View Full Version : Not receiving emails about change/survey [merged]
I don't visit the board here that often mainly just to see if any problems come up with in the network that might be effecting my sight. And since there havent been any problems on cluster2 for a while now I thought I would visit. And what do I see; powweb wants my opinion on something, or do they. I when to check my email like I do every day, even checked my spam mail. I guess the don't want my opinion. Kind of sucks.
Just thought I would post this rant. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem as well. And yes I checked to see if my email on file was one I use currently and it is.
apparently some people had trouble getting the announcement email about the switch. I received both emails. as i think came up in the discussion of the announcement email, sometimes email gets blocked by your ISP/mail provider, before it gets to your spam folder.
I completed the survey, but deleted the email; can someone please post the link to the survye in this thread, and perhaps the original "we want your opinion" thread?
dmdartist
5-3-06, 11:28 PM
I didn't receive the email about the change in ownership and I didn't receive the survey. I found out about all of it by checking the forum, so its not a huge deal (don't love surveys :p ). But I am concerned that I'm not getting the emails that are getting sent to everyone.
Denise
Same thing here, also checked that my email address is correct, tested it, works ok but nothing from Powweb, something is wrong. I'm using Gmail for this notification.
I add my name to the list of those not getting the survey, although I did get the one about the change in ownership. (I already knew of course, but that's not the point).
Croc Hunter
5-4-06, 08:52 AM
The email link has a u=id on the end so no one person can't offer their opinion 1000 times. Try requesting support resend the email if you missed out. Of course give your domain name and email address so they can check why it wasn't sent.. or was.
dmdartist
5-4-06, 10:57 AM
Yes, I figured that and the address in ops is correct and working fine. In fact, I have been getting the emails that I will need to renew my domain name, and that came from 'Pow Web Domain Registrations'. So some of the email from PowWeb is getting thru. Just not these announcements.
Denise
jmucchiello
5-4-06, 12:28 PM
I still haven't seen any email about this from Powweb and I receive mail often at the address in OPS. It is a yahoo account. But I haven't noticed any Powweb mail in the bulk folder either.
YvetteKuhns
5-4-06, 01:41 PM
Why do they want to know how dissatisfied we were lately when they are making changes now? Ask us after they migrate the websites. I didn't look at the email, because they sent it to the personal account that I seldom check and may be gone after I move, because I may have a different ISP. I think the forum comments are more useful and constructive. The customer satisfaction survey will only allow people to whine about stuff in the past. That includes me.
This reminds me of the opinion polls where people are asked what they think of the president. I didn't like him before he was in office, I liked him even less after becoming president and I like him less every day. Does that make him change his ways? He does what is in HIS best interest, not mine. I hope that the web host doesn't operate like the government does. ;)
Same here. I know my listed address works because I receive several email a day to that address so it's not my fault.
Guess they don't really want my opinion (so far nothing new from the old Powweb).
erayleonard
5-4-06, 06:52 PM
Hi all,
It's possible that your ISP or someone blocked the message as it was such a large mailing. This does happen. If you want to fill out the survey, send an e-mail to transition@powweb-inc.com, attention Eric RayLeonard, Subject Need Survey Link and I'll send it to you directly.
Thanks,
Eric
i received the mail about the change about 10 days after the others did, and nothing about the survey yet. the mail address i have in ops is hosted by powweb.
Eric, perhaps it would be good to have some automated way for users to check if they receive powweb mailings (eg enter userid/passwd, and powweb would send them a confirmation mail)
Can't be my ISP. I don't use their mail servers. I strictly use Powweb's for the domain hosted here (POP, IMAP, SMTP). I use Powweb's grey-, white- and blacklisting in conjunction with RBL filtering and still am able to receive emails from Powweb support, the forum subscriptions, and affiliate mailings.
Maybe the survey doesn't go out to everyone but only a select group (targeted demographics)?
Maybe the servers used to send don't deal with greylisting properly?
I know for a fact that the address works (from several sources INCLUDING my ISP).
Another one who did not receive the email about the change in ownership and who did not receive the survey.
