retrieval of messages sent while bandwidth was exceeded?

michelle mccann · 27 Jul 2010, 08:56 AM

Unfortunately, I misread this email from 'support' last Friday:

You have now used all of your monthly bandwidth quota. You are
now not allowed to send or receive any more emails until you
upgrade your account or purchase additional bandwidth. You can
still view and retrieve messages however.

I did not realise that any mails sent to me would really be lost. I lost ~6 hours of time last Friday and the people who emailed me did not get a notification that their email had not gotten through.

Does anyone know if there's anything that can be done? Or if fastmail can at least notify the senders that their email never got to me?

Thanks for any help,
Michelle.

n5bb · 27 Jul 2010, 10:36 AM

Welcome to the EMD Forums, Michelle!

When your account was locked due to you going over your bandwidth quota, the email services sending messages to your Fastmail account should have done one of the following:

The sender might get a bounce message from an email server telling them that the message was rejected and can't be delivered.
The sender might get a message telling them that the message can't be immediately delivered, but that the server will keep trying for some interval (48 hours, for example).
The sender's email client might not send the message, with a message to the sender.

In all of these situations no messages which were accepted by the sending server are destroyed. As long as you quickly resolve the problem, the messages should be queued and you should receive them in due course. If the messages were rejected without being queued by the sending server or email client, the sender should see a message to that effect.

What is important is to get this resolved quickly, such as by upgrading your account. Otherwise the messages will be eventually dropped by the sending server, and the sender might assume that your account is closed.

The situation is similar to postal snail mail. If the mail delivery clerk can't deliver your mail for some temporary reason (such as your mail delivery box being inaccessible), your mail is normally held temporarily at the post office and each day the delivery clerk tries again to deliver your mail. But this only goes on for a limited time, and eventually the senders get notices that their mail can't be delivered, and it is returned to them. This model is what is also supposed to happen with email.

Bill

michelle mccann · 27 Jul 2010, 04:30 PM

Thanks Bill.

I resolved the problem quickly (within ~6 hours), but really I know at least one person who did send a message and didn't get a bounce. I haven't heard from anyone who did get a bounce. Maybe it's a bug?

Michelle.

n5bb · 28 Jul 2010, 12:41 PM

Email systems can try for a few days to send a message before giving up. A few are badly set up and don't tell you if there is a problem. But that's other email systems, not Fastmail.

Bill

27 Jul 2010, 08:56 AM	#1
michelle mccann Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 2	retrieval of messages sent while bandwidth was exceeded? Unfortunately, I misread this email from 'support' last Friday: You have now used all of your monthly bandwidth quota. You are now not allowed to send or receive any more emails until you upgrade your account or purchase additional bandwidth. You can still view and retrieve messages however. I did not realise that any mails sent to me would really be lost. I lost ~6 hours of time last Friday and the people who emailed me did not get a notification that their email had not gotten through. Does anyone know if there's anything that can be done? Or if fastmail can at least notify the senders that their email never got to me? Thanks for any help, Michelle.

27 Jul 2010, 10:36 AM	#2
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,929	Welcome to the EMD Forums, Michelle! When your account was locked due to you going over your bandwidth quota, the email services sending messages to your Fastmail account should have done one of the following: The sender might get a bounce message from an email server telling them that the message was rejected and can't be delivered. The sender might get a message telling them that the message can't be immediately delivered, but that the server will keep trying for some interval (48 hours, for example). The sender's email client might not send the message, with a message to the sender. In all of these situations no messages which were accepted by the sending server are destroyed. As long as you quickly resolve the problem, the messages should be queued and you should receive them in due course. If the messages were rejected without being queued by the sending server or email client, the sender should see a message to that effect. What is important is to get this resolved quickly, such as by upgrading your account. Otherwise the messages will be eventually dropped by the sending server, and the sender might assume that your account is closed. The situation is similar to postal snail mail. If the mail delivery clerk can't deliver your mail for some temporary reason (such as your mail delivery box being inaccessible), your mail is normally held temporarily at the post office and each day the delivery clerk tries again to deliver your mail. But this only goes on for a limited time, and eventually the senders get notices that their mail can't be delivered, and it is returned to them. This model is what is also supposed to happen with email. Bill

27 Jul 2010, 04:30 PM	#3
michelle mccann Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 2	Thanks Bill. I resolved the problem quickly (within ~6 hours), but really I know at least one person who did send a message and didn't get a bounce. I haven't heard from anyone who did get a bounce. Maybe it's a bug? Michelle.

28 Jul 2010, 12:41 PM	#4
n5bb Intergalactic Postmaster Join Date: May 2004 Location: Irving, Texas Posts: 8,929	Email systems can try for a few days to send a message before giving up. A few are badly set up and don't tell you if there is a problem. But that's other email systems, not Fastmail. Bill