Potential member not getting verification email. How to respond?

[Jeff]

We someone asks the following, how do I reply?

 

"I have signed up to be a member, however I am not receiving the e-mail to confirm. My question is am I doing something wrong?"

 

I have no access to check what email address they used so I can't really ask this question or check for them. I have no list of people that have tried to sign up at all. No information to work with. So how can I answer their question?

 

We need to be able to see this information. If they have used their correct email address I should be able to resend their verification email.

 

Why don't we have such a basic requirement?

[Kat]

Always tell them to check their spam box. That has been the issue 100% of the time for the emails I've received from members.

[Eric Suesz]

I would agree with Kat that the answer is almost always the spam folder. In my own experience, the second most common answer is that they mis-remember which email address they are using to sign up. 

What information would help you solve this issue? If they sign up to be a member, won't they appear on your pending members list if you have moderation turned on, along with their email address? 

I may be misunderstanding you, so correct me where I am wrong. Have you also tried signing them up with the same email address that they just contacted you from when they asked what they might be doing wrong? 

[Jeff]

Hi Eric & Kat

The spam issue is the first thing I mentioned in my reply to them and then asked if they may have mistyped their email address and also suggested trying again as a last resort. So far I have not heard back.

Eric, I assume you mean the list of applications pending approval. Surely they won't get listed there until they have verified their email address? Anyway, they aren't in any list and that is why I can't see the email address they used.

As far as what would help, I think the ability to see a list of users that have signed up but have not yet verified their email address. The Pending list could have a couple of statuses - Unverified and Pending Approval.

We should also have the ability to resend a verification email, a link to send an email directly, and a link on the front-end for the user to request it be resent (you see this on some sites) would be good in the event they accidentally delete the email.

I have not tried to sign them up, wouldn't do that. They contacted me via a form I have on the site for anyone to contact me, not just members.