Customers aren't receiving your replies

Use this article when a customer says your reply landed in their spam folder, never arrived, or when a reply shows a red alert icon.

Looking for spam that arrives in your own inbox instead? See the spam article.

Spam management in Commslayer →

First, check that the reply was sent#

Open the conversation and look at your reply.

• Red alert icon on the message: the reply did not send. Hover over the icon to read the reason, then see "Common reasons a reply fails" below

• A tick on the message: the reply was sent. If the customer still can't find it, it most likely went to their spam folder. Follow the steps below

• A red banner saying your Gmail account has been rate limited: replies are waiting, not lost. See the next section

If you use Gmail quick setup: check the rate limit#

Google limits how many emails a Gmail account can send in a day. When an inbox on Gmail quick setup reaches that limit, a red banner appears and sending pauses for up to an hour. Replies you wrote in the meantime go out by themselves once the pause ends, so customers get them late.

If the banner keeps coming back, contact support from the chat inside the app and our team moves the inbox to Standard setup, which has no sending limit. Your address, inbox and conversation history stay the same.

Your Gmail account has been rate limited →

If replies go to spam#

Whether an email lands in the inbox or in spam is decided by the customer's email provider. It looks at how your domain is set up, so that is where to check. The steps are the same for every setup.

1. Check your domain's email records#

Standard setup (replies go out through our email provider):

1. Go to Settings → Inboxes and click Manage on the inbox
2. In DNS records, check that DKIM and Return-Path both show Verified. If one shows Inactive, click Verify
3. Check that your domain has a DMARC record. DMARC is not a Commslayer setting. It is a record in your own domain's DNS, and you add or change it at your DNS host

Add your DNS records →

Gmail quick setup (Google sends the email from your own Google account):

• The email goes out from your domain through Google, so there is nothing to verify inside Commslayer

• Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain in your Google Workspace admin and at your DNS host

2. Run a free test from Commslayer#

A test shows what your customers' email providers see. Both of these tools are free and need no signup:

• DMARC Tester checks whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass for the email you send, and which domain each check was made against

• Warmy's email deliverability test shows whether your email lands in the inbox or in spam at different email providers

DMARC Tester →

Warmy email deliverability test →

How to run one:

1. Open the tool and copy the test email address it shows. Warmy shows several addresses
2. In Commslayer, click the compose icon (the pencil) at the top of the sidebar
3. Choose the inbox your customers have trouble with and add the test address in To:. For several addresses, add them one at a time
4. Add a subject and a few lines of normal text, and click Send
5. Go back to the tool and read the result

Send the test from Commslayer, not from your regular mailbox. That way the test sees the same email your customers get.

3. Fix what the test flags, or send it to us#

Most findings are fixed at your DNS host. If you're not sure what to change, contact support from the chat inside the app and include:

• The result of the test, as a link or a screenshot

• Which inbox you sent from

• Links to one or two conversations where the customer didn't get your reply

Common reasons a reply fails#

The reason is shown when you hover over the red alert icon. Fix it, then click the retry icon next to the message.

• "Email account authorization expired": the Gmail connection has expired. Reconnect the inbox under Settings → Inboxes, then retry

• "Email account lacks send permission": reconnect the inbox and allow Commslayer to send email when Google asks

• "Invalid recipient email address": one of the addresses has a typo or is incomplete. Check To, Cc and Bcc, then send a new email to the right address

• "No deliverable recipient email address": the conversation has no address to send to. Start a new email to the correct address

• "an attachment file is no longer available": write the reply again and attach the file again

• A hard bounce: the customer's email server rejected the email, for example because the address doesn't exist. Check the address with the customer and start a new email to the correct one

• Anything else: contact support from the chat inside the app with a link to the conversation

Failed activity#

Failed activity in the sidebar lists everything that didn't go through: replies that failed to send, hard bounces, spam complaints and failed actions on social comments. It only shows while there is at least one failed item from the last 90 days. If you don't see it, nothing has failed.

• Retry sends the reply again. Hard bounces and spam complaints can't be retried

• Dismiss removes an item from the list. It doesn't delete the message or the conversation

• Hard bounces and spam complaints are reported for Standard setup inboxes. On Gmail quick setup, the bounce notice arrives in your Gmail mailbox instead

Good to know#

• No inbox or spam signal. Commslayer can't tell you which folder a sent email landed in.

• No bounce notification. The failed message and the Failed activity list are the two places to look.