Forum Discussion

bmo's avatar
bmo
On our wavelength
2 days ago

Consistent delays to email delivery for some emails

In another thread it has been noted that emails delivered from Western Digital and Lebara suffer from a delay in processing by VM. This thread is to capture these and any other cases of delays which last longer than 5 minutes.

In some cases companies will implement a short expiry time for one time codes/pins/passwords. WD implement a 5 minute timeout. 

Consistently the emails from WD are delayed by 5 minutes. Other emails to the same account do not suffer from this problem.

Email headers seem to be OK apart from UCEPROTECT3. VM have stated this should not matter.

Anyone else seeing similar issues? From which sender (IP address if known)?

@Virginmedia - please check and advise what causes an almost exactly 5 minute delay

 

1 Reply

  • Deepak_S's avatar
    Deepak_S
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    4 hours ago

    Hi again bmo! 

     

    We’re really sorry for the issues you’re seeing with delayed emails, we appreciate how frustrating it is, especially when one‑time codes expire so quickly.

    From what you’ve described, the behaviour you’re seeing is very similar to greylisting. This is where a receiving mail server temporarily rejects the first delivery attempt with a soft fail, which then prompts the sender to retry a few minutes later. It’s a standard anti‑spam measure, and the delay is often around the 5‑minute mark.

    If the sending service — like Western Digital or Lebara — isn’t already fully ‘trusted’ or consistently using the same IPs, their messages can be delayed on that first pass, while other emails from more familiar or whitelisted senders arrive instantly.

     

    We hope this information helps!😃