Emails aren't sending

If clients say they never got your quote, invoice, or appointment reminder, the email is almost always delivered but hidden — caught in spam, sent to a typo’d address, or blocked by a setting. Find the section that matches your situation.

Why didn’t the client receive the email?

Cause 1 — It landed in spam or promotions

1. Ask the client to check their Spam, Junk, and Promotions folders.
2. Have them mark any Service Buddy email as “Not spam” to train their filter.
3. Ask them to add your sending address (shown under Settings → Email) to their contacts.

Cause 2 — The email address has a typo

1. Open the client’s profile.
2. Carefully check the email address for missing or extra characters (common: gmai.com, yahoocom, missing dot).
3. Fix the address and click Update.
4. Resend the document by opening it and clicking Resend.

Cause 3 — Their mail server bounced the message

1. Go to Settings → Email → Delivery log.
2. Find the message to that client.
3. If the status is Bounced, hover to see the reason (e.g. “mailbox full,” “address does not exist”).
4. Correct the address or ask the client for an alternate one.

Why isn’t anyone receiving emails?

This usually means something is misconfigured on your side.

Cause 1 — Your custom sending domain isn’t verified

If you set up a custom “From” address (e.g. billing@yourcompany.com), it must be verified.

1. Go to Settings → Email → Sender domain.
2. If the status is Not verified, click Verify domain.
3. Copy the DNS records shown and give them to whoever manages your domain (your IT person or web host).
4. Once added, click Check now. Verification can take up to 24 hours.

Cause 2 — You’ve hit your daily sending limit

Each plan has a daily email cap to protect deliverability.

1. Go to Settings → Email → Usage.
2. Check your usage against your plan’s limit.
3. If you’re over, wait until the counter resets at midnight (your timezone), or upgrade your plan.

Tip

Bulk sending (e.g. marketing blasts) can eat through your daily limit fast. Consider sending those in batches or via a dedicated marketing tool.

Cause 3 — Your custom SMTP is down

If you connected your own SMTP server:

1. Go to Settings → Email → SMTP.
2. Click Test connection.
3. If it fails, double-check the host, port, username, and password with your email provider.
4. If your password was rotated recently, update it here.

Why are only certain email types missing?

Cause 1 — A notification is turned off

1. Go to Settings → Quote, Job, or Invoice (depending on the email type).
2. Click the System Notifications tab.
3. Find the notification type (e.g. “Invoice sent,” “Appointment reminder”).
4. Confirm it’s toggled on for the right recipient (client, employee, or admin).

Cause 2 — The client has opted out

If a client clicks Unsubscribe on any email, they stop receiving that category.

1. Open the client’s profile.
2. Check the Communication preferences section.
3. If they’ve opted out and you need to contact them, reach out by phone or SMS — you can’t re-subscribe them on their behalf.

Why are emails arriving slowly?

Small delays (under 5 minutes) are normal, especially during high-volume times. If delays are consistently long:

1. Check Settings → Email → Delivery log — look at the gap between Queued and Sent timestamps.
2. If the gap is large, your plan may be throttled due to high volume or past deliverability issues.
3. Contact support with a few example timestamps and we’ll investigate.

If none of the above explains what you’re seeing, send us a screenshot of the delivery log and the recipient’s email address and we’ll trace the message.