Auto-unsubscribing bug in Connections
I run a mailing list in Connections and noticed a much larger than average percentage of users unsubscribed. Some of these in the months that followed then telephoned and complained they hadn't got our mailout. In discussion and sessions with support, it appears as though if ever an email is not successfully sent to (for example, inbox full etc), the contact is auto-unsubscribed, or so it seems.
I know from past mailout uses (constant contact for example), that some contacts return email not successfully sent, but in fact they have got them when you speak to them about it. Constant contact did not unsubscribe these Contacts so my suggestion is Connections should maintain the mailing list and only remove if the contact or admin change the status.
I now have to go through over 250 unsubscribed contacts and decide which ones are 'mistakes' and which ones were self-removed by the contact as there seems no bulk way of reinstating all but the genuine unsubscribers.
Until this is fixed, I probably have to use another mailing system in order that our mailing list is preserved correctly.

We’re investigating this issue and we’ll reach out to you via email so we can work with you to understand what’s gone wrong.
The intended behavior is to unsubscribe users when the email provider responds with a permanent errors — for example, when the email provider tells us the email address does not exist. We’re taking this step to protect your spam reputation with that email provider, since some providers penalize senders who send to addresses that don’t exist.
However, this should not be unsubscribing users who experience temporary issues (like their mailbox is full), and we will investigate why your subscribers with valid email addresses were unsubscribed. Thank you for all the information you provided to help us take a look.
1 comment
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James commented
Further information: I can send a single e-mail from my 365 managed e-mail domain to a contact successfully. The recipient can read the e-mail. When I send to that same contact via a Connections mailing, it fails to send and returns "The e-mail to <recipient's e-mail> was rejected by the recipient's e-mail provider." I once again try to send a single e-mail and it is successful, just not via the Connection mailing.
This seemingly auto unsubscribes the contact from the mailing list.