Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I hope it will help to mention this because the problem is getting worse in light of all the spam filters out there.

In the past two weeks, I received inquiries from prospective customers wanting corns. When I responded to the emails, my letter was returned to me undeliverable. In most cases, the writer is not aware that settings on their mail box don't allow me to respond and therefore presume I'm ignoring them.

My advice is to check any general blocks you've put on you incoming mail to make sure you're not missing out on mail you want to get. It could be general settings to detect "suspicious" mail or it could be key words not allowed. Also, if a response you're expecting is delinquent, check your itemized list of spammers to make sure that person is NOT on that list.

To the senders of email: Be sure to avoid certain words in the subject line and/or body of your email. I try to replace "sex" with "gender" when possible. Also, I don't know about you, but when I get a letter titled "You won't believe this offer" or something like that, I usually send it to my spam pit with one stroke of my mouse without even reading it. That sends that email address to a list that prevents that person from ever writing to me again. I've mistakenly done this to a couple of customer's letters to me. Be sure the title of your emal is concise and to the point and use reptile words that a virtual solicitor might not use.

Thanks for reading,

Don
www.cornsnake.NET
South Mountain Reptiles

to include a phone # in your email. Occasionally, I have not been able to reply to an email (kept getting returned to me). If there is a phone #, I will call and let the person know about it. But if there is no phone #, they will probably assume (as Don said), that I am ignoring them.

How the heck are ya? Haven't talked with ya since Daytona.

Yes, phone number very important. Thanks for catching that. I take it you've had this frustrating experience too. I feel so helpless that I have NO way of telling them I'm not ignoring them. It bothers me that they'll think I was unprofessional by not reponding to them.

Take care, Kathy and thanks for the addendum to my post.

Don
www.cornsnake.NET
South Mountain Reptiles

np

I am on 9.0 right now. While I have always had these situations happening, I noticed it's very bad lately. Very likely 9.0 is part of the problem.

Putting phone number in there will help eliminate this problem if indeed AOL is the culprit.

Thanks.

I've only used AOL long enough to use the free 30 days while switching DSL services, but....AOL SUCKS! lol IMHO

I have a few relitives who use AOL and they have to "allow" me to send them email....I turned that feature off immediately in my box, but I think a lot of people don't even know it's there. It's a default setting now to just block any non-aol mail, and since I have a private domain, everyone who had AOL had to go in and "allow" me to send them mail. Really dumb if you ask me. I hate SPAM as much as the next guy, maybe more since I am constantly reporting spammers to ISP's, but AOL's gone a bit overboard, and now others, (MSN) are following right along with AOL.

My suggestion, whenever you update or start a new isp software, the first thing to do is check out the email's defaul settings. If you don't like spam, you can always block those senders as they come and still get all the mail you want to get.
-----
Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

I have Earthlink with my Sprint DSL and I love it. I don't have that returned email problem often, but just once in a while. If everyone added a phone # as a matter of course, then they know that they really are being ignored if they get no response, lol!

Don - will I see you browsing around (or set up)at the Philly show?

Kathy:

I'm really pinned down this year with all the babies. I'll be in Dallas for Bob Clark's show this coming weekend at the Arlington Convention Center, Nov.1-2. Then I'll be in Houston at the Clarion at Greenspoint, Nov.15-16. That's it for me unless I decide to do a Dallas or San Antonio show for Morning Star Expos.

Hope you have a good sale up there. Good luck.

Don

Maybe next year you will have a little more time. Bob Ashley's shows are pretty classy and well-attended.

Didn't know Bob Clarke does shows, but then I don't get to Texas very often. Might make a trip one of these days when you are ready to show off your critters.

Good luck at the Texas shows you will be attending.
Kathy