Comcast: Am I the only one who hates them?

[jtracking]

Hi, it's funny, our senior clothing firm has over 9000 contacts in our database and about a thousand or more of them are comcast customers. We do not spam, at all. We have an optin list and we send mail twice a month to our customers AND we opt them out if they request us to do so via email OR they can opt out themselves very easily from our website or from the emails that we send them BUT we are constantly getting our mail to comcast customers bounced.

It wouldn't be such a bad thing if it was only the specials emails we sent that were getting bounced but its also our customer product shipping tracking notifications, customer order confirmation emails, customer password recovery emails, our own customer inquiry responses and more.

I now have to forward all the bounces I get from comcast addresses to my gmail account and forward the original email to the intended comcast customer with this message:

Hello faithful 'Our Company' customer.

I am sorry to have to inform you that your internet service provider (ISP) has blocked your important mail from 'Our Company'.

That is the reason I am emailing you the message that was intended for your through this Gmail Account.

There is a way to overcome this however and that would be to add the following email addresses to your address book or list of acceptable email senders:

orders@ourdomain.com
news@ourdomain.com
webmaster@ourdomain.com

or in some cases all mail coming from ourdomain.com.

Also, I suggest that you call your internet service provider (ISP:Comcast) and let them know that you are having problems getting your email from a trusted company - namely 'Our Company' and that they are hindering you from receiving your important order information. They may be able to re-route your mail from 'Our Company' into your inbox.

For Comcast you can call 1-800-266-2278 (if it works)
For Verizon you can call 1-800-643-0997 to speak to a customer support representative.

Lastly, below is a transcript of the email that was originally intended for you but was blocked by your ISP (Comcast). If you requested a new password it is there as well and can now be used.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you and I but I believe it is very important that you be able to receive specials, orders and password notifications.

Kind regards,

---------

So basically that is the email I send out through my Gmail account to Comcast customers to try and tick them off that their important mail is getting blocked. Hopefully Comcast will hear these out crys and do something about it.

-------

Lastly, here is a list of links of Comcast Complaints and it seems the list keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Comcast Problems ~ Chris Pirillo
HIDDEN-TECH:HT Comcast problem
» And you thought you had Comcast problems? | An Internet Consultant Speaks | Scott Hendison
Vonage Forum - Comcast Problems?
Invision Power Services > Comcast problems
My3cents.com - Comcast Complaint - Reception Problems, Reception Problems
[PLUG] [OT] Comcast problems anyone?
Comcast Problems
KyleBits: I Hate Comcast
Tivo Update/I HATE Comcast « Just talking out loud…
Barely Legal Substance: Why I Hate Comcast, And Have a Loathing for Bellsouth Too
HATE COMCAST -- aulax@...'s comment on "Comcast should surcharge bandwidth hogs, Torrents downloaders" | TalkBack on ZDNet
a crank’s progress : I hate Comcast: intermittent outages likely
Everything and Nothing At All: I Hate Comcast
penn: I'm starting to hate comcast too
THIS , is why comcast sucks... - SpeedGuide.net Broadband Community
Comcast: Horrible Service Reps, Terrible Phone Service and Less Than Appealing Prices - Associated Content
Thrashing Through Cyberspace: Comcast Sucks


Enough?

OUR CUSTOMERS ARE COMCASTS CUSTOMERS AND WE'RE NOT HINDERING COMCASTS BUSINESS BUT THEY'RE HINDERING OURS.

Terrible. Terrible Comcast. Just TERRIBLE Service.

[FathomSEO]

That is very unfortunate - I haven't dealt with Comcast a great deal, but I can imagine how frustrating that can be (we've had issues with Hotmail for some of our clients).

I am curious about a few things...

1. Are you sending from Outlook (or something similar), or using an email marketing provider? Email marketing providers will send your message out a handful at a time so you don't bombard mail servers - which gets emails blocked as spam.

2. Are you Sender ID compliant? If Comcast can't validate who you are, it will not trust you.

3. Are you sending on a shared IP address? Just because your messages aren't spam, someone else might be spamming from your IP block. Comcast definitely wouldn't like that.

Your answer might be in the above... or Comcast could easily just suck (like I said, I haven't dealt with them).

[weslinda]

Have you used an outside mailing application such as Constant Contact? Many people don't realize that an IP range can get a bad name and therefore you get blocked by Comcast or any other major ISP.

Using something like Constant Contact can help get your emails through as companies like Comcast have more faith in the systems with this type of list management.

