After a recent mailing to our list of expiring home exchange members, I (as usual) checked our email client for the inevitable list of undeliverable mail. I was suddenly struck by five emails unable to be delivered because the owner’s mail boxes were full. I looked a little bit closer: 2 were Yahoo addresses, 1 was Gmail, 1 was freeserve and one was Inbox.com. Yes—all were FREE email services.

For a long time it’s been a common practice for a lot of home exchangers to utilize free email addresses so that they don’t reveal their main email address, but apparently these people had joined our service and entered their “free” email address, then over the course of time, ceased to check it for contact emails.

Clearly this is yet another reason why we get complaints from a few members, very frustrated because they receive no replies to their contact emails. Until this discovery I’d always attributed this to mails being routed directly into its intended recipient’s spam folder, and plain old lack of courtesy. This now offers yet another cause.

I’ve also taken a look at a couple of these web mail companies—they both appear offer huge amounts of storage space. It’s extremely disheartening to wonder just how many contact emails are sitting there unopened and unresponded to. If you do use a free email address for your home exchange correspondence, please remember to check it daily, otherwise your membership is totally wasted.

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1. Home Exchange Email Addresses
2. Replying To Home Exchange Email Contacts
3. Hospitality Exchange Programs – Free Accommodation For Travelers