Fix a problem with a letter, a payment or your account

Look for what you see on screen. Each entry says what it means and what to do next. Most answers start in Manage Letters, where every letter shows its status.

Email letters

An email letter shows Not delivered or Trying again

Open Manage Letters, tab Email, and click the letter. Email Details opens, and the reason stands near the top under Delivery problem.

Try again

In the menu of a failed letter and in Email Details. The letter goes back in the queue and is sent within a few minutes. It is not counted against your month again, and nobody gets it twice.

Edit

A failed letter can be corrected on every plan. Change the addresses or the time and press Save changes. The letter is then sent again. When some recipients were already reached, the subject and the text can no longer be changed.

Delete

On every plan. A failed letter that reached nobody gives its place in the monthly count back when you wrote it in the current month. Its files are deleted with it.

The details: correct a failed letter and edit, reschedule or delete.

The recipient did not get the email

1. 01

   Check the status

   In Manage Letters, Scheduled means the day has not come yet. Pending or Sending means it is going out now. Sent means the mail service accepted the email for every recipient. Viewed means a recipient has opened the letter. For the other statuses, see the entry above.

2. 02

   Tell the recipient what to look for

   The email is a notice from the service address of FuturePostman, not from your own address. Its subject is You have received a message from the past. Ask the recipient to search for that subject and to look in the spam or junk folder.

3. 03

   Check the address

   Click the letter. Email Details lists To, Cc and Bcc. A letter that is sent cannot be edited. If the address has a mistake, write a new letter to the right one.

4. 04

   Send the notice again

   If the address is right, find the recipient under Notices in Email Details, press Send the notice again and confirm with Send notice. The recipient gets a new link and a new access code. The earlier ones keep working. This works 3 times within 24 hours for each letter, and only while the link is open. See Send the notice again.

5. 05

   Look at the files

   If the letter has attachments, open the Files page. A file shows Active while nobody has opened it, then Viewed or Downloaded.

You can pass what the recipient sees on to a recipient who is stuck.

The recipient cannot open the letter

What you can do as the sender:

Give the link more time

Click the letter in Manage Letters, press Extend link, choose a period under Extend by and press Extend. For a letter with files, Extend Expiration on the Files page does the same. The link and every file of the letter are extended together, and the same link and code work again. A link never stays open longer than 1 year from today.

Do it in time

An expired link and its files are kept for at least 30 days and are then removed for good. After that the link cannot be extended any more, and the letter has to be written again.

Raise the download limit

On the Files page open the menu of the file and choose Details. Pick a number or No limit under Download limit and press Save. A new letter starts with 3 downloads for each file and each recipient.

A page that says a letter cannot be opened has a link to the contact page and a line Reference with a short code that starts with FP-. The opened letter has both at its foot. The code opens nothing, so it is safe to pass on, and support can find the letter by it. More: if it does not open and file sharing settings.

A file cannot be attached

The composer says which limit stands in the way, and a file that cannot be sent is marked in red with the reason. What your plan allows:

How attaching works: attachments and recordings.

The date is too far ahead

Every plan schedules a certain time ahead. When the date is beyond that, the composer says how far your plan schedules and the letter is not saved.

• Choose an earlier date, or change your plan and schedule the letter then.
• A paper letter waits at most 5 years, on every plan, and never longer than your plan schedules.
• That time has already passed. Pick a later one. means the time you chose is in the past. This also happens when the review dialog stays open for a while.
• A letter that is already scheduled keeps its date when you move to a smaller plan.

A scheduled letter cannot be changed

The full rules: edit, reschedule or delete an email letter and change or delete a paper letter.

The monthly letter limit is reached

The composer says that you have used all letters for this month, and an email letter cannot be sent. A letter is counted when you schedule it, not when it is delivered. A letter with several recipients counts once.

• The count starts again on the first day of each month. The Subscription page shows it under Email letters this month, with the date as Next reset.
• Press See plans to move to a plan with more letters.
• Delete a letter you wrote this month that has not been delivered to anyone. It gives its place back.
• Send a paper letter instead. Paper letters are paid with credits and are not counted.
• Letters that are already scheduled are delivered, whatever the count says.

Paper letters

A paper letter is stopped at inspection or failed

When a paper letter runs into a problem, you get an email with the subject A problem with your paper letter. In Manage Letters, tab Paper letter, click the letter. Its page shows where it stopped, lists the reasons under What was wrong when the print centre gave any, and says what to do.

