Email Enquiries
The Email advertiser form will send the enquiry directly to the advertiser’s Email address without revealing the address to the sender. The person sending the enquiry will receive a copy, but it will not show in the sent emails.
This is the safest way to deal with enquiries, it protects the advertiser from spam, whilst allowing the administrator to monitor possible scammer activity & warn any advertisers that may have been sent a suspicious enquiry. If you are going to use any website or social media platform, it is a good idea to set up a separate Email address to protect your personal or main Email address.
To help in the fight against scammers & help to protect our advertisers, the Classifieds enquiry form will not load if the viewer is using a proxy server or VPN. This may occasionally cause problems for those using VPNs for genuine reasons. If this happens, please go to www.nfed.co.uk/ipcheck.php & we should be able to whitelist your IP address.
Enquiries are also monitored for scammers. Anyone found to be sending scam Email will be added to the offenders list & recipients will be notified.
Important
Please add enquiries@nfed.co.uk to your contacts or friends to help to keep enquires out of the spam folder.
Phone or Text Enquiries
Phone numbers are hidden by default, but you can choose to display your number if you wish or if you turn off Email enquiries, the number will be shown in its place. Phone contact does make it very easy for viewers to contact you, but we have no control over who may contact you.
If You Receive a Suspicious Call or Text
- Record the number & time of the call.
- If threats or sexual comments are made, report it to the police on the 101 number.
- For nuisance calls or texts, block the number if possible & take a screen shot as evidence.
- Please forward the text or screenshot to 07385 848504 or editor@nfed.co.uk
- NOTE: Posting the number on a Facebook group may provide the sender with a direct link to your Facebook profile.
Advertisers - Not Receiving Enquiries
It is your responsibility to ensure that your advert works and enquiries are received correctly by your Email system.
Certain ISP’s or anti-spam software, may identify enquiries as spam. To test it, simply send an enquiry to your own advert. If you do not receive your enquiry there are a number of things to check.
First of all, check that you have entered your Email address correctly. This can be done using the “Edit Ad” option in the Advert Control Panel. Remember that there should be no spaces in an Email address.
If your address is correct, check your spam or junkmail folders to ensure the Emails are not getting blocked or the address has not been blacklisted by mistake.
Add editor@nfed.co.uk & enquiries@nfed.co.uk to your contacts, friends, safe senders or whitelist or marking Emails as OK.
If none of the above work, there are several options.
- Use a different Email address from another provider. Any provider can have a problem at any time as they are constantly updating filters.
- Turn off Email enquires to remove the enquiry link & only accept phone/text enquiries.
- Turn off Email enquires to remove the enquiry link & include your Email address in your advert text. i.e Email me at yourname@email.com The address will work as a link, anyone clicking on the Email will be able to contact you directly but enquiries will not be monitored.
Viewers - Not Receiving Replies
We understand that if you have made an enquiry & not received a reply, it is very frustrating but there are a few things to check.
Did you use the correct return Email address? You should receive a copy of your enquiry, if you haven’t received it, check your spam folder. If it isn’t there, you may have misspelt your Email address.
Did you ask sensible questions & supply your name & phone number? If not, the advertiser may be suspicious of your enquiry & ignore it.
Some advertisers do get overwhelmed with enquiries. By responding they will be revealing their Email address, so to protect their privacy may only respond to enquiries that look promising.
Not everybody will check their Emails daily, some will use a works Email address that cannot be accessed to out of hours. Try sending a text or phone if the advert has a phone number.
If everything seems ok, please contact us & we can check that Emails are being received by the advertiser or contact them on your behalf but we cannot promise that they will get back to you, this is entirely at the advertiser's discretion.
Enquiry Back Ups
If you think you have missed or lost enquiries, please contact the administrator. Enquiry copies will be kept for approximately six months. We can forward them to either the address used when the advert was submitted or a different address providing we have proof that we are sending them to the advertiser.
Replying to an Enquiry
All enquiries sent through the system will come from enquiries@nfed.co.uk, to respond, you must send a new Email to the senders address which is displayed in the Email. If you reply to enquiries@nfed.co.uk you will receive an automated response warning you that the Email has not gone through and to recheck for the senders Email address.
When you respond to an enquiry, it will be sent via your standard Email route and will reveal your Email address. As with any Email, this is beyond our control and entirely at your own risk.
Only Receiving Scam Enquiries
If you find you are only getting scam & no genuine enquiries, please look at the quality of your advert. Scammers are not fussy, they do not read the adverts, but just send out a standard Email to many advertisers. Genuine buyers are rightly fussy & are easily put off.
