Delivery receipts

The receipt

Open any submission to see its receipt, a timeline with a time stamp for each step: Received (we stored it), Sorted (spam check done), Dispatched (handed to the mail system), then Deferred, Accepted or Returned. The same view is a record you can show a client.

What Accepted means

Accepted means the recipient's mail server took the message. It does not promise the message reached the inbox: the server can still file it as junk, and we cannot see inside a mailbox. If a message was accepted but you cannot find it, check the junk folder and any filtering rules, then Redeliver from the submission.

Deferred and Returned

Deferred means the recipient's server asked us to try later, for example a full mailbox or greylisting. The mail system retries. If nobody accepts within three days, the receipt says expired and the submission becomes Returned.

Returned means the message was refused. A hard bounce (the address does not exist) and a spam complaint add the address to your workspace's suppression list. We stop sending to it, show a banner on the form and email the owner. Fix the address, press Allow again, then Redeliver.

Held submissions

Two things hold a submission instead of sending it. Over the monthly limit: it is stored, labelled Held over limit and released when you upgrade or the month resets. No confirmed recipient: it is labelled Held, address unconfirmed and sent once an address is confirmed. Held submissions are never dropped and never purged while held.

Retries

If handing a message to the mail system fails, we retry after 1 minute, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, 2 hours and 6 hours. After that the receipt records that we gave up and the submission shows Returned. Redeliver starts it again.

Who sends the mail

Notification emails are sent through a transactional email provider (listed on the sub-processors page). Postslot does not run its own mail servers today, and this page will say so when that changes.