Emails being blocked by NTL

Originally Posted by nedsram

I'm not complaining about the filtering. They provide a spam folder and you can log in via webmail and decide which if any you want keeping. This Spamhaus thing isn't filtering. It's blanket rejection of emails from certain sources regardless of content. There's a big difference!

Oh I don't disagree, but as I said, NTL don't consider email as any more than part of their overall service. Handling excessive spam messages costs them money, so they take steps to reduce it.

I can only suggest for anyone who relies on email, for any reason, that they don't use a 'bundled' service supplied by an ISP, but go for a hosted domain.

[nedsram]

Originally Posted by homealone

Oh I don't disagree, but as I said, NTL don't consider email as any more than part of their overall service. Handling excessive spam messages costs them money, so they take steps to reduce it.

I can only suggest for anyone who relies on email, for any reason, that they don't use a 'bundled' service supplied by an ISP, but go for a hosted domain.

This is my last contribution for now. Had I realised when I signed up for NTL email that it was going to be such a hit and miss affair, I might well have gone down the hosted domain route. But we have four email addresses, and literally hundreds of people in our address books, and perhaps as many more who have our email address for some reason, including banks, forums, online stores, newsletters... My wife is secretary of a choir with over a hundred members for starters.

DO NTL publicly state anywhere that their email service is inherently unreliable, and that there is no guarantee that people will receive emails sent to them? Do they publicly state that they reserve the right to reject incoming emails from any source without notifying the intended recipient? Somehow I suspect not, otherwise people would ditch the service in droves. Most probably just blame the failure to receive an email somebody swears they sent them on some glitch in the system.

[hatedbythemail]

and of course ntls strategy has been to get people to sign up for triple play, with quadruple play to come, precisely because they know such bundling makes it easier to retain customers. so if thats their game every element of the service should be reliable. i dont expect the post office to pick and choose on my behalf what it will deliver even if my doorstep does get clogged up with junk - including persistent and insistent ntl mailers telling me how great they are.

[bean999]

I think many people regard their home email address as dependable tbh. I don't get any spam at my ntl address because I don't use it to subscribe to anything that may attract any; I have a bundle of hotmail and gmail accounts for that.

Reason I've found my way to this thread at this time is that I have a friend with an old fsworld email address. Just this week we made arrangements to meet. Her confirmatory email arrived today, 3 days after being sent, and a day after we had sorted out our miscommunication with a successful exchange of emails. There used to be a problem with her emails simply being returned undelivered after a couple of days, but that seemed to be a thing of the past. I guess it isn't.

I've never come across any indication from Ntl that their email service is unreliable, that's certainly not how they sell it. Do other ISPs have similar problems with their email service?

Originally Posted by nedsram

This is my last contribution for now. Had I realised when I signed up for NTL email that it was going to be such a hit and miss affair, I might well have gone down the hosted domain route. But we have four email addresses, and literally hundreds of people in our address books, and perhaps as many more who have our email address for some reason, including banks, forums, online stores, newsletters... My wife is secretary of a choir with over a hundred members for starters.

DO NTL publicly state anywhere that their email service is inherently unreliable, and that there is no guarantee that people will receive emails sent to them? Do they publicly state that they reserve the right to reject incoming emails from any source without notifying the intended recipient? Somehow I suspect not, otherwise people would ditch the service in droves. Most probably just blame the failure to receive an email somebody swears they sent them on some glitch in the system.

I do sympathise, and realise that changing email addresses is a big hassle.

Unfortunately you can pretty much assume that unless an ISP states they have any guarantee or SLA on a domestic email service, that they don't provide one...

[jdogsbody]

What I don`t understand is why my emails to ntl don`t get through and yet I`m an "approved sender" to my contacts.

ntl is not just filtering out spam to its users, but sometimes vital communications. I can certainly identify with bean999`s friend, as that is the situation I`ve been in - arrangements made by emails which have never arrived .
6 months or so ago we thought this problem had been resolved once and for all, but here it is again!
AS far as I`m aware, I`ve never had a problem with emails getting through to me at wanadoo/orange - they`re not perfect, but at least I get my mail!