Cheers!
erayleonard
5-9-06, 11:20 AM
The individual reasons for a mass-mailing not being received by all customers vary greatly and are very dificult to troubleshoot in an efficient manner. At this time, the survey has been closed so we apologize to all those who didn't have a chance to voice their point of view. We will be conducting surveys in the future so you should get another chance.
Eric from Endurance
YvetteKuhns
5-9-06, 12:36 PM
At this time, the survey has been closed
Oh, well. This is not a good time for a survey anyway. After the migration would be better.
Oh, well. This is not a good time for a survey anyway. After the migration would be better.
The idea is that we get an a sense of what you guys think now and what you guys think after. We will be doing another one sometime after the transition is done and over. We've already been using the existing responses (which by the way were wonderful and thank you all who participated) to formulate plans for a better PowWeb. The post-transition survey will let us know if our plan worked and what to work on in the future.
sonofjay
5-10-06, 11:01 PM
Add another name to the list of users who did not receive the survey. If you recall there were issues sending out the announcement last time too, which were resolved after about a week.
http://forum.powweb.com/showthread.php?p=371501#post371501
not using ISP mailserver, personally maintain the spam filters and email server. It would seem again that Endurance/Powweb have a bug in their mailer program as this many reports point from different locations, providers, etc only really have the source in common.
Unfortunately it looks like we will need to rely on the forum and not emails for critical/important updates.
YvetteKuhns
5-11-06, 10:52 AM
Unfortunately it looks like we will need to rely on the forum and not emails for critical/important updates.
That seems to be the case.
tbonekkt
5-11-06, 10:59 AM
In my opinion, email is the most ineffective form of mass communication for the very reasons outlined above. While I think there are definitely advantages for mass emails, I personally feel one central location for announcements and such (i.e. this forum) is still the most efficient method.
But that's just my $.02 on the subject. :)
YvetteKuhns
5-12-06, 11:17 AM
I personally feel one central location for announcements and such (i.e. this forum) is still the most efficient method.
I agree. Too bad I can't train my clients to look here. As customers, they should, but they don't. I often send links to the forum and I don't even think they click the links! They only read my emails.
The forums are a fantastic way for customers to find out information, and yes, it's a centralized resource which means it's easier for those who use them to find out information and communicate.
Communication, in general, was one of the items pointed out in the survey results that needs to be strengthened and we'd like to make sure that both vehicles (e-mail and the forums) reinforce one another.
but as you can see, only a handful of users really use the forum regularly, the rest thousands probably never check this. i usually look at the forums like once every half year until now, because i simply had no reason to do so. i got the first message about the transition about 10 days after powweb sent it out. if i wouldn't receive that mail at all, probably i wouldn't even notice that there was a transition until i found out that my sites are defunct.
therefore i think, that for reaching ALL your customers, the ONLY working method is to mail them in a bulletproof way. announcing something is a no go option for the masses.
tbonekkt
5-12-06, 05:43 PM
therefore i think, that for reaching ALL your customers, the ONLY working method is to mail them in a bulletproof way. announcing something is a no go option for the masses.But even then, the U.S. Postal Service can lose mail. Airmail overseas has an even higher rate of lost mail. So the potential still exists for not all clients to get the information. Add to that the cost of a mailout to 80,000+ clients. I don't think that is a feasible solution.
This forum with announcements linked in OPS, and if necessary a mass email, is the most cost-effective, efficient solution in my opinion.
sorry, by the word "mail" i meant email... :) (i so seldom use mail anymore that i usually just use the word 'mail' for emails)
edit: and add "on the forum" to "announcing something" (like: announcing something of the forum is a no go)
tbonekkt
5-12-06, 05:54 PM
Oh.. ha! :D
I'm another who got the e.mail about the changes, but no e.mail about the survey.
cacklebunny
5-13-06, 09:56 AM
It's beyond unacceptable not to be notified about these changes. I've not received any official announcement from PowWeb about the changeover, nor have I received any emails about a survey, or anything else. The powweb domain is a saved domain in my addressbook and I absolutely know for a fact that the emails never arrived, period...not in my spam folder, not in my inbox...nothing. They simply were not sent.
