Ask HN: Is it just me or do the no-reply email addresses really bug you?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9898560

by titusblair • 11 years ago

15 16 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I recently wanted to respond to a company about an issue and their reply featured the classic "no-reply" email address. I mean in this world of instant communication and intelligent email management do we really still need a no-reply email! Thoughts anyone or is it just me :)

teaneedz• 11 years ago

I get why email senders do it, but it does create unnecessary UX friction. Yes, I dislike it too.

briandear• 11 years ago

I find them obnoxious. You want to communicate with me, but I can't communicate with you? It's ridiculous.

gesman• 11 years ago

Automated notifications/confirmations/instructions that imply that no humans is sending this email.

Although many such email do contain instructions on how to contact someone relevant.

Expecting "thank you for your purchase" from amazon to come from jeff.bezos@amazon.com is unreasonable.

dangrossman• 11 years ago

All mails from Improvely come from a real mailbox you can reply to. I send about 10,000 notification mails per day to users. As a result, I get up to several hundred useless auto-reply messages a day.

I set up filters in my mail client to trash them. If I were mailing tens of thousands or more people a day, then that might not be a workable solution.

The sole reason for no-reply addresses isn't that companies don't want to be contacted.

Someone1234• 11 years ago

Indeed. Between bounce-backs, out of office, and other junk email, you really have no other choice if you're sending out a mailshot other than to put the replies into the bin. Just put a nice unsubscribe button and heck even a sales@example.com right in the email body for people who want to contact you.

colinbartlett• 11 years ago

It's also an indicator that email isn't the best communication mechanism for everything. A lot of these messages you refer to are simply one-way notification style message that really are better served in a push notice style format: Short, one-way, and ephemeral.

Can we supplement email with some other open standard communication mechanism that fits better for notifications?

wnoise• 11 years ago

SMS?

mead5432• 11 years ago

Was the email you're replying to connected to the issue you're discussing? If yes (e.g. Support Forum message), then no-reply is a bad UX and it absolutely should connect to an appropriate channel like posting the response to the thread. If not (e.g. Marketing email), you're probably trying to talk to the wrong person anyway. Besides, having a person in marketing sifting through all those emails to try and find relevant emails is imperfect and slow with the chances of signal getting lost in the noise highly likely.

osipovas• 11 years ago

I first really noticed how much this bugs me with the New Yorker's subscription reminder.

"We need to hear from you right away regarding The New Yorker holiday gift subscription you gave JANE DOE last year."

So, I kindly replied: when does it expire? Then seconds later I get a bounceback. It's a terrible customer experience.

27182818284• 11 years ago

When they first started getting popular, I enjoyed them because it clued me in that my email would be bounced before I took the time to draft an email.

Now the fashion trend has changed and I feel annoyed that I can't reply to it and get some type of something. Whether it be an update in a ticketing system or a real human.

BjoernKW• 11 years ago

Same here.

I get that those emails aren't sent by a human but if I have an issue with the sender's product or service or a question regarding the content of the email being open to replies not only is polite but it also signals that you care about the recipient.

If you want to create customer delight being responsive to emails is a particularly low hanging fruit.

flooq• 11 years ago

I think they're okay for mass communication (product updates, etc) but not in reply to a customers email.

superuser2• 11 years ago

The reason for this is that a very large number of automated emails (even if a very small percentage) will bounce back. The person-hours to sort through all of that noise are just not worth it in most cases.

There are some cases where you can reply to an automated email, but typically it's where the notification is only ever sent to real people with active email accounts - a receipt, not a newsletter.

6d0debc071• 11 years ago

Yes, but largely because they generally don't include an email address for if you wanted to talk to a real person about the issue. Doesn't have to be the same one.

evandonaldson• 11 years ago

no-reply emails are typical of companies like Paypal. It is a terrible customer service experience. But the worst UX is when you have to complete a web form to make an enquiry but don't get a email receipt of your enquiry. So there is no proof you submitted an enquiry and unless you copied the text to another file you have no copy of exactly what you submitted. If you are lucky enough to hear a response it's from a non-reply email address. I experienced this exact scenario recently. I thought it was blatantly cynical.

georgerobinson• 11 years ago

I have a regexp set up that immediately moves all incoming emails with no-reply to my spam folder. If I am expecting such an email I can look in my spam folder manually.

Ask HN: Is it just me or do the no-reply email addresses really bug you?

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