hatang.dev

Suppressions and bounces

Why Ha Tang stops sending to some addresses (hard bounces, spam complaints, unsubscribes, manual blocks), what happens when you send to them, and when to remove one.

Updated on

On this page

Sending again to an address that does not exist, or to someone who marked your email as spam, is the fastest way to damage your sender reputation. So Ha Tang keeps a suppression list for your business and stops sending to those addresses automatically. The list applies to everything you send: from your website or app, the SMTP relay, broadcasts and automations.

You find it under Email → Audiences, in the Suppressions tab. Everyone with access to Email can see it; adding and removing addresses needs the Manage level.

The suppression list with a hard bounce, a spam complaint, an unsubscribe and a manual block
The suppression list with a hard bounce, a spam complaint, an unsubscribe and a manual block

Why an address is on the list

Reason Added when
hard bounce An email bounced permanently because the mailbox does not exist, for example 550 5.1.1 User unknown. The Note column shows the receiving server's message
complaint The recipient pressed "Report spam" in their mail app
unsubscribe The contact unsubscribed from everything: on your unsubscribe page, with a one-click unsubscribe from a broadcast without a topic, by an automation, from a CSV import, or because someone on your team clicked Unsubscribe on the contact
manual Someone on your team added the address

Addresses are compared without regard to capitals.

Bounces that do not put an address on the list

Not every bounce means the address is bad. These are recorded on the email but do not suppress:

  • Soft bounces: a full mailbox, a server that is temporarily down, a message too large. Ha Tang retries delivery for a while before giving up.
  • Rejections about the message, not the address: the receiving server refused the content or your reputation (policy or content blocks). The address is fine; the email was not.

A rise in the second kind is a warning sign: see Keep your email out of spam.

What happens when you send to a suppressed address

Ha Tang accepts the send, then skips that recipient:

  • Nothing is sent to the address, and the recipient shows as Suppressed on the email.
  • When every recipient of an email is suppressed, the email's status is Bounced right away.
  • The email still counts toward your daily quota.
  • In Metrics, these recipients count as bounced. A list full of old addresses therefore inflates your bounce rate even though nothing is actually sent: clean your lists.

Block an address yourself

  1. Open Email → Audiences → Suppressions.
  2. Type the address in the field at the top and click Add.

The address is listed with the reason manual. Use this for addresses that must never receive email from you, such as an old accounting mailbox or a customer who asked by phone to be left alone.

Remove an address

Click Remove next to the address. Do it only when you are sure:

Reason Remove when
hard bounce The address has been fixed or the mailbox now exists, for example after a customer corrected a typo in their account
complaint The person asked in writing to receive your email again. Sending to people who complained is the quickest way to get your domain blocked
unsubscribe Do not remove it here. Open the contact under Email → Audiences and click Resubscribe, which removes the entry and keeps the contact's consent consistent
manual Whenever the reason no longer applies

Common questions

A customer says they never got their order confirmation. Search for their address under Email → Emails. If the recipient shows Suppressed, check the reason on the Suppressions tab: a typo in the address (hard bounce), an earlier spam report or an unsubscribe. Correct the address in your shop, or remove the entry if the customer asks for your email again.

Our bounce rate jumped after a broadcast. The segment probably contained old or mistyped addresses. They are now suppressed and will not bounce again; check how the list was collected before the next send.

Can I import a list of addresses to block? Not in bulk from this tab. Import them as contacts with unsubscribed set to true (see Contacts and audiences); each one is then suppressed with the reason unsubscribe.

Developers can follow bounces and complaints with the email.bounced and email.complained webhooks; see the suppressions guide in the developer hub.

Was this article helpful?

Related articles

Not finding what you are looking for?

Our team answers in the chat, in English or Vietnamese.

Send us an email

Building with the API or SDKs? See the developer hub →