Email Not Received

You sent a quote / invoice / reminder — customer says they didn't get it. Here's how to fix.

Account emails (confirmation, password reset, team invites)

Sign-up confirmation, password-reset, magic-link, and team-invite emails now send from handymanbook.app through our own mail system (no longer the generic default sender). If you're waiting on one:

Check your spam / junk folder first. A brand-new sender to your address can land there once before your provider learns to trust it. Mark it Not spam so future ones reach your inbox.
Give it a minute. Delivery is usually instant but can lag up to a couple of minutes.
Confirm the address. A reset or invite goes only to the exact email on file — check for typos and that you're looking at the right inbox.
Gmail users: also check the Promotions and Updates tabs.
Still nothing after a few minutes? Request it again from the sign-in or invite screen, then check spam again. If it still doesn't arrive, contact support.

The rest of this article covers customer-facing emails (quotes, invoices, reminders).

Step 1 — Verify the email is correct

Most of the time it's a typo:

Open the customer record
Check the email address character-by-character
Common: gmail.com → gnail.com, yahoo.com → yahoo.con, missing the dot in .com

Fix and resend.

Step 2 — Check your delivery log

In the quote/invoice → Activity tab, you'll see:

Sent — left HandyBook
Delivered — accepted by their mail server
Opened — they opened it
Bounced — rejected by their mail server (with reason)
Marked as spam — they hit the spam button

If "Bounced": fix the email address (typo) or the customer's mailbox is full.

If "Delivered" but never "Opened": probably went to spam.

Step 3 — Spam folder

Most "didn't get the email" cases are spam folder issues:

Ask the customer to check Spam / Junk / Promotions folder
Once they "Mark as Not Spam," future emails go to inbox

Step 4 — Authenticate your sending domain

If many customers report missed emails, your domain authentication may be weak:

Settings → Email → Sending Domain
Set up SPF, DKIM, DMARC records (DNS settings)
HandyBook walks you through

Authenticated domains have ~95%+ inbox rate. Unauthenticated drops to 70-80%.

Step 5 — Send a test

Send a test email to yourself (a Gmail address you own):

Settings → Email → Send Test
Check your inbox + spam folder
If it lands in spam to a Gmail account, deliverability is the issue

Step 6 — Common deliverability issues

Brand new domain

Brand-new sending domains have no reputation. First few weeks of sending are higher-risk for spam classification. Authenticate properly and send slowly.

Lots of bounces

Sending to many bad emails tanks your sender reputation. Clean your customer list — fix typos, remove invalid emails.

Spammy content

Some words trigger spam filters: "FREE!!!", all-caps subject, lots of exclamations. Use natural language; HandyBook templates are written to avoid these.

Too many image-only emails

Plain text or text-with-some-images emails deliver better than image-only. HandyBook templates do this right.

SMS as backup

If email keeps failing for a specific customer:

Send via SMS — way higher deliverability
Set their preference to SMS-first

Specific provider issues

Gmail

Quotes/invoices sometimes go to Promotions tab (not Spam). Tell customer to check there. They can drag to Inbox to retrain Gmail.

Outlook 365 / Exchange

Often most aggressive on spam. Authentication matters most here. Customer's IT may need to whitelist your domain.

iCloud

Pretty reliable. Bounces rare; spam folder occasional.

Yahoo

Older accounts may not exist anymore (Yahoo deletes inactive). Bounces here usually mean the account is dead.

When customer's IT blocks all external email

Some businesses block external mail. The customer would need to contact their IT to whitelist your domain. Or they share a personal email instead.

FAQ

My emails go to my customers' spam. How do I fix? Authenticate your domain (SPF/DKIM/DMARC). Available on Pro+. Single biggest deliverability lift.

Can I see if a specific customer's emails always bounce? Yes — customer record → Activity → filter by "Email bounced." If it's always them, their mailbox might be full or invalid.

Why are my emails failing all of a sudden? Most common: your IP / domain got reported as spam by some recipients. Investigate recent sends, look for what changed. Sometimes a customer hits the "report spam" button by mistake — one isolated incident is fine; many can hurt.

Should I send from my own email instead of HandyBook? You can on Pro+ via authenticated domain — emails come from you@yourdomain.com. Better than the default.

My customer says it landed in their inbox 3 days late — what? Slow delivery usually means it was held at their server's spam quarantine for review. Authenticating your domain prevents this.