Questions to ask the customer:

• Are the emails not being sent?
• Are the emails not being received?
• Is this happening for all email accounts or only some of them?
• Since when has this issue been happening?
• Does any other person or company have access to your domain settings?
• Have you checked that your domain/hosting payments are up to date? (Auto-pay cards can expire or get disconnected.)

Procedures:

• If another person/company manages the DNS and we have not done recent tech work for this client, ask the customer to check with that person/company first. If they cannot resolve it and we confirm it was caused by third-party mismanagement, our fee to fix it is $70.
• If the customer has not verified billing, ask them to confirm domain/hosting is active and paid. If payments are confirmed, continue.
• If the issue is “cannot send” AND “cannot receive” and the domain is active, escalate to a programmer to first verify NS propagation using a DNS checker, then review DNS email records (MX and TXT records for DKIM/SPF) to rule out configuration issues.
• If the customer CAN send but CANNOT receive, escalate: this is most likely caused by incorrect MX records in DNS.
• If the customer CANNOT send but CAN receive, escalate: this is most likely caused by an incorrect SPF TXT record in DNS.
• If the issue does NOT happen for all accounts, treat it as a possible recent NS change. Explain that DNS/NS propagation can cause intermittent service for up to 48 hours. Confirm where the customer wants the domain to point and why, then escalate so the target server has the correct DNS email setup prepared. Monitor until stable.

Priorities:

• High (1h): Any email sending/receiving outage. Email issues are always urgent and must be handled immediately.
• Medium (1 day): Issue affects only some accounts or is intermittent (possible NS/DNS propagation up to 48 hours). Monitor and escalate as needed.
• Low (2 days): Follow-up tasks after service is restored (documentation, prevention steps, and customer guidance).