When Spam isn't Spam
By Gina
@Gina145 (3949)
Johannesburg, South Africa
December 14, 2016 12:32pm CST
Today's been one of those days when technology has let me down really badly. What was meant to be a simple 5 minute online transaction refused to work and I was forced to do my business by telephone. That meant a lot more than 5 minutes on hold before I could even get started.
Without written proof I wasn't confident that everything had been done correctly so I asked the person I spoke to for confirmation by email. No problem, or so I thought. When nothing had arrived 90 minutes later I contacted him again.
His suggestion? Check your spam folder. Trouble is my email program doesn't have such a thing. It was only after he'd agreed to send the email a second time that I thought to log in to my service provider. And there it was in a collection of 50+ items of "spam" which included several important emails that I didn't even know were missing, some of them dating back to September.
Technology is good for some things, but how can it decide what I do and don't need to read?
4 people like this
4 responses
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
15 Dec 16
I've often heard people say to check one's spam folder but my program doesn't have one so I didn't realise I was missing anything. It's really strange because having to log in to my service provider for each address separately is a huge inconvenience. I really need to find out if there is a better solution.
1 person likes this
@Rohvannyn (3098)
• United States
17 Dec 16
Would it be possible to create a spam folder in your email program, then contact your service provider to see if they can show you how to route your spam into it? At the very least you could check all your folders then "whitelist" any important email addresses so it doesn't get routed into the spam folder the next time.
1 person likes this
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
17 Dec 16
@Rohvannyn Thanks for the suggestion. I guess that's something to think about. The trouble is that when I've got big problems my service provider doesn't tend to be very helpful.
1 person likes this
@Rohvannyn (3098)
• United States
17 Dec 16
@Gina145 Well, that's a pain. Good luck to you.
1 person likes this
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
15 Dec 16
@JudyEv It's a big worry because I have several different sub-accounts with the same service provider and I really can't spare the time to log into all of them. And if I have to log in there then what point is there in having a separate email program anyway?
1 person likes this
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
14 Dec 16
I would too if I had one but my email program doesn't have a spam folder. I had to log in to my account at my service provider to see if the missing email was there. I've never realised I needed to do that before and don't understand why the spam folder isn't in a place where I have easy access to it.
1 person likes this
@Gina145 (3949)
• Johannesburg, South Africa
15 Dec 16
@paigea I find it hard to understand too but it's not there. There's a trash folder for things I delete myself, but spam doesn't go there. It just seems to get left behind at my service provider when the rest of my mail gets downloaded.
1 person likes this