Is there a market for what you are advertising?
Try reading the advert as a buyer, can you improve the advert text or improve the photos to attract buyers?
Is all the important information included & is the price realistic?
Aggressive adverts will put off genuine buyers. Nobody likes time wasters, but putting NO TIME WASTERS may stop genuine people from contacting you. Would you enter a shop that said "No Browsers" on the door?
A friendly, well written advert giving all the details & good photos will save time for everyone & really help to attract genuine enquiries & hopefully a successful outcome.
Including Your Email in Your Advert Text
If you include your Email address in the advert text it will be shown on your advert. This will bypass any safety features that we have in place, but may fix problems with missing emails as any enquiries are not sent from a server, but will come directly from the person making the enquiry. We will not receive copies of these Emails.
Switching Off Email Enquiries
When you submit or modify an ad, you will see an option "Accept E-Mail Enquiries?" Select “No” & the contact form will not be displayed, but your phone number will be shown in its place.
With so many messaging options available nowadays, why do we use Email for enquiries?
Email isn’t perfect, but it is still the most widely used messaging system & does have many advantages over other systems.
1: It protects the advertiser’s identity.
Using the contact form, the person making the enquiry cannot see the advertisers Email address. The advertiser can then decide whether to reply or not, replying will reveal the Email address.
2: Enquiries are private.
Unlike social media pages, any enquiries or replies are not posted publicly for all to see.
3: The advertiser & enquirer do not have to be friends or share their personal/private & family details before being able to contact each other. Scammers & fraudsters do widely use social media selling groups, unfortunately many give them access to their personal profile to allow them to message them before they realise the threat.
4: There is no need to open an account or download an app to make an enquiry.
Having to join, open an account, log in or carry out extra work will often put off genuine customers from making an intial enquiry.
5: Email is cross platform i.e. it works on computers, tablets, phones & other devices.
Many people still prefer not to use social media messaging systems, other systems will only work on certain devices which can deter genuine enquiries.
6: It is free of charge & already in use by the majority of advertisers.
7: The advertiser can change the Email address at any time via the control panel.
8: It is very easy to set up a separate Email account for advertising.
Advert Enquiries & Email Problems
Email Enquiries
The Email advertiser form will send the enquiry directly to the advertiser’s Email address without revealing the address to the sender. The person sending the enquiry will receive a copy, but it will not show in the sent emails.
This is the safest way to deal with enquiries, it protects the advertiser from spam, whilst allowing the administrator to monitor possible scammer activity & warn any advertisers that may have been sent a suspicious enquiry. If you are going to use any website or social media platform, it is a good idea to set up a separate Email address to protect your personal or main Email address.
To help in the fight against scammers & help to protect our advertisers, the Classifieds enquiry form will not load if the viewer is using a proxy server or VPN. This may occasionally cause problems for those using VPNs for genuine reasons. If this happens, please go to www.nfed.co.uk/ipcheck.php & we should be able to whitelist your IP address.
Enquiries are also monitored for scammers. Anyone found to be sending scam Email will be added to the offenders list & recipients will be notified.
Important
Please add enquiries@nfed.co.uk to your contacts or friends to help to keep enquires out of the spam folder.
Phone or Text Enquiries
Phone numbers are hidden by default, but you can choose to display your number if you wish or if you turn off Email enquiries, the number will be shown in its place. Phone contact does make it very easy for viewers to contact you, but we have no control over who may contact you.
If You Receive a Suspicious Call or Text
- Record the number & time of the call.
- If threats or sexual comments are made, report it to the police on the 101 number.
- For nuisance calls or texts, block the number if possible & take a screen shot as evidence.
- Please forward the text or screenshot to 07385 848504 or editor@nfed.co.uk
- NOTE: Posting the number on a Facebook group may provide the sender with a direct link to your Facebook profile.
Advertisers - Not Receiving Enquiries
It is your responsibility to ensure that your advert works and enquiries are received correctly by your Email system.
Certain ISP’s or anti-spam software, may identify enquiries as spam. To test it, simply send an enquiry to your own advert. If you do not receive your enquiry there are a number of things to check.
First of all, check that you have entered your Email address correctly. This can be done using the “Edit Ad” option in the Advert Control Panel. Remember that there should be no spaces in an Email address.
If your address is correct, check your spam or junkmail folders to ensure the Emails are not getting blocked or the address has not been blacklisted by mistake.
