Email Error: SMTP Error: The following recipients failed

Customers get the error below when purchasing.

Email Error: SMTP Error: The following recipients failed

I can send emails to these customers with the admin "Send Email" page, but they get this message when ordering. That makes me think that the order process uses a different email path than admin. Any ideas what's wrong? (BTW, I have visted the troubleshooting page, with no results.)

Deployment info:
Zen Cart: 1.3.8a
Windows Server 2003
MailEnable SMTP program
SMTP Authentication enabled and working
PHP 5.2.9-2

--ray

You've probably got an invalid email address specified for your "send extra copies of order confirmations to" email address.

DrByte:

You've probably got an invalid email address specified for your "send extra copies of order confirmations to" email address.

Do you mean: "Send Copy of Order Confirmation Emails To?" If so, the email address in that field is correct.

I just verified by sending an email from my hotmail account. The address is correct, and working.

--ray

It's not whether the account is valid.
It's whether the name and email address you've supplied to Zen Cart is accepted by the mailserver you've told Zen Cart to connect to in order to transmit the email message.
That particular error message is usually rooted in one of two situations:
a) you've supplied an invalid email address (even though you think you haven't)
b) the mailserver that your webserver is using to do the email delivery ... is checking the address and rejecting it instead of accepting it for sending ... and in that case you'll have to find out from the mailserver what's the exact reason why it's rejected it.

DrByte:

It's not whether the account is valid.
It's whether the name and email address you've supplied to Zen Cart is accepted by the mailserver you've told Zen Cart to connect to in order to transmit the email message.
That particular error message is usually rooted in one of two situations:
a) you've supplied an invalid email address (even though you think you haven't)
b) the mailserver that your webserver is using to do the email delivery ... is checking the address and rejecting it instead of accepting it for sending ... and in that case you'll have to find out from the mailserver what's the exact reason why it's rejected it.

That email address is the same one used by admin when I use the "Send Email" admin page. Emails are sent "from" that address, and they arrive at the customer's email.

--ray

I suspect that the email address in the following Zen Cart fields must be the same.

"Send Copy of Order Confirmation Emails To"
"SMTP Email Account Mailbox"

I suspect the mail server rejects the emails if they are not. Possible?

--ray

Sometimes, yes.
If you're trying to spoof your store's email as being from another domain, you can often get into problems, since the mailserver sees it as possibly someone trying to spam through the server. Again, you'll have to find out from the hosting company which mailserver rules were causing the mailserver to reject the message you were trying to send.

DrByte:

Sometimes, yes.
If you're trying to spoof your store's email as being from another domain, you can often get into problems, since the mailserver sees it as possibly someone trying to spam through the server. Again, you'll have to find out from the hosting company which mailserver rules were causing the mailserver to reject the message you were trying to send.

Thank you. That's the tough part. :) I don't think Mail servers want you to know the rules, or the rules are so complicated that it's easy to mess up. But either way, you pointed me in the right direction. I appreciate that. And I'm thankful you are here to help. :smile::smile::smile:

--ray

I had a similar issue changed email friendly errors to true fix problem.