I’ve been working with a client recently that suddenly started to get large numbers of hard bounces from the email campaigns she sent from Mailchimp.
I thought I’d share the reason for this as it may assist others.
The client in question sends email campaigns regularly to tens of thousands of recipients. Her open and click rates are very high for her industry. Over the years she has used Mailchimp her hard bounce rates have been very typical and constant.
It was odd therefore when she advised me how the hard bounce rates had jumped significantly.
Diagnosing Hard Bounce Errors in Mailchimp
Mailchimp makes available the “bounce reason”. Although it can be a bit tricky to understand if you’re not used to it, many of the hard bounces in the clients account had the following diagnostic information:
554 delivery error: dd Sorry, your message to *****@yahoo.com cannot be delivered. This mailbox is disabled (554.30)
That the mailbox is disabled is a perfectly good reason for a hard bounce. When looking at the email addresses in the list of bounced email addresses in the Mailchimp report for a campaign it was immediately obvious that the majority of email addresses that hard bounced were Yahoo email addresses.
The Yahoo account that you’re trying to send to doesn’t exist. We recommend that you contact the recipient directly to confirm their correct email address.
Why Yahoo Email Addresses Suddenly Hard Bounce
After a bit of research the reason for the Yahoo email addresses hard bouncing become obvious; Yahoo occasionally disable email addresses that haven’t been signed-in to for 12 months or more.
This is the tiniest bit of knowledge that can save somebody’s day! Thanks, Gary!
This does not answer the question and dilemma. Dig deeper. It is something about Yahoo. We can send a direct email to a yahoo address and it is received pronto. Send from MailChimp and it soft bounces. It’s either Mailchimp or Yahoo that are to blame. I had the same problem with SBC and PacBell until I contacted them directly as NONE of my emails would be sent to these addresses. They removed the block. It is a systemic problem.
Hi Philip, this article is about hard bounces and not soft bounces. It will be best to contact Yahoo directly if you’re concerned about soft bounces.
Hi. We are having the same soft bounce issue. Since December, it seems. Affects 10% of our list. How did you resolve this with Yahoo? We’re a non-profit and are using a free account, so don’t have technical assistance etc.
Tilly,
Please:
Let me know the diagnostic code as this may help identify why Yahoo isn’t accepting email messages.