Alternate Autoresponder Solution?
- Thread starter sonata
- Start date
thingwarbler
Perch
I'll third that and ask for a solution a.s.a.p., please.
You can use a php based solution to do this, auto responders were responsible for a lot of spam complaints in the past, that made many blacklistings.
My personal opinion, auto responders that are not for support tickets or helpdesk of some sort are useless and annoying, so called 'vacation messages' are hardly useful at all, and luckily most people don't use them anymore!
My personal opinion, auto responders that are not for support tickets or helpdesk of some sort are useless and annoying, so called 'vacation messages' are hardly useful at all, and luckily most people don't use them anymore!
thingwarbler
Perch
So, here's the scenario: somebody leaves company x who was the key contact for lots of 3rd party stuff using his named email ([email protected]). Yes, yes, they should have used a function account ([email protected]) with a forward... but they didn't.
John is gone and bob has taken his spot. I can set up an auto-forward of all mail to john.doe, but client would really like 3rd party emailers to get a notice back that john.doe is no longer with the company and that bob is the new contact.
In a case like this one, the auto-responder is actually kinda useful for a few months. My fix was to temporarily set john.doe up with a gmail account, forward his old account to gmail, forward and delete all incoming mail, and do the auto-responder bit from within gmail. Not very slick or streamlined, but it gets the job done.
John is gone and bob has taken his spot. I can set up an auto-forward of all mail to john.doe, but client would really like 3rd party emailers to get a notice back that john.doe is no longer with the company and that bob is the new contact.
In a case like this one, the auto-responder is actually kinda useful for a few months. My fix was to temporarily set john.doe up with a gmail account, forward his old account to gmail, forward and delete all incoming mail, and do the auto-responder bit from within gmail. Not very slick or streamlined, but it gets the job done.
can't you make the old user an alias to the new so Bob can answer it directly? This is how its been handled in the past with me, I've have about 80% of my main vendor contacts leave their jobs or laid off in the last year 
Most of the time the new contact mails me a welcome but twice, I mailed the contact and got a reply from the new sales rep/manager/contact that John was gone, and I am your new contact, look forward to working with you, contact me for anything, blah blah, a little more personal.
Most of the time the new contact mails me a welcome but twice, I mailed the contact and got a reply from the new sales rep/manager/contact that John was gone, and I am your new contact, look forward to working with you, contact me for anything, blah blah, a little more personal.
nzkiwi
Perch
I agree with Stephen. Aliasing/forwarding is the way to go to handle staff changes. It's also useful for covering temporary changes such as holidays etc. I encourage the use of aliases based on roles as it makes re-allocation simple. Also, if staff are allocated more than one mailbox, non essential/personal mail can be kept clear of any address which might need to be aliased/forwarded.
I stopped using auto responders many years ago when it become apparent that Spam was being sent using genuine, but hijacked addresses as the sender address.
I stopped using auto responders many years ago when it become apparent that Spam was being sent using genuine, but hijacked addresses as the sender address.