How to set up a server rule to reply to an inbound message to the sender's "Reply-to" address?

Copper Contributor

I'm using Office 365 Outlook on the desktop and connecting to Exchange on the backside. I've been trying to set up a rule (using the Rules in outlook) that will have the Exchange server automatically reply to inbound messages with specific wording in the Subj: line.  The email messages in question are being sent to me from my website in response to visitors requesting access to specific collateral samples.  The reply I want Exchange to send provides a message with a URL the visitor can use to access the collateral.

 

I can set up the rule and create the template for the message to be sent as the body of the reply; tha'ts all easy. But Exchange seems to send the reply to the From: address, not the reply-to: address associated with each inbound message.  Because the inbound messages are generated by a form from my website hosting firm, the From: address is going to look like this: 

 

     joe@blow.com <no-reply@hosting-company.com>

 

However, the Reply-to: address  embedded in the email message always looks like this:

 

     joe@blow.com <joe@blow.com>

 

If I hit "reply" to one of these inbound messages from within Outlook, Outlook addresses the reply (correctly) to joe@blow.com, but when the server automatically sends the reply it addresses the reply to no-reply@hosting-company.com, which is not where it's expected to go.  

 

Is there a way to change a setting in Exchange so that the server will use the Reply-to address instead of the From address? Or is there some kind of system alias I could use in To: line of the message template (e.g., "%reply-to-addressee%") that would ensure that it goes to the person who has requested the information? This seems like a serious oversight in Exchange, if not an outright bug.

 

Thanks in advance for any insight you can provide!

 

2 Replies

No such setting afaik, you will have to code a custom solution...

I believe that's possible to create a Flow procedure that will implement this functionality.