would help the provider resolve the issue. More ugh.

Now my wheels start to spin. Thinking back to my programming days at work (eek!), I try to figure out a way to go around the wall if I can't go straight through it. Maybe I can have my secondary email provider forward these emails to my primary one? I figured out how to do that without a lot of effort and changed the settings there.

Now I have to go back into online banking and adjust the email alerts so that my secondary email is now my primary one, removing the old primary one which wasn't working right. This was somewhat trickier, having to get around some small hurdles including getting an authentication code to make the change.

But I got that done and the forwarding worked just fine. And the warning in the online banking disappeared. Maybe I'll hear back from my primary email provider if they can fix the problem without a transcript of the failed emails. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[RunningBum]

Wonder what other emails you are missing that your primary email provider is blocking? I would dump them, over time. Start using your reliable one, or a new reliable one, for financial transactions, and then start switching other things over.

 

[strobot]

Are you using a webmail service like Google?



My mother was experiencing the same type of issues with her email service that she had through a provider, which didn't exist anymore, therefore little to no support from the service. I'm actually not sure how it still worked for her at all to be honest. Additionally, if you use an email service through a provider (take Verizon for instance) you are bound to their email filters and self-imposed rules and regulations.


You're best bet is to make a Gmail account (embrace the Empire) and send everything to / through it. It will take some adjustment and some work on your end - I have plenty of experience working with my mother on this - but you will be thankful for it in the next 5 - 10 years (or maybe 20 from now!).


Additional question, I didn't see you address it, did you check your spam folder?

 

[scrabbler1]

The email system I use allows both web-based and PC-based software to be used. I use both methods because both have useful features. An email system which doesn't allow both I can't use as my primary email system. Gmail is the secondary email, the one use to forward emails to my primary email.


I check my junk (spam) mail folder all the time. No legit emails in there. I get lots of junk/spam from weird and crazy email addresses, which is why these emails from a well known domain name unable to get through is so strange.


I'll stay with this workaround which allows me to keep my current email intact.

 

[scrabbler1]

So the primary email provider replies a few days ago and they tell me emails from my bank got flagged as spam and they would undo that. I try again to get the authentication code sent to my primary email directly and it doesn't get through. I tell my primary email provider and they tell me again it got flagged as spam and they would undo it. Wait 24 hours and try again, they tell me.


So the next day (today), I try the authentication code thing again, and would you believe it failed to get through AGAIN? I sent another email (actually, just copied most of the previous one LOL) back to tell them it failed one more time.


I'm getting a little dizzy going around in circles, chasing my tail LOL!

 

[target2019]

Is there a feature that auto deletes spam? You want to turn that off.
I get most authentication codes through my phone. Less problems than email, but not completely trouble free.

 

[Texas Proud]

I know that on Yahoo that if you see something in spam and it is not you can flag it that it is not spam and they adjust accordingly....


So far I think it has happened a couple of times but not anything important...

 

[scrabbler1]

The primary email provider told me they need to see the transcript of the failed email, the one which got bounced back to the sender. But the bank told me they can't send these transcripts out (not sure why, maybe they can't access them?). They are automatically generated, so it isn't like some live person sent them out and can view anything which got bounced back to them.


So I am stuck using the workaround, not a terrible solution. But it's pretty stupid on both ends of this problem - the sender can't find the failed email, and the provider can't clear up the problem anyway.


Because I am setting up an email address to send alerts, the authentication code has to go to that email address first to make sure it's a legit one set up by the user.

 

[easysurfer]

Glad you have a workaround. The issues sound like a headache.

I used to have bounced and rejected emails with yahoo. Was happy to part ways with my yahoo email account.