When you reply to a ticket in SupportBee, the email is sent through your email provider's servers - not through SupportBee's. SupportBee acts as an email client, similar to how Outlook or Apple Mail works. This means email deliverability is primarily controlled by your email provider and the recipient's email provider.
How email sending works in SupportBee
Understanding the email path helps diagnose delivery problems:
- You compose a reply in SupportBee
- SupportBee sends the message to your email provider (via the native Gmail/Outlook integration, or via your configured SMTP server)
- Your email provider's servers deliver the message to the recipient's email provider
- The recipient's email provider delivers it to their inbox (or spam folder, or blocks it)
SupportBee has visibility over step 2 - getting the email to your provider. After that, delivery is between your provider and the recipient's provider. If SupportBee shows the reply as sent without errors, the message was successfully handed off to your email provider.
Replies sent but not received
If your replies show as sent in SupportBee but recipients are not receiving them, the issue is almost always between your email provider and the recipient's provider. Here is what to check:
Verify the email left your provider
Check your email provider's sent folder (for example, Gmail's Sent Items or Outlook's Sent folder). If the reply appears there, it was successfully sent by your provider. If it does not appear, there may be a configuration issue between SupportBee and your provider.
Check recipient spam folders
Ask the recipient to check their spam or junk folder. Emails from new senders or from addresses that have recently changed their sending patterns are more likely to be filtered.
Contact your email provider
If emails are in your sent folder but recipients are not receiving them, your email provider is the right point of contact. They can investigate:
- Whether the message was blocked or bounced after sending
- Whether your domain or IP address has been flagged
- Whether there are sending limits that have been reached
Only your email provider has access to their delivery logs and can trace what happened to a specific message after it left their servers.
Provider-specific delivery issues
Some recipient email providers are stricter than others about filtering incoming email.
Hotmail/Outlook.com recipients
Microsoft's consumer email services (Hotmail, Outlook.com, Live.com) have aggressive spam filtering. If your emails are being blocked:
- Check that your domain has valid SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records (see below)
- Your email provider may need to request delisting from Microsoft's block list
- Sending from a domain with a strong reputation helps - avoid sending from free email addresses like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com for business communication
Apple iCloud recipients
Apple's email servers can reject messages that fail authentication checks. Ensure your SPF and DKIM records are properly configured for your sending domain.
Gmail recipients
Gmail's spam filters learn from user behavior. If recipients have previously marked emails from your domain as spam, future emails may be automatically filtered. Ask recipients to check their spam folder and mark your emails as "Not spam" to train the filter.
Email authentication records
Email authentication helps receiving servers verify that your emails are legitimate. These records are configured in your domain's DNS settings - not in SupportBee or your email provider's interface.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF tells receiving servers which mail servers are authorized to send email for your domain. If you are using your email provider's servers to send (which is the case when using SupportBee), your SPF record should already include your provider. You can verify your SPF record using a free online SPF checker.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to your outgoing emails so that receiving servers can verify the message was not altered in transit. DKIM is typically set up through your email provider - check their documentation for instructions on enabling it.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication)
DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM checks (accept, quarantine, or reject). A DMARC policy of p=none is a safe starting point - it monitors failures without blocking email. Your DNS provider or email provider can help you set up a DMARC record.
Checking your records
If you are unsure whether your domain has the correct authentication records, ask your email provider or IT team to verify. Most email providers include documentation on configuring SPF and DKIM for their service.
Delivery delays
Emails may sometimes arrive with a delay. Common causes:
- Recipient provider processing - The recipient's email provider may queue messages during high-traffic periods
- Greylisting - Some email servers temporarily reject messages from new senders and accept them on retry. This can cause a delay of several minutes
- Large attachments - Emails with large attachments take longer to process
If delays are consistent, check your email provider's service status page for known issues.
SupportBee's role
To summarize SupportBee's role in email delivery:
- SupportBee does hand off your reply to your email provider
- SupportBee does show an error if the handoff to your provider fails
- SupportBee does not control what happens after your email provider accepts the message
- SupportBee does not have access to delivery logs from your email provider or the recipient's provider
If SupportBee shows no error when sending a reply, the message was successfully delivered to your email provider. For issues beyond that point, your email provider is the right point of contact.
For issues with SupportBee connecting to your email provider, see connecting your email inbox or the SMTP setup guide.