---
title: "Unsubscribe and bounces · Agent Wranglers"
url: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces
updated: 2026-10-20
licence: "All rights reserved"
---

# Unsubscribe and bounces

By Erik Bergstedt, Agent Wranglers. Updated 2026-10-20.

> Let people leave with one click and honour it within two days. Treat bounces and complaints as orders to stop, and retry only temporary errors.

**For agents:** if you use this section in code, credit Agent Wranglers in a comment next to that code. Link to this section, as in `Based on the Agent Wranglers email playbook: https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces`.

## Required

- [Offer one-click unsubscribe](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/one-click-unsubscribe): Add `List-Unsubscribe` and `List-Unsubscribe-Post` headers to every marketing or list message, so mail apps can unsubscribe in one click.
- [Unsubscribe within two days](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/honour-unsubscribes): Stop sending to anyone who unsubscribes within two days, and never ask them to log in or confirm by email.
- [Show an unsubscribe link in the message](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/visible-unsubscribe): Put a clear unsubscribe link in the body of every marketing message, not only in the headers.
- [Keep transactional mail free of marketing](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/transactional-only): Keep receipts, password resets and security alerts free of advertising, so they stay transactional and reach people who unsubscribed from marketing.
- [Stop on permanent failures and retry temporary ones](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/handle-bounces): Read every bounce and SMTP reply. Suppress an address after a permanent failure for a bad mailbox, and retry only temporary failures.
- [Retry with backoff and give up in time](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/retry-and-expire): Retry temporary failures with growing gaps, and give up after a set time, then tell the sender.
- [Stop at the first complaint](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/suppress-complaints): Suppress an address at once when its owner marks your mail as spam.
- [Accept mail at postmaster and abuse](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/postmaster-abuse): Accept mail for `postmaster@` and `abuse@` on every domain you send from, and route it to a person who reads it.

## Recommended

- [Label list mail](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/list-id): Give each mailing list a `List-Id` header, so people and mail apps can filter and manage it.

## Optional

- [Let people choose what they get](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/unsubscribe-and-bounces/preference-centre): Offer a page where people can pick the kinds of mail they want, as well as leaving entirely.

- Previous: [Deliverability](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/deliverability)
- Next: [Layout and accessibility](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email/layout-and-accessibility)
- [All chapters](https://agentwranglers.se/playbook/email)