Website contact form reply vanished from email

st_swithin's

After getting no response by email, I submitted a complaint to my car insurance provider in November via their online contact form. I got an automated reply, then they replied to me and I replied back a couple of times. I've tried to locate this message thread in my gmail account today as I am submitting a complaint via the Financial Ombudsman and I can't find it anywhere. I'm positive that I haven't deleted it, even by accident. It's driving me mad and I'm really concerned that now I won't have proof. Is there any chance that it could have just expired??!!

droopsnoot

My inbox goes back to 2010, so it doesn't look as if auto-removal is a standard thing on Gmail.

debitcardmayhem

have looked in archived

kwikbreaks

Gmail search covers inbox and archived by default. Nothing expires unless deleted and then it stays in trash for (I think) 30 days.

I suspect you could have the search terms wrong so try something more cut down.

To search deleted stuff that hasn't gone completely precede the search terms with in:trash

st_swithin's

Thanks for the suggestions. I haven't archived it and I can't see it when I select the 'all mail' label. When I asked about it expiring, I meant if the website or insurance company somehow expired it and it got deleted automatically, thus vanishing from my email account. I realise this could be a very stupid question on my behalf but I'm just trying to ponder all possible reasons!

debitcardmayhem

Their replies and yours should be there, the details from the contact form won't be though, that would on their webserver.

st_swithin's

Cheers all. It's nowhere to be seen so I must have deleted it and done so more than 30 days ago. Oh well, I am officially an idiot!

ballyblack

try this;

http://techwelkin.com/recover-permanently-deleted-emails-gmail

st_swithin's

Thanks ballyblack, just tried it but it didn't work.

austonic

What search expression are you using? (Replace personal information with obvious substitutions, e.g. from:me@mydomain.co.uk instead of to:fred@smith.co.uk)