I know that when the Return button is clicked in the Mailbox window, the mail in question will be back in the sender’s mailbox immediately.
But when mail returns itself due to being in a mailbox for 30 days, it takes much longer to appear in the sender’s mailbox. I have been unable to determine how long it takes just from observation.
Could someone please tell me how long it takes in this situation?
I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I think that would be considered a game hint. I’ve googled it, and can’t seem to come up with an answer myself, other than being instant.
It’s more than just days, it’s 30 days to that last hour, minute and second. Or 3 days in the event of a CoD mail. I don’t believe there is a delay after it is supposed to return to sender. There’s usually a 1 hour delivery time for you to send mail out to characters not in the same guild or not in your own account, but I don’t think that will affect mail return.
The main reason I want this information is because I send a lot of mail between my own characters, and I want to feel safe deleting an alt with an empty mailbox. Right now I can’t know for sure if there is incoming mail on the way that hasn’t arrived yet.
There is very definitely a delay between a piece of mail being returned from sitting in a mailbox too long and that mail showing up in the original sender’s mailbox. I’ve noticed this for months if not years.
It also takes more than an hour. I am currently in the middle of another observation attempt where it has been approximately 2.5 hours since the mail returned itself and it is not in the sender’s mailbox yet.
I doubt I’ll be able to login every 30 minutes or whatever to check for its arrival. That’s why my previous observations haven’t helped.
I have seen delays on bouncebacks, why - I’m not sure. Mail really isn’t designed to be used as alternative storage, Atenstein. I really don’t recommend it.
Yeah, I have lost a bunch of stuff over the years due to forgetting to get it out in time. I understand its not reccommended, and I am working on reducing how much I have in there. It’s quite a bit, though. I’ve never had much gold, so I’ve been slow at forming personal guild vault characters.
As I understand, using mail for alternative storage isn’t against any policy… is that still correct?
I know I may get self-inflicted item losses with this storage method, but I haven’t heard of anyone’s account getting a black mark(s) from doing this.
It isn’t against any rules no, just not the best of idea.
It’s not against any rules no. It’s just that when items are lost from the mail, the logs are purged shortly there-after.
I’d definitely recommend setting up a guild (they actually don’t cost much gold as long as you can get the signatures) and then you’ll have plenty of space too.
Glad to hear its still not against any rules. Thank you both!
And yeah, I have heard that items lost via mail expiring are unrecoverable.
My issue with gold isn’t the signatures, its the cost of the vault tabs.
EDIT: Okay, I just found on wowpedia that the early vault tabs cost like a tenth of what I thought. I’ll get to work on making more guild vault alts when I have time.