False.<p>1) Larger companies have servers dedicated to sending out mass emails and the email address has to resolve back to the sending server properly or the spam filters kill it.<p>2) They need you to click the links in the email for analytics. Learning what offers get the most traction HELPS them AND YOU so they deliver relevant content in the future.<p>3) If you use a "support" or "sales" email as the sender and then send the mass email to 100,000 people, you are going to get 20,000 bounce-backs, littering your support email channel and support software with garbage.<p>4) You can't have people replying with "don't email me again" because those will get missed. Again, you can't have a large list and realistically go through all the bounce-backs looking for legitimate unsubscribe messages - the links IN the email need to be used for this.<p>It's not fair to compare email campaigns to calling a company on the phone. Apples and Oranges.
We have a catch-all running on the domainthat routes all e-mail sent to unknown addresses to customer service.<p>We get e-mail sent to "no-reply" registration all the time. If we didn't do it, It's worth it not to have so many customers feel ignored the first time they try to contact us.
QFT: <i>Using a do-not-reply address to communicate ... sends a message that the organization's time is more valuable than yours.</i><p>Though there are legitimate exceptions - I'm thinking, for example, of an opt-in automated status update that has the sole purpose of sending you a piece of information to which you would have no particular need to reply.
> <em>I understand that a large email blast will generate all kinds of auto-responses, email bounce messages, and other forms of invalid replies, but with some decent filtering and a little work an organization could surely separate the wheat from the chaff. It's the least they could do to in exchange for reading their message.</em><p>I don't think the author appreciates how difficult this is. It's just not realistic in all situations, especially situations where the user knowingly signs up to receive an automated message.<p>I normally use Error-To for do-not-reply, and post a valid reply-to header, but in many scenarios this isn't enough. dpcan's first comment is particularly relevant > "the email address has to resolve back to the sending server properly or the spam filters kill it"