Latest Update: SpamButcher 2.1  
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 Cutting Edge Spam Elimination SpamButcher is a powerful anti-spam program that can stop over 97% of unwanted email.
The Proper "Grammar" of a Support Request EmailI've been supporting the SpamButcher anti-spam filter for almost fives years now, and I've seen some pretty lame support requests in my day. A properly formed sentence has a subject and predicate. This is to say, it includes a noun of some kind, and something that's happening to that noun. Support request emails, like sentences should generally follow a certain structure. This isn't only about minimizing the amount of time and money spent by the company answering the request. Providing the right information is more likely to get your problem solved quicker.
Support requests should always have: An informative subject lineThis helps the person answering the request keep track of which email is about what.Good: Not stopping spam for third account. Bad: HELP!!!
A statement of the problem with any relevant details (error messages!)Almost all emails state "something" isn't working. Usually, software provides error messages in the event something goes wrong. Make sure to include them. If you don't get any error messages - say so. Otherwise, the person answering your request will assume you probably did get an error, but you were just too lazy to write it down.Avoid paraphrasing error messages. Sometimes when I ask a user for more detail about an error they tell me, "it said it didn't work." Did it really say that? I'm well familiar with our spam stopper's code and am pretty sure no error message reads like that. Good: "I'm unable to recover messages. When I select a message and click the Recover button, it gives me the error, "SMTP Connection Error: Relaying Denied." Bad: The email filtering software ate my email and now it won't give it back.
A request as to what you would like done about the problemUsually it's implicit what the user would like. They want information on how to fix the problem. Still, following up the message with, "can you help me fix this?" at very least makes for easier reading.
Confirmation that you've already looked at the support site - and if applicable, which solutions you've already triedThe first thing any support staff member is going to do is review their own in-house list of possible solutions to a problem. Usually these lists are near-identical to publicly published support pages. If your problem seems to match an existing solution - you'll just end up getting pointed to a web page. Unless you're paying for support by-the-minute, don't expect a personally crafted letter.By letting the support staff know you've already tried the solutions listed on support pages X, Y and Z you can avoid a lot of run-around.
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