I have received several notices today stating that the following domains have been disabled on the Road Runner network effective 1/7/2008, as part of their planed migration announced in 2007:

  • jam.rr.com
  • midsouth.rr.com
  • mn.rr.com
  • se.rr.com
  • sport.rr.com
  • swfla.rr.com
  • ucwphilly.rr.com
  • houston.rr.com

Mail that is being sent to these domain is bouncing as “User Unknown”. For the last several months these domains have been forwarding to the users new Comcast address and the users have been reminded by their service provider to give senders their new Comcast address.

What does this mean for me?
You may notice an increase in bounces from these domains for the next couple of mailings while these domains are hygiene out of your email lists. There may also be an increase in calls to your customer service teams regarding missing email, these users should supply their new @comcast.net email address to begin receiving communications going forward. Many users will use this transition as a way to stop spam that is currently sent to their Road Runner Accounts by transitioning and only updating some of the subscription information.

What should/can you do?
Recapturing these users at the next interaction on their website should be a priority, as sending them an email notice is not an option as these addresses are already bouncing. These users have been given ample time by their ISP to update any relevant information regarding mail that they want to remain subscribed to. You should remove these users as part of your standard hygiene process before mailing any future campaigns.

Looking at an ECOA (Email Change of Address) program may also be an option, there are several services available to accomplish this (FreshAddress and Return Path both offer these types of services).

What should you NOT do?
Do not update all of these addresses from @domain.rr.com to @comcast.net as the existing user base may already be using the same alias but for a different individual.

Please Note: ExampleUser_at_houston.rr.com is not necessarily the same individual as ExampleUser_at_comcast.net. Also note that a large number of the Road Runner domains are still functioning as normal, so this is not a universal change for all Road Runner users.