Email Bounce and Unsubscribe Handling
When processing email delivery results, the system updates recipient records based on the bounce category or complaint status returned by the email provider.
Hard Bounces (Automatically Unsubscribe)
Recipients are automatically marked as unsubscribed when the bounce category indicates that the email address is invalid or permanently unreachable:
- Ignore
- NoMailbox
- BlackListed
In these cases:
- The recipient is marked as unsubscribed.
- The unsubscribe reason is set to Hard Bounce.
Contact Already Suppressed by Email Provider
If the email provider reports that delivery was not attempted because the contact was already suppressed, the recipient is automatically unsubscribed and the reason is updated accordingly:
| Provider Message | Unsubscribe Reason |
|---|---|
| Contact status was "Invalid" | Hard Bounce |
| Contact status was "Unsubscribed" | Unsubscribe |
| Contact status was "Complaint" | Abuse Report |
Bounce Categories That Do NOT Automatically Unsubscribe
The following bounce categories are recorded for reporting purposes, but the recipient remains subscribed:
- Spam
- GreyListed
- Throttled
- Timeout
- ConnectionProblem
- SPFProblem
- AccountProblem
- DNSProblem
- WhitelistingProblem
- CodeError
- ManualCancel
- Unknown
These conditions are generally considered temporary, configuration-related, or provider-side issues rather than permanent email address failures.
Abuse Complaints
If a recipient reports an email as spam or files a complaint (AbuseReport):
- The recipient is immediately marked as unsubscribed.
- The unsubscribe reason is set to Abuse Report.
- Future emails will not be sent to that recipient.