Why can I not send emails to my customers?

We display this warning in your account settings when you are using a third-party email service for your Tourbuzz account email. These include (but are not limited to):

@gmail.com
@yahoo.com
@ymail.com
@yahoo.ca
@aol.com
@me.com
@mac.com
@icloud.com
@msn.com
@comcast.net

These third-party email services were initially designed for individual use, and as they became adopted by small businesses, these services implemented defensive fraud protection policies.

This is why we are not able to send emails on your behalf when you use one of these third-party email providers, and we are unable to provide support for email sending issues if you are using one of these services.

But don’t worry – we have a solution. By using a personal email address and creating a CNAME record, you can make sure that your emails are delivered.

Setting it up (the short version)

For our system to be able to send an email on your behalf, it is necessary to use an email address that you have created through a hosting provider (even a simple 'forwarding only' email address will work). If you use a Custom Domain for your Tourbuzz account, creating an email address should be a pretty simple process. For help with creating your email address at your domain, we recommend contacting your hosting provider. You can also reference the links at the bottom of this article for setting up email addresses at popular hosting companies.

Once you have created your email address at your domain, you should create CNAME records for your email address, which will help to assure greater success with sending emails through our system.

The longer version

Email sending is a complicated process, and email service providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and others are continually taking steps to help protect their users from fraud. We believe it’s a good thing that protections are put in place, but in doing so, it adds further complications, and in many cases, blocks our ability to send email from your email address. This is because, when we send emails through our system on your behalf, we are essentially pretending to be you sending an email. This has been the accepted practice for years, but as security evolves, so too must our practices. This leads us to ...

DMARC (https://dmarc.org/wiki/FAQ#Why_is_DMARC_important.3F)

To reduce fraud in the global email system, an industry working group was formed, and they created a set of rules and processes called DMARC to check the authenticity of the email sender. There are various ways that each individual email provider can treat what is seen as a possible violation of any of these authentication rules.

DMARC suggests three ways that email processing should be handled (referred to as policies):

None (meaning no action should be taken)
Quarantine
Reject

Many third-party email providers currently use a quarantine policy, and emails found in violation of DMARC will go straight to SPAM/Junk folders.

The next step up from quarantine is reject, meaning emails will be refused at the receiving end, or bounce, not being delivered at all. This is a policy some email providers are already using, and others are likely to adopt at some point in the future.

These rules can be adopted, or upgraded, at any point without notice to end users or companies such as Tourbuzz who attempt to send an email on behalf of users.

Why a CNAME?

When you create an email address via a hosting company, you have an opportunity to create what are called CNAME Records. When you create a CNAME Record for your email address, you are saying to the entire internet: "I give permission to a third party to send an email on my behalf". This is a more secure practice and is now the industry standard.

Granting such permission (creating CNAME Records) is not currently possible with email services such as Gmail, Yahoo, etc, and is typically only available with a hosting provider.

By creating a CNAME record, you can be confident that your emails will be seen by your clients.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us. We're also here to help guide you with setting up your Tourbuzz account for success when sending emails to your customers.

Documentation References

Following are links to documentation on setting up an email address at some popular hosting companies: