452 Error/Send Limits

[JukeJenkins]

For the past 3 weekends out of 4, the already minimal 50 recipient per email limit has been further reduced to 25.

Support staff haven't a clue and aside from promises of non-existent call backs, the only other enlightening advice is that the mail servers will correct themselves in a couple of days.

Whilst one can appreciate that issues happen, it's the regularity of this being only at weekends, so something must be going on so why isn't this being advised and/or an alternative (workable) mail server put in place if only temporarily?

Is anyone else suffering from this?

I send 1000 emails at a time to an opted in list, 7 days a week, every day of the year. It's called 'Business' BT, supposidely what your services support. How about doing something about it for me and all this other business customers that this must be affecting!

[Stephenc]

Hi Jenkins,

The BT servers are not designed for mass mailing, they operate a fair usage policy which results in your ip address being blacklisted or your mailbox being suspended.

If you do require to send this amount of email, I would suggest contacting a mass mailing company or buying our advanced hosting pack which contains the announcer pro which will send 1000 emails in one go.

Steve

[JukeJenkins]

Are you saying then Steve that there is not an issue on the mail servers and it's a simple case of me being blocked?

Emailing a thousand customers is hardly 'mass mailing', it's regular business, plus if you're going to set limits, which you have, of 50 recipients, why is this not being adhered to?

Emailing this many customers is surely not unfair usage and would be intrigued as to what BTs exact definitiion of this term is, particularly if you are accusing me of acting in such a manner by merely operating a small part of my business through your business services which I made sure was acceptable prior to signing up.

Does your 'advanced hosting' allow email to be sent from my own domain, as in not from an @btconnect.com address? What's the cost?

[Stephenc]

Hi Jenkins,

I'm not saying there isn't a fault, however I've never genuinely seen an instance where there has been issues sending to less than 50 people due to limits at this end, however I'll doublecheck this for next time I'm in the office, I'll see if I can send to 50 people, if we can replicate it we can raise it as a fault and get this checked out.

If you were blocked you wouldn't be able to send any messages, if you can send to a certain number its unlikely we've restricted you personally.

In terms of getting an exact definition, there isn't really one, the terms and conditions are quite ambiguous to cover a range of possibilities, it's determined on a fair usage policy.  1000 emails a week is not a problem, 1000 in one go, would probably be considered over the limit, but again there is no exact limit it's all done on a fair usage basis.

You could call our security team and ask for more information on the fair usage policy, but there isn't really an exact answer 0808 100 4332.

The announcer pro allows you to use any personal domain, it is however £15 a month, unfortunately the announcer pro in the advanced hosting is currently not sold seperately.

Steve

[JukeJenkins]

Given the circumstances Steve; this issue occuring the last 3 weekends out of 4 and returning to 'normal' on Monday, I would suggest that this needs to be looked into which is why I have reported it every time it's happened.

As I said, I checked that my usage would be 'acceptable' prior to re-joining BT Business.

I'd be happy if your mail servers just worked at the limits specified. I've had more issues with BT in 10 months than in 10 years with my previous residential supplier. I thought that opting for business services and paying more for them would result in an overall better experience but sadly not.

There must be a reason why it cuts by half to 25 on repeated weekends so if there is anything you can do to see why Steve, it would be appreciated.

IS NO OTHER BT BUSINESS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCING THIS, OR AM I THE ONLY FOOL THAT WORKS WEEKENDS AND TRIES TO SEND TO A MAILING LIST??

[JukeJenkins · Accepted solution]

Having taken this to BT Advanced Diagnostics team, I'll answer my own question for everyone sending via SMTP at weekends.....

The restriction has been changed over the past weeks and the maximum amount of recipients is 25 at a weekend reduced from the 50 during the week, apparently implemented to cut down on spam (presuming as they only work weekends!!).

No frontline staff have been told about this and it's taken a month for me to get a response of clarity.

Once again BT, disgusting service and no way to treat business customers by impacting them in this way, without even courtesy to let any one, even your own staff, know.