[Ragunboneman]

I am also having problems with mail to my ntl account.
In my case it is the spamcop blocklist which is listing two IP's at Manchester University. Ntl wont own up to using the SCBL but when the block delists in comes my missing mail.
So yes Ntl you are using it !! and in the process causing havoc with legitimate mail.
I would like to speak to someone just once at Ntl that has a clue what I am trying to get over to them, and get them to read the recomendations on the spamcop site in relation to the use of the SCBL

Anyone from NTL reading this,
quote from spamcop,
Implement the SCBL to Filter Spam
The SCBL aims to stop most spam while not blocking wanted email. This is a difficult task. It is not possible for any blocking tool to avoid blocking wanted mail entirely. Given the power of the SCBL, SpamCop encourages use of the SCBL in concert with an actively maintained whitelist of wanted email senders. SpamCop encourages SCBL users to tag and divert email, rather than block it outright. Most SCBL users consider the amount of unwanted email successfully filtered to make the risks and additional efforts worthwhile.

[hatedbythemail]

this has gone beyond a joke. im losing stuff let right and centre.

ntl. wake up. you are going to lose a lot of custom

---------- Post added at 12:37 ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 ----------

hey, guess what, tech support denying they use sbcl

---------- Post added at 13:00 ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 ----------

now they dont deny it.

but they say i need to contact people whose emails are failing to reach me, get the error message, then phone ntl back @ 10p a minute so they can escalate.

NO NTL. YOU TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THE PROBLEM. YOU RESOLVE I YOU THICK GITS.

looks like i might be ditching all my ntl services if this carries on. thats the downside of triple play ntl. hope youre listening.

[jdogsbody]

Originally Posted by hatedbythemail

but they say i need to contact people whose emails are failing to reach me, get the error message, then phone ntl back @ 10p a minute so they can escalate.

This is exactly what my father was told 6 months ago - as well as being told that it was my provider at fault!! It was ntl all along.

[hatedbythemail]

Originally Posted by jdogsbody

It was ntl all along.

you surprise me. customer services are now looking into it but breath is not being held as previous experience has not been good.

[jdogsbody]

Originally Posted by hatedbythemail

you surprise me. customer services are now looking into it but breath is not being held as previous experience has not been good.

All sounds very familiar!

[hatedbythemail]

Originally Posted by jdogsbody

All sounds very familiar!

indeed. to be fair the customer services woman was really good. spoke to several people in tech support, realised she was getting nowhere, called me back, apologised and bunged some free call plans my way. sadly theyre not much use when what im after is a reliable email service.

but heres a question. why cant tech support understand that if i cant receive emails from a sender on my ntl account but can on hotmail THEN ITS AN NTL PROBLEM! ;-)

[jdogsbody]

Originally Posted by hatedbythemail

indeed. to be fair the customer services woman was really good. spoke to several people in tech support, realised she was getting nowhere, called me back, apologised and bunged some free call plans my way. sadly theyre not much use when what im after is a reliable email service.

but heres a question. why cant tech support understand that if i cant receive emails from a sender on my ntl account but can on hotmail THEN ITS AN NTL PROBLEM! ;-)

I think the reply to that question may be unprintable!!!

[Ragunboneman]

Yes, I spoke to Tech services over a week ago on this, they were passing my query on this to a higher level of support.
Just passing Jupiter now I may however not get a reply in my lifetime.

My mail is from a mailing list and comes through the servers at Manchester University. The problem there is that not only this mailing list, but all other traffic comes through it too.
So how the !**! do they expect anyone to pin it down.

So it's again 19 hrs to the next spamcop delist.
I have now opened a gmail account which does let this mail through.

The only difference is that it is now coming to me on ntl via Googlemail & not directly from the university server. But at the end of the day its still entering Ntl, but bypassing the SCBL.

Do they want us to shop elsewhere ??

[jackclare]

They are still at it. 1 message gets through from a Wanadoo address, receipt is returned and received. Then a full stop. Are we being rationed to one message a day from wanadoo. This happened yesterday and today. I have emailed tech support in the hope that I may get a reply some time. An automated reply has just arrived but it looks as though they do not expect to reply properly. What can we do?