Comcast has a long history and there isn't much you can do except contact them and try to work it out.

[wige]

Interesting. I am a Comcast customer, and I get all my spam, I mean e-mail, without any problem. I have encountered issues sending e-mails to Comcast customers from my company (including to my own e-mail account as a test). As a network admin, I was able to read the reject messages that Comcast sent back, which even included the basic information to fix the problem, which took about ten minutes to fix in my case, and about four hours to take effect.

Do you have access to the bounce messages? Also would you be able to post the headers of a sample e-mail that is typical of the bounces? From reading your description of the problem, it seems that a majority of the e-mails are server or software generated, and that is where I ran into my problem. Is that the case?

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by FathomSEO

1. Are you sending from Outlook (or something similar), or using an email marketing provider? Email marketing providers will send your message out a handful at a time so you don't bombard mail servers - which gets emails blocked as spam.

2. Are you Sender ID compliant? If Comcast can't validate who you are, it will not trust you.

3. Are you sending on a shared IP address? Just because your messages aren't spam, someone else might be spamming from your IP block. Comcast definitely wouldn't like that.

Your answer might be in the above... or Comcast could easily just suck (like I said, I haven't dealt with them).

1. No, we're sending from the server with coldfusion.

2. I'm wondering if there is a way to use our own programs to send mail and still be Sender Compliant or to set up compliancy.

3. I will have to look into whether we're on a shared IP but for the most part I believe we are.

I guess what this really boils down to then is the spammers. They suck more than Comcast ever could in the sense that if there weren't lowlife spammers then comcast wouldn't have to do something this drastic about it. I guess in the end if everyone who is genuine becomes sender compliant and has a Sender Policy Framework setup we may be able to beat the spammers.

[wige]

Originally Posted by jtracking

1. No, we're sending from the server with coldfusion.

This is the specific problem I had sending e-mail through comcast. You need to set up a reverse DNS entry for the IP address that the server is located on because Comcast does a reverse lookup on the originating IP address to ensure that IP address is linked to the domain of the sender's e-mail address.

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by FathomSEO

2. Are you Sender ID compliant? If Comcast can't validate who you are, it will not trust you.

OK I have set up an SPF (sender policy framework record) record on our DNS and checked it here: http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safe...nderid/wizard/

to see if it's being recognized and/or actually there and it is.

I'm going to do some comcast email checks and get back to you.

Thanks so much for all your input everyone.

(edited for clarity)

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by wige

You need to set up a reverse DNS entry for the IP address that the server is located on because Comcast does a reverse lookup on the originating IP address to ensure that IP address is linked to the domain of the sender's e-mail address.

I will be setting that up as well today hopefully and get back to you with that.

Lastly we will be filling in this form at comcast's support pages to try and get our IPs unblocked.

In the end this will benefit us and our clients and we will love comcast again - and again, it's really not thei fault it's the fruitin spammers - they'll get theres.

[jtracking]

Originally Posted by wige

You need to set up a reverse DNS entry for the IP address that the server is located on...

OK so I checked and we do have a reverse DNS entry set up for our IP address. Just a moment ago, a order confirmation bounce came in from comcast although we have setup the SPF record and the reverse DNS entry. Maybe it takes a day or so but I will keep you posted regarding what happens.

Lastly I also filled out the form to request to be removed from comcasts black list at: Blocked Provider Request Form
so I hope this helps too and according to what I've read it should.

Thanks everyone.

[jtracking]

So day one is halfway through after adding a SPF record, a request for removal of website in the comcast block list and adding a reverse DNS entry. So far no bounces and it looks good - so far.

I'll keep you posted tomorrow.

[jtracking]

OK day two and no bounces yet. I even had a comcast customer that has been suffering from this work with me and sign up with our guestbook which emails her a guestbook submission confirmation. She got it and I didn't get the bounce.

Wow if this is actually working and setting up an SPF and a reverse DNS entry combined with requesting to be removed from comcast's block list, then it really wasn't that difficult but I've learned to seriously not count the chickens in the nest so I'll wait until the middle of next week to make a determination on this situation.

*crosses fingers*

[weslinda]

Glad to hear it is working out. A little work and things will go well.

[jtracking]

OK so about two weeks later and not one bounce from Comcast, I guess I have to say I am sorry for bashing them...I'm not too sure about their other services but when it comes to email all one has to do is set up a sender policy framework and things will go well...

: )