Add editor@nfed.co.uk & enquiries@nfed.co.uk to your contacts, friends, safe senders or whitelist or marking Emails as OK.
If none of the above work, there are several options.
- Use a different Email address from another provider. Any provider can have a problem at any time as they are constantly updating filters.
- Turn off Email enquires to remove the enquiry link & only accept phone/text enquiries.
- Turn off Email enquires to remove the enquiry link & include your Email address in your advert text. i.e Email me at yourname@email.com The address will work as a link, anyone clicking on the Email will be able to contact you directly but enquiries will not be monitored.
Viewers - Not Receiving Replies
We understand that if you have made an enquiry & not received a reply, it is very frustrating but there are a few things to check.
Did you use the correct return Email address? You should receive a copy of your enquiry, if you haven’t received it, check your spam folder. If it isn’t there, you may have misspelt your Email address.
Did you ask sensible questions & supply your name & phone number? If not, the advertiser may be suspicious of your enquiry & ignore it.
Some advertisers do get overwhelmed with enquiries. By responding they will be revealing their Email address, so to protect their privacy may only respond to enquiries that look promising.
Not everybody will check their Emails daily, some will use a works Email address that cannot be accessed to out of hours. Try sending a text or phone if the advert has a phone number.
If everything seems ok, please contact us & we can check that Emails are being received by the advertiser or contact them on your behalf but we cannot promise that they will get back to you, this is entirely at the advertiser's discretion.
Enquiry Back Ups
If you think you have missed or lost enquiries, please contact the administrator. Enquiry copies will be kept for approximately six months. We can forward them to either the address used when the advert was submitted or a different address providing we have proof that we are sending them to the advertiser.
Replying to an Enquiry
All enquiries sent through the system will come from enquiries@nfed.co.uk, to respond, you must send a new Email to the senders address which is displayed in the Email. If you reply to enquiries@nfed.co.uk you will receive an automated response warning you that the Email has not gone through and to recheck for the senders Email address.
When you respond to an enquiry, it will be sent via your standard Email route and will reveal your Email address. As with any Email, this is beyond our control and entirely at your own risk.
Only Receiving Scam Enquiries
If you find you are only getting scam & no genuine enquiries, please look at the quality of your advert. Scammers are not fussy, they do not read the adverts, but just send out a standard Email to many advertisers. Genuine buyers are rightly fussy & are easily put off.
Is there a market for what you are advertising?
Try reading the advert as a buyer, can you improve the advert text or improve the photos to attract buyers?
Is all the important information included & is the price realistic?
Aggressive adverts will put off genuine buyers. Nobody likes time wasters, but putting NO TIME WASTERS may stop genuine people from contacting you. Would you enter a shop that said "No Browsers" on the door?
A friendly, well written advert giving all the details & good photos will save time for everyone & really help to attract genuine enquiries & hopefully a successful outcome.
Including Your Email in Your Advert Text
If you include your Email address in the advert text it will be shown on your advert. This will bypass any safety features that we have in place, but may fix problems with missing emails as any enquiries are not sent from a server, but will come directly from the person making the enquiry. We will not receive copies of these Emails.
Switching Off Email Enquiries
When you submit or modify an ad, you will see an option "Accept E-Mail Enquiries?" Select “No” & the contact form will not be displayed, but your phone number will be shown in its place.
With so many messaging options available nowadays, why do we use Email for enquiries?
Email isn’t perfect, but it is still the most widely used messaging system & does have many advantages over other systems.
1: It protects the advertiser’s identity.
Using the contact form, the person making the enquiry cannot see the advertisers Email address. The advertiser can then decide whether to reply or not, replying will reveal the Email address.
2: Enquiries are private.
Unlike social media pages, any enquiries or replies are not posted publicly for all to see.
3: The advertiser & enquirer do not have to be friends or share their personal/private & family details before being able to contact each other. Scammers & fraudsters do widely use social media selling groups, unfortunately many give them access to their personal profile to allow them to message them before they realise the threat.
4: There is no need to open an account or download an app to make an enquiry.
Having to join, open an account, log in or carry out extra work will often put off genuine customers from making an intial enquiry.
5: Email is cross platform i.e. it works on computers, tablets, phones & other devices.
Many people still prefer not to use social media messaging systems, other systems will only work on certain devices which can deter genuine enquiries.
6: It is free of charge & already in use by the majority of advertisers.
7: The advertiser can change the Email address at any time via the control panel.
8: It is very easy to set up a separate Email account for advertising.
