Service request disappeared into the ether

[songdog]

I emailed a support request from my account's Primary Email Address to 'service@FutureQuest.net' at 16:29 MST (50 minutes ago), yet haven't received an auto-acknowledgment. Furthermore, the request doesn't show on the Ticket Status list at the on-line Service Desk. :umm:

I can see the closed issue I had submitted on Feb-16, but not today's.

When I sent today's request, I BCC'ed it to a separate mailbox that I check with QuestMail. The email arrived there just fine, so I know it was successfully sent.

Can someone look into this? Thanks.

[sheila]

SpamAssassin apparently sorted it into our spam folder. I was just going through the spam folder when you posted, but wasn't yet up to the time where your email came in.

We will forward it to the service desk and handle it shortly...

[Wassercrats]

Maybe clients should be whitelisted.

[sheila]

We have a very low false positive rate on our spam folder. Generally 1 or fewer per week. It's not really feasible to whitelist the clients' email addresses (and I believe you've suggested this previously? or someone did?).

It would be a great deal of work for the 1 or fewer emails that are temporarily delayed in handling. (We do not have SA set to delete. We do not lose any of these support tickets... we just process them more slowly as they are not seen until someone reviews the spam folder, which happens a few times per day.)

Additionally, we cannot anticipate all possible email addresses that someone might use, and keeping the list up-to-date would also be impractical.

[sheila]

Also, the reason this particular email was tagged by SA is because the client sent in a spam message (for analysis) in the support request.

[songdog]

To follow up on Wassercrats' reply, I agree that all the Primary Email Addresses should be whitelisted (especially when the email is actually sent out by an authenticated account on a FutureQuest mail server, as was the case here).

FWIW, the particular support request I sent is by no means an urgent matter. But I'm used to receiving the auto-acknowledgment within a minute or two, so something seemed wrong.

[sheila]

Right, if you don't receive the auto-reply you should let us know, as that would generally mean we didn't "receive" your support request.

As noted above, it would not be feasible for us to whitelist the addresses.

[songdog]

Sheila - I hadn't yet seen your replies, as it took me a while to compose my last posting.

Wouldn't it be feasible to have emails sent to the Service Desk bypass SpamAssassin altogether if they're sent by an FQ mail server-authenticated account? Surely those won't be spam....

[Wassercrats]

(and I believe you've suggested this previously? or someone did?).In 2003 I wondered why whitelisting just contributes non-spam points instead of clearing the email, but I don't think I ever suggested whitelisting clients. No big deal as long as you're checking the spam folder a few times a day...except that there's no immediate confirmation or ticket status. A bounce message would help for mail detected as spam, but that idea I've mentioned before.

[sheila]

Emails sent from our Service Desk web page skips SA filtering.
http://Service.FutureQuest.net/?_a=tickets&_m=submit

Go to
http://Service.FutureQuest.net

and click on "Contact us".

These will go directly into the Service Desk database. No email involved. Therefore no SA risk of false positive.

[songdog]

Emails sent from our Service Desk web page skips SA filtering.
http://Service.FutureQuest.net/?_a=tickets&_m=submit

(...)

These will go directly into the Service Desk database. No email involved. Therefore no SA risk of false positive.
This is certainly a good idea, and one I will try to remember. On occasion, though, one might need to send a file attachment to the Service Desk. Or one may need to send the service request via cell phone email (where using the Service Desk web page isn't possible on such a small screen).

For now, the moral (at least for me) is to escalate the issue if I haven't received the auto-reply within a few minutes.

[Bob]

Scott,

Just to clarify, any attachments sent via email to the Service Desk are deleted for security reasons and are not seen by us.

Generally if you need to send a ticket regarding an email issue, just sending the full headers would be sufficient, and not including the body would reduce the possibility of it being tagged.

-Bob

Spam affects us all, even FutureQuest, and we must do the best we can to deal with...