email rejection

hello,

ive been trying to figure this out for a while now, so i was wondering if you could help me. what does this error message mean?

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.1.1 <domain@columbia.edu>... User unknown (state 14).

any help would be great. thanks

It states plainly what the problem is: "User unknown". The address is invalid.

By user, do you mean me as the sender or the recipient of the email?

Do you think could be like a spam prevention thing?

It's the recipient address - just like in says in the rejection message: "it was rejected by the recipient domain".

It could be a spam rejection, but most likely not since it says "User unknown". That typically means exactly what it says. It's a bad address.

Thanks a lot for the info man. I have one more quick question. If I sent out a large chain email BCC-wise, from a brand-new email address to school email addresses, do you think the school's network will mark it as spam and reject it? Would you do BCC?

It might get flagged. BCC is a minimum requirement for sending a large number of emails, but not a guarantee of success.

If you're going to mass-mail regularly, look into a service provider like http://constantcontact.com. Assuming your business is legitimate, you're far more likely to get your message through with an established service.

thanks for your help.