Reporting spam or other problems

When you want to report spam or other problems with email to your administrator take some time to verify what you observe. Like crying wolf, you can probably expect better response if you avoid sending your administrator on wild goose chases from the beginning. No company title or credentials will spare you from the "eat your hat" emberrasment of crying wolf. I have often offered "a salt shaker to go with that hat" in response to such absurd, but 'reasoned' claims.

Often times, someone will claim something like "Joe didn't get the email I sent him". A quick check of the servers log files shows quite clearly that the original message left the organization and was accepted for delivery. Alas, the administrator still has the job of convincing the boss that everything is fine and any delivery falure is an issue for the recipients IT to investigate.

Sooner or later the truth always comes out. The email was delivered to Joes mailbox just fine. But when Joe didn't reply within 15 minutes, conclusions are leaped to and the worst imagined. If you do this kind of thing, you've probably noticed - administrators response time gets slower and slower as he ignores your wild goose chases until a quieter time - and corporate titles are of no distinction.

The lesson here - try to do at least a cursory verification your suspicions. When you are quite sure there is a problem, contact your administrator with some information that he can use to track down the problem. Little things like the time, subject, and recipients address can go a long way to helping your administrator help you versus waisting time asking for more information.

Also, things like "It doesn't work" are most unhelpful. You would never take your car to the mechanic with prose like that. Whatever "it" is, try to provide some information - what happens when you try "it" - what error messages do you get. Suprisingly, that one step of reading the error message can often resolve problem immediatly without waiting on an administrator.

Once you have done at least a cursory verification of your suspicion, go ahead and forward pertinent information the the administrator. That's what they are there for, and they will appreciate you efforts in valuing their time.