The Vacation/Auto-Reply bounce category

Understanding what happens when you send email to contacts with vacation and auto-replies turned on

When you send emails through Constant Contact, it's pretty normal to expect that some of your contacts might be away or out of the office. If they have automatic replies turned on, these contacts will show in your email’s Bounced report with the “Vacation/Auto-Reply” bounce type.

• Vacation/Auto-Reply Bounces
• Auto-Replies Getting Sent to the "From" Address

Vacation/Auto-Reply Bounces

When you send email to contacts who have vacation or auto-reply messages turned on, the auto-reply gets sent to us when your email is delivered and it triggers a “Vacation/Auto-Reply” bounce. Even though we include these in your Bounced report, they aren’t actually bounces. The email was delivered and is in your contact’s inbox—they just might not see it for a while.

Note: You can potentially see "Vacation/Auto-Reply" bounces from email addresses that aren't contacts on your list if: 

• You send your email to a contact using a role address that is used by several different people, and one of them has an auto-reply enabled.
• Your contact has forwarded your email to someone who has an auto-reply enabled.

Auto-Replies Getting Sent to the “From” Address

In most cases, the contact's auto-reply message is sent to your "Reply-to" email address. However, not all email providers follow this standard. In some cases, the "From" email address will receive auto-reply messages instead.

Unfortunately, Constant Contact can't control where these auto-reply messages are sent. It is entirely dependent on the recipient's mail server.

Questions?