The recent updates have created uncertainty around when emails will be delivered. An email campaign to 3,100 contacts that is set to "Send Now" could take 2.5 hours to finish sending, even with no soft bounces or provider rejections.

The emails end up in Highlevel's "Process all as soon as possible" queue and take away the user's direct control over their send timing, which undermines time-sensitive email campaigns. Even when the user has their own Mailgun account connected as their default SMTP, the system still subjects their emails to HighLevel’s bulk action queue before they are sent through Mailgun.

So “Process all as soon as possible” does not always mean all X[3,100] emails are handed off instantly at the same second. It means the job is added to HighLevel’s queue-based processing system immediately and processed as "fast" as the system allows, which could mean hours.

Even if we use the "Batch Schedule" option for our email campaign, using "Batch Schedule" would still go through HighLevel’s queue-based processing system for bulk emails before the emails are handed off to Mailgun. The only difference is that "Batch Schedule" gives the user more control over the "intended" pacing, such as the number of contacts per batch and the repeat interval.

The campaign can still be affected by queue processing, system load, provider response times, and platform safeguards.

So "Batch Schedule" might provide more predictable pacing than “Send Now / Process all as soon as possible,” but it's still negatively impacted by HighLevel’s queue-based processing system, rather than a guaranteed exact delivery-time send.

Here is feedback we received from one of our users:

This wasn't an issue in the past. Seems like it just started in the last month or so. Did something change?

Since I am using my own ESP[Mailgun] where everything is set up for sender reputation, I don't want HighLevel interfering with what I have set up in MG[Mailgun].

It is ridiculous for it to take over 2.5 hours for a bulk send of 3.1K emails. That is unacceptable.

When I have time sensitive emails I need to be able to send with confidence that they will get delivered at the exact time I want them delivered.