• A posted letter has neither Delete nor Remove from list while it is still followed: a tracked letter until it is delivered, a standard letter for 45 days after posting. After that Remove from list appears.
• A standard letter stays at Posted and never shows Delivered. Only tracked delivery confirms the arrival.

More: when something goes wrong with a paper letter, addresses and change or delete a paper letter.

A paper letter shows no price

The price in credits comes from the print centre, for the country and the delivery option you chose. A price is never guessed, so nothing is charged without one.

Other things stop a paper letter in the composer. Finish your profile to send paper letters: add your name and your own postal address in Settings. A button that says Buy credits: your balance is lower than the price. A text that is too long: a paper letter holds up to 10,000 characters and at most 6 pages.

More: credits and prices and delivery options and countries.

Credits and payment

Credits are missing after a purchase

After you pay, Stripe sends you back to FuturePostman and a notice says how many credits were added. Every purchase is on the Credits tab of Manage Letters, in the Credit ledger, as an entry of the kind Purchase. Its invoice is on the Billing page.

If the money has left your account and there is still no Purchase entry, contact support with the day and the amount. More: buying credits.

A payment failed and the plan changed

1. 01

   What happens

   When a payment for your plan fails, you get an email with the subject Payment issue with your FuturePostman subscription, and the Billing page shows Payment needed. While Stripe tries the payment again, the status is Past Due and you keep your plan. If the payment is not made, the subscription ends or becomes Unpaid, and your account goes back to the limits of Free.

2. 02

   What keeps working

   Letters you have already scheduled are still delivered. Credits for paper letters stay on your account. An email layout that Free does not include is replaced by the standard one when the letter goes out.

3. 03

   What to do

   On the Billing page press Pay or change card. The billing portal of Stripe opens, where you pay the open invoice or replace the card. Your plan carries on as soon as the payment goes through. The Billing page stays open to you after the plan was taken away. If you would rather stop, press Cancel Subscription and confirm with Cancel now: the subscription ends at once, the open invoice is no longer collected, and your account is on Free right away.

More: when a payment fails and invoices and payment.

Account and pages

The account is blocked

The dashboard says Your account is blocked. Contact support if you think this is a mistake. and the composer says Your account cannot send letters right now. Contact support.

• You can still sign in, but you cannot send letters or upload files.
• Letters that are already scheduled, email and paper, are held. They are not marked as failed, and they go out when the account is open again. An email letter whose time has passed shows Waiting to be sent meanwhile.
• You cannot lift the block yourself. Write to us through the contact page, which works without signing in.

You cannot sign in

• Sign in on the sign-in page with the email address of your account. If you forgot the password, use Forgot password? on the sign-in form.
• If you created the account through another service, sign in the same way again. You can add a password later in Settings under Set a password.
• The dashboard is empty and your letters are gone: you are probably signed in to a second account, made with another email address. Sign out and sign in with the first one.
• A page titled Under Maintenance: the site is being worked on. Come back a little later.
• A blocked account can still sign in, see the entry above.
• If nothing helps, write to us through the contact page. It works without signing in. Give the email address of the account.

More: account and profile.

A page shows an error

Something went wrong

An unexpected fault on our side, which is logged. Press Try again. If it stays, use Go back or Go home and try a little later. When the page shows a line that starts with Ref, copy it for support.

Lost in time

The address does not exist. The letter may have been deleted, or the link has a mistake. Press Go home and open the letter from Manage Letters.

A list or a number that does not load

Press Retry or Try again next to it, or reload the page. Your letters and credits are not affected.

An error while you write

The composer keeps what you write as a draft in the browser you use. After a reload the text is still there. Attached files are not part of the draft, add them again.

Still stuck

Write to us and include what helps us find the cause without asking back: the exact message you saw, the letter it is about (its subject or recipient and its date, for a paper letter the Letter number), the Ref line if an error page showed one, and the Reference code if a recipient passed one on.

• Contact FuturePostman supportHow to reach support, what to put in your message so the first reply can help, and what support can and cannot do for a letter.
• Frequently asked questionsShort answers to what people ask before and after their first letter, each with a link to the article that explains it in full.
• What the status of an email letter meansEvery status an email letter can show in Manage Letters, what happens behind it, and what you can still do with the letter in each one.
• Follow a paper letter: tracking and statusesWhere to follow a paper letter, what each step and status means, and what to do when a letter is stopped, fails or comes back.
• In the appOpen Manage LettersSee the status of every letter.