I did as the others suggested and sent an email to transition@powweb-inc.com. The response I got (in my INBOX!) was that the survey had since been closed.
The transition site emphasizes that "we will need to be involved in the migration" of our site. The onus should be placed on PowWeb/Endurance to ensure all its customers are effectively notified. This was not some spam blocking issue...it was a company fubar that needs to be rectified BEFORE major site changeovers start happening.
As has been said before, e-mail is not 100% guaranteed. The message may well have been sent, but got lost somewhere along the way. It happens, and there's no way for Endurance to know which mails were received and which were not, unless they required everyone to acknowledge receipt somehow.
I've seen this happen in my work life - I once sent out an important notice to thousands of our customers. Some claim to have never received it, even though my logs show that the message was sent to the correct address. There's no way to know for certain what happened along the way.
cacklebunny
5-13-06, 11:34 AM
As has been said before, e-mail is not 100% guaranteed. The message may well have been sent, but got lost somewhere along the way. It happens.
I'm not sure who you work for, but at my company, email reliability is extremely important and we take it seriously when users don't receive email. We develop applications to track and monitor bouncebacks, determine if they are "hard" or "soft" bounces, monitor mail servers, blacklists, whitelists, sent logs and, if necessary, notify the consumer via another form of communication, whether it be phone or snail mail.
That so many people have posted indicating they have not received PowWeb emails is a clear indication of a problem that needs addressed. Lost email doesn't simply end up in some misty vacuum somewhere...there are a number of means to pin down the source of the problem.
We certainly don't need dismissive comments from PowWeb like "email is not guaranteed" or "it happens." A company that relies on email as its primary source of communication needs to accept responsibility for ensuring important news is effectively relayed back to the consumer.
Firstly, SteveL, like all moderators doesn't work for Powweb.
Secondly, Powweb doesn't rely on e-mail as it's primary source of communication for announcements.
Thirdly, do some maths. There are 80,000+ sites - say 15,000 customers minimum. How many have actually complained? Whilst one is is one too many, as a proportion of the whole, the number is minute.
cacklebunny
5-13-06, 11:54 AM
Firstly, SteveL, like all moderators doesn't work for Powweb.
Secondly, Powweb doesn't rely on e-mail as it's primary source of communication for announcements.
Thirdly, do some maths. There are 80,000+ sites - say 15,000 customers minimum. How many have actually complained? Whilst one is is one too many, as a proportion of the whole, the number is minute.
Yes, I realize SteveL doesn't work for Powweb. However, a PowWeb staff member in this thread has echoed his sentiments.
Second, PowWeb indicated that announcements regarding the changeover of our sites would be sent to us via email. Check some earlier threads on this.
And regarding the math comment: Who's to say how many people have not received the emails, rarely visit the forums and have no idea that they've missed anything? I only found out about the survey and announcement email weeks later (too late) after I had checked the forums due to an outage yesterday. There are probably thousands of consumers like me who assume that these types of major announcements will make their way to us via email.
There is no way to know reliably if a sent email was received outside your own network. None. You can detect bounces, yes, but you cannot tell if the mail got delivered or disappeared into the ether.
If this mailing had been critical, then PowWeb/Endurance could have requested acknowledgement via a web link and attempted to follow up those that did not respond, but this would be quite expensive, especially for a company with customers around the planet and with such a low-cost product. The mail was informational in nature and therefore Endurance did what was appropriate, even following up once they understood the greylisting problem.
No, I don't work for PowWeb. But I do understand very well the mechanics of e-mail delivery and all the things that can go wrong. It's amazing to me that it works as well as it does.
In closing, I would say that any PowWeb customer who cares about keeping current has a responsibility to check this forum at least once a week, if not more often. Don't rely on e-mails alone.
cacklebunny
5-13-06, 12:28 PM
In closing, I would say that any PowWeb customer who cares about keeping current has a responsibility to check this forum at least once a week, if not more often. Don't rely on e-mails alone.
Very well. I won't expect emails from PowWeb any longer. I'm glad to hear they acknowledged a greylisting problem.
