Symptoms#
- Messages landing in spam despite previously good placement
- Bounces mentioning policy, authentication, or reputation
- Provider dashboards showing a drop in reputation or authentication pass rate
Diagnosis steps#
- Confirm the configuration is live: query DNS from an external resolver and check the sending platform's settings page.
- Send to a seed mailbox and read the full headers, especially Authentication-Results.
- Compare the domains in From, Return-Path, and DKIM d= for alignment.
- Check provider dashboards (Google Postmaster Tools, Microsoft SNDS) for reputation and error rates.
- Review recent changes: new vendors, DNS edits, list imports, volume spikes.
Likely causes#
- Registering but never processing the reports.
- Gmail has no traditional FBL; use Postmaster Tools spam rate instead.
Fix and re-verify#
- Register your sending IPs and domains with each provider's FBL.
- Route FBL messages to an automated parser.
- Suppress every complainer from all future marketing.
- Report complaint rate per campaign and per acquisition source.
Frequently asked questions#
Does Gmail offer a feedback loop?
Only an aggregate one via Postmaster Tools using the Feedback-ID header. Gmail does not return individual complaints.