OT - (Slightly) Humorous Spam Folder Situation

[DerbyDad03]

I sent an email to a hardware supplier inquiring about some hinges. I received
an auto-response informing me that if I don't receive an answer by the end of
the next business day I should check my spam folder.

Can you guess where the auto-response ended up?

[Bill]

junk?

[cl...@snyder.on.ca]

Where all auto-responses end up, I suppose.

[DerbyDad03]

Not so. I get lots of auto-responses when I order things on-line. Order
acknowledgments, etc. "Hey, we got your order! We'll let you known when
it ships. Thanks!" Rarely do they go to my junk folder.

I just found it slightly humorous that this hinge supplier is aware that the
answers to inquiries may end up going into your junk folder yet they apparently
think (hope?) their auto-response is immune.

Now, obviously, they have no way of preventing the auto-response from going
to junk, so it's sort of a Catch 22. Another option would be to tell you on
their website to be aware of the junk folder issue. They did thank me for my
inquiry after I submitted the form. They could have included the junk folder
warning on the thank you screen. I may suggest that once they respond to my
hinge question.

[k...@notreal.com]

On Sun, 25 Jun 2017 15:34:44 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03

Don't you guys control what goes into your junk folder?

[DerbyDad03]

Yes and no. The email provider for the address in question - just like
many other providers - has a scoring system. I can control what score I
want to let through to my Inbox, but I can't control the algorithm that
assigns the score. I spoke to the provider about their scoring system
being too strict and their response was to set my Spam value higher than
their recommended value of 4. I have mine set at 5, this email was scored
at 5.9. Here are the gory details...

Spam detection software, running on the system "filter01.ispnet.us", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or
label similar future email.

Content preview: Your email has been received, thank you. ------ ------ Our
goal is to respond to your question no later than the end of the next working
day, (not including weekends and holidays). If you have not received a
response from us, within this time frame, please check your spam folder or
junk mail folder. ------ [...]

Content analysis details: (5.9 points, 5.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
-0.1 RELAYCOUNTRY_GOOD Relayed through united states only
0.7 SPF_SOFTFAIL SPF: sender does not match SPF record (softfail)
-0.0 RP_MATCHES_RCVD Envelope sender domain matches handover relay domain
-0.1 SAV_PASS Sender Address Verification: Sender email address accepts mail
0.8 BAYES_50 BODY: Bayes spam probability is 40 to 60%
[score: 0.5692]
1.0 RELAYCOUNTRY_ALL Relayed through any country
0.1 BOUNCE_MESSAGE MTA bounce message
3.5 ANY_BOUNCE_MESSAGE Message is some kind of bounce message

[cl...@snyder.on.ca]

On Sun, 25 Jun 2017 15:34:44 -0700 (PDT), DerbyDad03

Autoresponses from companies/emails that send spam to me all end up
in the spam filter.

[DerbyDad03]

After the fact I can whitelist a sender, but until I know the email address or the domain
that the company's email will be coming from, I wouldn't know what to whitelist.