E Mail Problem or Return to Sender?

Factual Questions
1

I was supposed to meet someone this Saturday, that I have been corresponding to through e mails, she lives in Mississippi while I live in Atlanta. We were to meet at a zoo in Hattiesburg, MS because she already knew her children liked it there. EXCEPT that now I keep receiving this strange reply each time I e mail her, it’s sending my message back with this attachment:
Tue, 06 Jun 00 17:18PM EDT
From: Mail Delivery Subsystem <MAILER-DAEMON@kang.svc.tds.net>
To: <judywright@usa.net>
Subject: Returned mail: User unknown
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors -----
<MissMissy@mail.tds.net>

----- Transcript of session follows -----
550 <MissMissy@mail.tds.net>… User unknown
Attached Message
Final-Recipient: RFC822; <MissMissy@mail.tds.net>
Action: failed
Status: 5.1.1
Last-Attempt-Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 16:18:13 -0500 (CDT)

This is a seven hour drive for me, and it appears that I can’t get through to her. ** Is this something SHE is doing?? The equivalent of ‘Return to Sender’ in mailing something back?? **

I’m not inclined to drive all that way only to find out, that is exactly what this is. " I’ve changed my mind, maybe you’re a creepy old woman murderer, I’ve had second thoughts and don’t know how to tell you that I don’t want you around my helpless children."

Any ideas??

Thanks,
Judy

2

It’s barely possible that the system is expecting missymissy@mail.tds.net, or Missymissy@mail.tds.net. However, that message usually indicates that you have the wrong email address for your friend. “User unknown” means pretty much what it says; mail.tds.net has never heard of MissyMissy.

3

Except that it is the same exact address that its been for the last few months, Jon. ** She ** would’ve had to have changed something for it to register, ‘user unknown.’ And what’s with the ‘Mailer Daemon’ thingie?? The Devil gets involved in this stuff?? :confused:

4

Two possibilities:

  1. MissMissy no longer has an e-mail account. Either she cancelled the account herself or the ISP she uses cancelled it (unpaid bills, MissMissy broke the Terms of Service agreement, some one accidentally deleted the wrong user, etc.). No way to know which it is as it stands now.

  2. TDS.NET is down or their e-mail server is down. Another e-mail virus has been making its rounds today so this is quite possible. Either their server crashed or they shut it down preemptively to avoid problems (as we have done at my office).

Unless you’re leaving in two hours I’d give it some time. If this still happens tomorrow chances are the problem lies in #1 above.

5

I’ve sometimes been convinced that email routing is a tool of the Devil, but I won’t go into that here.

[Seriously, a “Daemon” is a program that runs around on a computer doing things automatically. Since its actions are not under the direct control of a human, it seems to have a life of its own and hence got this moniker.]

You can be sure that this is not a “return to sender” message. She’s not deliberately responding in a “nobody home but us chickens” way. And she can’t cause this message by refusing delivery of the message or some such.

If there’s no question that this is the right address, then it looks like something is wrong with her account. Most likely her subscription to her mail service has been turned off (voluntarily or otherwise). Or it may just be an intermittent problem with her mail service.

Bottom line, email isn’t a reliable way to contact someone under these circumstances. It’s OK for setting up arrangements, but when it comes close to the time to execute them, you need something more real-time.

6

Daemon (from Merriam Webster):
A supernatural being of Greek mythology intermediate between gods and men

Computer programmers love cutsie/obscure things like this. The important part is the ‘intermediate between gods and men’. Substitute computer for gods and you have it (and add women to the list as well ;)).

7

Thanks, ** charizard, ** for the last piece of advice is what I’m finding out to be true right now. Face to face friends wouldn’t have left out phone calls about meeting.

I really appreciate the reassurance, ** Jeff_42, ** that this isn’t happening by Missy, herself. And, since I’m not supposed to leave till Saturday, I do have some time before a deadline of some kind needs to be met.

So, ‘Daemon’ isn’t about the depths of hell, huh? Those computer guys have some kind of sense of humor! :wink:

8

I have had email sent to working accounts on Yahoo! return the “User unknown” message when they have problems so it doesn’t necessarily mean that she no longer has email, but then Yahoo! usually never gives that message for more than several hours, so if it continues for a couple days then it may be valid. I am with charizard however. If you are ready to meet in real life I think it is time to exchange phone numbers.

9

She may no longer have an account there. Write:
webmaster@usa.net & ask if she does.

Or try later: judywright@usa.net to see if ALL computers on the route are working.

10

Thanks for the imput, I finally got an e mail from Missy today telling me that her system had shut down. Another eye opener! I had never heard that could happen before, though I knew the Straight Dope had shut down, so I don’t know why I didn’t think it could happen to an e mail account. However I DO know it now! We are exchanging phone numbers, so that this doesn’t have to happen again.

Again, thanks for the help! :slight_smile: