# Trouble with email addresses and imbeciles **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 2, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-email-addresses-and-imbeciles/126679 "2002-09-02T15:24:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![scratch1300](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dfb087/32.png) [@scratch1300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch1300)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-email-addresses-and-imbeciles/126679/1 "2002-09-02T15:24:02Z")
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](mailto:asmith@netzero.net), you might think that [asmith@net0.net](mailto: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](mailto: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](mailto:jgraves@lawbg.com), not [jgraves@lobbyg.com](mailto: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](mailto: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](mailto: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.) ---
**Author:** ![Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Krisfer\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Krisfer_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-email-addresses-and-imbeciles/126679/2 "2002-09-02T15:32:38Z")
Well I am terrible for transposing letters in my email [uthaisp.com](http://uthaisp.com) instead of ut **ah** [isp.com](http://isp.com) my mail is alway goinging strange places ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-email-addresses-and-imbeciles/126679/3 "2002-09-02T16:06:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by scratch1300 \* > \*\*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](mailto:acmecorporationoneword@juno.com) – but that’s just too unbelievable. It _has_ to be some kind of joke. \*\* Sadly, I don’t think so. I had a lithographer send us a quote by e-mail for some publicity stuff. The are grpahics people who deal with digital art every day. You’d assume they were computer savvy… My e-mail is [pr\_dept@ourcompany.com](mailto:pr_dept@ourcompany.com). The postmaster who gets all the undeliverables kindly passed it along to me. It had been addressed to: [prunderscoredept@ourcompany.com](mailto:prunderscoredept@ourcompany.com) ---
**Author:** ![MC\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@MC\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_E)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2002, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trouble-with-email-addresses-and-imbeciles/126679/4 "2002-09-02T20:04:26Z")
That reminds me of when I went to follow up on one of my new tech’s helpdesk tickets he couldn’t figure out. I had told him to do a search for files named “\*.pst”, it turns out he was searching for “stardotpst”. No wonder he couldn’t fix it.