Peter,

AOL, hotmail and yahoo are the absolute worse email accounts a buyer can have, in my opinion anyway. I just hate to see a buyer with those email accounts as I know I am going to have problems communicating. Well that is not completely true. The savy users will add my email address as our custom pages direct them to and we get along just fine.

But the issue is not isolated to just AW2000. It is not a software issue, it is an email configuration email on the email recipient's end.

I added an entire segment on one of my custom pages about allowing email from bluepennylady@pennyworthsales.com so we could communicate. I use to have that info in a Listing template footer and removed it on the advice of a consultant. I am going to add it again as the incidents of buyer's not receiving email increased after I removed the note.

The email problem occurs even if you reply to a buyer using Outlook Express, Eudora, Incredimail, etc. Buyers are becoming increasingly eBay educated with the idea they can only use "My Messages" to communicate. And that only "My Messages" is safe, which is untrue. I have a buyer right now that I have used four different methods of emailing, and the buyer never received a one of them. I finally had to send a letter to the buyer just to communicate. Which opened the communication door.

AW2000 does not require SMTP authentication. That is the email provider which determines if authentication is required to send email instead of AW2000.

What I have done to help counteract the email issue is to include a note in all packages which supplies my eBay email address. And ask the buyer to add me to their email address book. It also lets them know it is perfectly fine for them to simply email me directly for any of their future needs. There is an amazing amount of buyers which email back to us.

We have to keep in mind, it is not the AW2000 email module which is working improperly. The AW2000 email is working fine, It is our buyer's email which is not working correctly. So we have to assist our buyers in configuring and allowing emails from us. I have buyers that I simply shoot an email off to from Outlook Express and they don't get it.

I will say I have not had any negative feedback due to email. (now watch someone will slap a negative on me today



Judy/blue

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http://stores.ebay.com/bluepennylady?refid=store