Q:
Why can't I find any email address on the web site?
A:
It's common practice, and fairly easy, for a malicious person to 'harvest', or scan a web page for something that looks like an email address, and then misuse that information, most often for 'spam' or junk email. I'm only one person, and have better things to do with my time than constantly try to block spam or other malicious misuse of my email, so I've hidden the actual email address for all contacts behind a web based form. The only way anyone is likely to directly email any address is by lucky guess or because they've already submitted some information to me using one of the web based forms.
Q:
What about other forms of hacking the email forms?
A:
No email form system is one hundred percent hack proof. Efforts can be made to make the contact system as open as possible while still trying to maintain some protection against malicious misuse of such a system, but ultimately a point is reached where the underlying purpose of the contact system is compromised by security measures. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than abuse such systems, thinking themselves clever because they can do it. In the first place, my business isn't going to be shut down by such a person. In the second place, if such a person then chooses to flame me or anyone associated with my company, and others choose to believe such lies, then such people aren't people I want to do business with anyway. People who will blindly believe what some third party writes or says about me or my company without checking it directly with me aren't people I want or need for customers, and will answer for their lies and abuse one day.
Q:
I filled out one of the web based forms and submitted it, but I (A) didn't get a confirmation page or (B) didn't get a confirmation email. Why?
A:
There can be several reasons for this:
A system or other problem with thinkzo.com that's beyond my control.
A system or other problem with your ISP that's beyond my control.
You mistyped your email address on the web based form.
Q:
I can browse the internet and check my email, so I filled out one of the web based forms and submitted it, but I (A) didn't get a confirmation page or (B) didn't get a confirmation email. Why?
A:
The most likely cause is a system problem with thinkzo.com that's most likely beyond my control. If this is happening frequently, you should send an email directly to: webNO!JUNK!master@thinkzo.com, removing the NO!JUNK! from the middle of the email address, or your message will never reach me. This is to prevent spammers who use bots to crawl web sites, seeking email addresses. Even if I'm aware of the problem, your email should eventually reach me. If I notice a significant amount of email related to system downtime, I'll change hosting companies and find someone more reliable.
Q:
Why can't I reply to some email I receive from thinkzo.com?
A:
Most email sent from thinkzo.com comes from the address 'outpost@thinkzo.com'. This address has been configured specifically to discard all incoming email, so if you try to reply to any email sent from this address, the email system will discard it without anyone ever seeing it. Again, I'm only one person and needed some way to control the flow of information and malicious use of the email system. If you read email from thinkzo.com carefully, it will be obvious as to how to reply to the email if that is expected or required.
Q:
What if I feel the need to reply to an email I receive from 'outpost@thinkzo.com', but no reply email address is provided in the message?
A:
In this case you must use the appropriate web based contact form on this 'Contacts' page to send another message. You can always save your confirmation page from any web based form you have submitted, then copy and paste any of the information in another form as reference. If you don't know how to do basic editing like this, see the Support page for help.
Q:
Why didn't I receive a reply to my email?
A:
Assuming there's not a system problem (see above in this FAQ), the most likely cause is that you tried to reply to a message sent from the 'outpost@thinkzo.com' address. This address discards all email sent to it. You'll never receive any answer to such email, nor will you receive any kind of warning message from the email system. All of the confirmation emails have instructions in them as to how to proceed if you do not receive some response within 24-72 hours. You should follow those instructions or make another attempt at a later time to contact me.
Finally, I'm not intentionally making it difficult to contact me. It's an unfortunate truth that, in the world today, there are people who take everything good and misuse it to the point that aggressive action has to be taken to try to prevent disruptive problems. In the course of such preventative measures, the public has to use some patience and common sense to deal with any delays or problems that are beyond my control. Anyone that can't understand or agree with this agressive policy is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
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