If we’ve contacted you to let you know that your email bounced, it means that it wasn’t delivered successfully to your email address – it ‘bounced’ back to us. Learn why this happened and how to stop it from happening again.

What is a bounced email?

Email messages are sent between mail servers. If there's an error during the transmission, a delivery status notification, otherwise known as a ‘bounce message’, is returned to the sending server (in this case, that’s us), to explain why the message wasn't delivered.

There are many reasons why the email may not have been delivered. To simplify, they are usually classified into two broad categories – a ‘soft’ bounce, or a ‘hard' bounce.

Soft bounce vs hard bounce

A soft bounce means the email couldn’t be delivered for temporary reasons. For example, your inbox could be full, the email file might be too large, or your server was offline when we emailed.

A hard bounce means the email is permanently undeliverable. For example, the address we have on file for you is incorrect, or perhaps you deleted your mailbox.

Simple ways to prevent your emails bouncing

The good news is that there are simple ways to stop emails from bouncing.

You can:

• Update your email address by logging in to Member Online and updating the ‘Personal details’ page or calling us on 13 43 72
• Add our email address to your safe senders list
• Clean out your inbox