Part of my job is handling emails that are returned by our overworked imp, Mailer-Daemon, as undeliverable. Now, I don’t think I’m too much of a complainer. I can understand, for instance, typographical errors. If you leave off a letter, or hit the wrong key, while typing an email address…well, it happens to everyone.
Also, if you’re simply unfamiliar with computers and the internet and things, sure, I can understand how instead of asmith@netzero.net, you might think that asmith@net0.net is proper form. Such trifles are an amusing respite from the dull discipline of office life.
But, people, please…
If you have a customer, South Carolina Widget Systems, and they tell you that their email address is info@fcws.com, don’t you think that, just maybe, the host name is formed from their company initials, and that "f’ should more likely be an “s”?
Yep, business names may contain clues to help you obtain the correct email address. Like that law firm, Bennett and Graves? Their actual email address was supposed to be jgraves@lawbg.com, not jgraves@lobbyg.com. There is no “Lobby G” in that building, my under-educated friend.
If you take an order from a woman whose name you spelled as Elizabeth Gray, and her business name as Gray’s Tile and Wallcovering, and you actually take the time to write and attach a note to the customer’s order saying that the spelling is Gray with an “a”, not Grey with an “e”, and then send the order confirmation message to elizabeth_grey@aol.com, do you really, really stand and scratch your head in wonder as to why that email is returned to us as undeliverable?
Because a letter “o” and a numeral “0” are both, you know, circular, do you think something sent to billyblank@a0l.c0m is going to be received nonetheless?
Finally, I’d like to remark upon the co-worker who handled an order from Acme Corporation and sent the email to acmecorporationoneword@juno.com – but that’s just too unbelievable. It has to be some kind of joke.
Right?
(Note: all email addresses have been changed to protect the innocent.)