Delivery, Bounces & Unsubscribes
What This Page Covers
Section titled “What This Page Covers”How FSRevs tracks message delivery and handles problems — including email bounces, spam complaints, customer unsubscribes, and SMS delivery failures. Understanding these helps you maintain healthy sending practices and know why certain customers may stop receiving requests.
This delivery tracking applies to messages sent through FSRevs. When you send from your own device, FSRevs records that it prepared the message but cannot see delivery events from your phone’s email or messaging app.
Email Delivery Lifecycle
Section titled “Email Delivery Lifecycle”When you send a review request or form request via email, FSRevs tracks its progress through these stages:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Sent | The message was handed off to the email provider |
| Delivered | The recipient’s email server accepted the message |
| Opened | The recipient opened the email |
| Bounced | The email could not be delivered (see below) |
| Unsubscribed | The recipient opted out of future emails |
| Complaint | The recipient marked the email as spam |
Email Bounces
Section titled “Email Bounces”A bounce happens when an email can’t be delivered to the recipient’s inbox.
Hard Bounces (Permanent)
Section titled “Hard Bounces (Permanent)”The email address is invalid or permanently unreachable. Common causes:
- The email address doesn’t exist
- The domain doesn’t exist
- The recipient’s server permanently rejected the message
Soft Bounces
Section titled “Soft Bounces”A temporary delivery failure — the address exists but the message couldn’t be delivered right now. Common causes:
- The recipient’s mailbox is full
- The recipient’s server is temporarily unavailable
Soft bounces don’t immediately suppress the address, but repeated soft bounces may result in suppression.
Spam Complaints
Section titled “Spam Complaints”If a recipient marks your email as spam, FSRevs records a complaint for that message. The email address is immediately added to the suppression list with the highest priority — complaint suppressions cannot be automatically overridden by any other status.
When FSRevs can identify the customer and account, a complaint also revokes that customer’s existing email and SMS marketing permission. Historical permission remains visible, but fresh affirmative permission is required before the customer can become eligible again.
Customer Unsubscribes
Section titled “Customer Unsubscribes”Every email sent through FSRevs includes an unsubscribe link. When a customer clicks it:
- The email address is added to the suppression list
- The message is marked as unsubscribed
- All future email sends to that address are blocked
- When the customer can be identified, earlier email and SMS marketing permission for that customer is revoked within the account
Clearing an Unsubscribe
Section titled “Clearing an Unsubscribe”The existing unsubscribe page can clear an actual unsubscribe when that action is available. It cannot clear a spam complaint or hard-bounce restriction.
Clearing the unsubscribe does not restore an earlier marketing grant. The customer must affirmatively grant fresh permission through a configured Review Flow, Custom Form, or a controlled staff action.
Why Old Permission Does Not Return
Section titled “Why Old Permission Does Not Return”FSRevs keeps permission history and current restrictions separate. A previous grant remains useful evidence of what happened, but an unsubscribe, STOP request, or complaint creates a newer revocation boundary. Removing the current suppression later does not erase that boundary or make the old grant active again.
SMS Delivery Failures
Section titled “SMS Delivery Failures”When sending requests via SMS, delivery issues are tracked similarly:
- Failed SMS deliveries are logged with the error details from the carrier
- Phone numbers that consistently fail are added to a phone suppression list
- Suppressed phone numbers are blocked from future SMS sends
An SMS STOP request is different from an ordinary delivery failure. STOP immediately suppresses the exact phone number. When FSRevs can identify the customer and account, it also revokes that customer’s existing email and SMS marketing permission. Fresh permission is still required if the restriction is later cleared through a valid process.
Hard bounces, invalid values, and ordinary delivery failures block delivery but do not by themselves mean that the customer withdrew permission. If the contact later becomes deliverable, its permission can be evaluated again unless a later unsubscribe, STOP request, complaint, or explicit revocation also applies.
Viewing Suppressed Contacts
Section titled “Viewing Suppressed Contacts”Open a customer and select Contact Methods to see whether an exact email address or phone number is permitted, blocked, revoked, not permitted, or inactive. Use Permission history for the recorded events and current blocking reason.
Best Practices
Section titled “Best Practices”- Verify contact information before sending — typos in email addresses cause unnecessary bounces
- Send to recent customers — older email addresses are more likely to bounce
- Don’t send to disengaged contacts — repeated sends to unresponsive contacts increase complaint risk
- Monitor your activity — check the Flow Activity section regularly for delivery issues