The suppression list

The suppression list holds addresses that must not receive mail from your organisation: people who opted out, recipients who passed away, or complaints. An address can be held back from all mail, or only from mail in the advertising categories you choose, for example only newsletters. Items that are held back end as Suppressed. They are never printed and never charged.

#When the list is checked

PostBuddy checks the list twice: when an item is created, and again at the cutoff of the production run. So an address you add today also stops items that were created last week and are still waiting.

Addresses are matched on the delivery point, not on the exact spelling. In the Netherlands that is the postal code, the house number and the addition. "Dorpsstraat 12a, 1234ab" and "Dorpsstraat 12 A, 1234 AB" are the same address.

#Add an address

Owners, Admins and Editors can change the list.

1. Open Suppression and choose Add address.
2. Fill in the address: Address line 1, Postal code, City and, if needed, Country. The name is optional.
3. Choose a Reason.
4. Under Holds back, choose All mail, or Chosen categories and tick the categories the recipient opted out of.
5. Add a Note if you like and choose Add address.

If the address is already on the list, it now also holds back what you chose.

#Reasons and advertising categories

Your organisation keeps its own list of reasons. It starts with Opted out, Deceased, Complaint and Other. The advertising categories are the PostBuddy list (such as promotions and newsletters) plus the categories your organisation adds.

1. On Suppression, choose the list icon (Reasons and categories).
2. On the tab Reasons or Advertising categories, type a name and choose Add.
3. Use the pencil to rename an entry, the archive icon to stop offering it, and the bin to delete it.

An entry that is still in use cannot be deleted; archive it instead. Archived entries stay visible on the addresses and Postflows that use them. Categories of the PostBuddy list cannot be changed.

#Which mail is held back

Give a Postflow or a Postbatch an Advertising category to say what kind of mail it sends. An address held back from all mail never receives anything. An address held back from chosen categories only misses mail in those categories; mail without a category still reaches it.

#Import a CSV file

1. On Suppression, choose Import CSV.
2. Choose your CSV file. Columns for address, postal code and city are required; name and country are optional. Dutch and English column names are recognised.
3. Pick a Reason for the imported addresses.
4. Under Holds back, choose all mail or the categories for rows without a category of their own.
5. Choose Import.

A column named Category holds back only the categories it names in each row. Use the category names or keys, separated by commas or bars (for example Newsletter|promotions). Rows with an unknown category are reported as invalid.

The result tells you how many addresses were added, how many were already on the list and how many rows were invalid.

#Find and remove addresses

Search by name, address or postal code, or filter on Reason. To change the reason, the categories or the note, choose the pencil (Change) at the end of its row. To remove an address, choose the bin icon (Remove) at the end of its row and confirm. Mail for that address is accepted again from then on; items that were already suppressed stay suppressed.

The page also shows how many items have been suppressed so far.