Email Bounces stated incorrectly

Question

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering if anyone has experienced this issue and can share how you handled it.

We recently sent out a newsletter and can see several bounce notifications. However, when reviewing the email history for those same constituents, the system shows that the emails were opened. We also contacted one of the recipients directly, and they confirmed that they did receive the email.

Does anyone know why an email would be marked as bounced even though it appears to have been delivered and opened?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Lee Grisham · Answer

@Lena Payne, you've hit on the crux of why the Email function is a pain with this thread. There isn't enough information shared on the back end in order to make judgement calls as to how to manage an email list. Our marketing staff member was aghast at the functionality when we brought this up. It is untenable for any non-profit to go to each bounce, check the record's Email History tile and then make adjustments to make updates to email addresses.

Until (and if) this functionality is corrected, it is easier to use an outside system to manage and update your email addresses. 🤷

Lena Payne · Answer

@Chris Hounsell it could be that, thank you for clarifying, looks like we can't rely on the list of bounces and need to check each individual before marking the email as inactive.

Chris Hounsell · Answer

My initial thoughts is hard bounce vs soft bounce. If it is flagged as a soft bounce on their record, it's possible it got through after so many tries as a soft bounce will try multiple times to send the email over an extended period of time before it stops. You can read a little more about it here:

https://docs.blackbaud.com/email-resource-center/faqs/failures#hard-bounces

That's my initial thoughts. May not be the right answer but if it is flagged on their record as soft bounce then that is where I would lean to. If it is flagged as a hard bounce and they got it then I would be stumped as well.