Given the above, it would make sense if Endurance set up a dedicated "Powweb/Endurance Transition" RSS feed so we're sure to get the latest info regarding the transition. They offer a feed for outages (which is how I found out about the outage yesterday) and a general feed for this forum, but as far as I know they don't have a dedicated feed for the Endurance transition. That would certainly benefit everyone.
tbonekkt
5-13-06, 06:41 PM
Given the above, it would make sense if Endurance set up a dedicated "Powweb/Endurance Transition" RSS feed so we're sure to get the latest info regarding the transition. They offer a feed for outages (which is how I found out about the outage yesterday) and a general feed for this forum, but as far as I know they don't have a dedicated feed for the Endurance transition. That would certainly benefit everyone.http://forum.powweb.com/external.php?type=rss2&forumids=77
There you go. That's an RSS feed for this forum, Changes at PowWeb. :)
sonofjay
5-14-06, 01:10 AM
Thirdly, do some maths. There are 80,000+ sites - say 15,000 customers minimum. How many have actually complained? Whilst one is is one too many, as a proportion of the whole, the number is minute.
Well if the customers are not aware of the upcoming changes, then they cannot really complain that they did not get the email can they?
I for one did an exhaustive search of our email server's logs starting with the entire day of the announcement about the survey was made and on for the next 3 following days. There is no record whatsoever that any communication from powweb or endurance was attempted. Based on this and the fact the there were known issues last time, I do not believe for a second that the email was sent. I do believe that there is an issue or bug with endurance's/powweb's mailer and that they should be investigating the problem and not simply dismissing it as "customer/isp issues". There are in fact too many knowledgeable people here and to many unrelated customer sites and ISP's to chalk this up to "email's get lost". Email's do not "get lost".
It also shocks me to here such statements as "do not rely on email" when in fact the much of the entire business world today does rely on it and uses as a sole means for communicating to their customer base. What makes powweb/endurance any different? This whole situation is inexcusable and I urge the powers that be to at least take 5 minutes and do some investigation into the known issue. I'm sure time will tell how massive this problem is when the migration actually kicks in full swing and users come stumbling onto this forum looking for answers as to why their websites are down or have moved.
I got the change email on 4/13 and have it filed for reference. I also got the link email for the survey. I don't use the PowWeb email servers but my ISP account.
I've been in the IT business for over 25 years and I can testify that emails DO get lost even when sent via the company intranet.
Check this link (http://kb.powweb.com/questions/377/PowWeb-Announcements-and-Outage-Notification-Policy) for info as far as the policy on announcements and outages.
sonofjay
5-14-06, 03:00 AM
I've been in the IT business for over 25 years and I can testify that emails DO get lost even when sent via the company intranet.
Please, do testify for all our benefit
The Official Internet Standards and rules for email handling, notification and delivery contradict your 25 years of experience; RFC 2821 - (SMTP) (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt) and RFC 3461- (SMTP-DSN) (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3461.txt)
If you cannot help people with the problem at hand, then why post at all?
Please, do testify for all our benefit
The Official Internet Standards and rules for email handling, notification and delivery contradict your 25 years of experience; RFC 2821 - (SMTP) (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt) and RFC 3461- (SMTP-DSN) (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3461.txt)
Those may be the rules, but not everyone follows them. Just because you didn't receive them doesn't mean they weren't sent.
sonofjay
5-14-06, 05:14 AM
Those may be the rules, but not everyone follows them. Just because you didn't receive them doesn't mean they weren't sent.
Agreed. However just because Endurance/Powweb says they were sent everyone doesn't mean they were ;)
Agreed. However just because Endurance/Powweb says they were sent everyone doesn't mean they were ;)Agreed. :o
tbonekkt
5-14-06, 10:35 AM
Agreed. However just because Endurance/Powweb says they were sent everyone doesn't mean they were ;)Agreed. :oThen on the flipside.. just because you say you didn't receive it doesn't mean you didn't.
Cmon now.. you're basically calling PowWeb/Endurance an unethical company. If you seriously think that, then I guess you're at the wrong webhost.
Since this thread has resorted to name calling and very serious ethical allegations, it is now closed.
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