My emails do not arrive, or land in spam
An email sent by a website goes through five stages: the site composes it, a server dispatches it, the domain proves it really is the author, the recipient’s provider scores it, and the inbox picks a folder. The site is responsible only for the first. Yet it is the first to be blamed.
Three symptoms, three different stages
- Nothing is sent at all, not even to your own address: the failure is in composition or dispatch, on the site and server side.
- Messages reach some recipients and not others, often depending on the mail provider: the failure is in domain authentication.
- Messages arrive but land in junk: nothing is broken, it is sending reputation that is at fault.
The most frequent breaking point: authentication
A mail provider receives a message claiming to come from your domain. To verify that, it consults three records published in the domain’s DNS zone. SPF lists the servers allowed to send on your behalf. DKIM lets it verify a cryptographic signature attached to the message. DMARC says what to do when the first two fail.
When the site sends directly from the hosting server while SPF only authorises the company mail server, verification fails. The message is not rejected — that would be easier to diagnose — it is simply downgraded, and ends up in junk with the stricter providers. That is exactly the pattern behind "it only works for some customers".
Isolating the failing stage
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Send a test to two different providers
One consumer mailbox and one business address. The difference in treatment is already a diagnosis.
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Read the full header of the received message
It contains the SPF and DKIM verification results in plain text. That is proof, not a guess.
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Check the configured sender address
A site sending on behalf of a domain it does not control — the owner’s personal address, for instance — is downgraded almost every time.
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Look at the server’s sending logs
They say whether the message left, and with what answer from the receiving server. A rejection is explicit and often explanatory.
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Check the site is not sending anything else
A compromised site sending junk destroys the domain’s reputation, and your order confirmations pay the price.
Carry on with the right page
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Order emails not received on PrestaShop
If the failure is inside PrestaShop: templates, hooks and sending settings.
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Order emails not received on WooCommerce
The WordPress equivalent, with its own causes.
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My site is sending emails I did not write
If the domain lost its reputation because of parasite sending.
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DNS explained
Where SPF, DKIM and DMARC are published, and why they belong to the domain.
Describe your need in one minute
A few targeted questions so I can reply with an estimate rather than another questionnaire.