Outside of AOL, 100% of my return emails go through fine.  But one out of two or three with AOL addresses come back 'undeliverable', then, three days later, 'delivery failure'.  Resend, and same thing, 'delivery delayed', then 3-4 days later, usually a 'failure to send', though occasionally it goes through.

My main, personal email and connection are through AOL... a possible connection, as am using rival Hotmail?  Have ticked off a couple of potentials and old friends b/c of responses not going through, understandably.

I've had this happen a number of times, but never made the connection until you mentioned it just now.

I have the same problem sending from my hotmail account to ANY aol user.

a lot of guys in the past years for 'not responding', where I've actually responded numerous times, even resending messages, quite promptly.  Thinking AOL and Microsoft Hotmail have something antagonistic at play.....

It's only a problem sending email from Hotmail to AOL addresses.....  They just don't go through!!  I use AOL personally and with work, and AOL to Hotmail always goes through fine....

Think MS (Hotmail) has built something into its system against its rival AOL.....

AOL sucks
And when you send to aol emails it goes to spam folder most often.. then girls are yelled at because we dont email them back..

This is most likely an AOL issue.
AOL has had all kinds of issues like this dating back years, not just from hotmail but from all kinds of addresses.

There is one way I could see it being a hotmail issue.  There are any number of ways this can be an AOL issue.

AOL has been known to block emails from dynamic IPs, from certain ISPs, randomly, from some science they only understand.  In 99% of the cases it's an AOL issue.  At least your emails bounce so that you know they didn't deliver, many just go into a AOL blackhole.

Now, if the error you receive is something like:
220 have no reverse-DNS (PTR record) assigned.
then it is hotmail's fault.
Any other error would be AOL's fault.
I could try and figure out what is happening if I could see the Mailer-Daemon message you have received.  

Best advice might be set up a gmail, yahoo, hushmail, etc. account to reply to AOL messages, because unless hotmail can get AOL to figure out and fix what's bouncing the mails they most likely won't be going through.

Sorry I can't be of more assistance.

AOL on the whole "views" hotmail and occasionally some yahoo addys as "automatic spam". What most AOL userd don't realize is that a simple check of their "mail controls" will solve that. AOL users can adjust what they DO NOT consider "spam". All of this has to do with the latest "AOL Hell Technology" to reduce what they see as spam. AOL did send out a message a long time ago alerting their customers, guess some didnt pay much attention.

Check your email controls. I fixed mine in 5 seconds!


HTH!

BJ

Having accounts on both hotmail and AOSmell, and after having reviewed the Mailer-Daemon from my bounced emails far too many times, I can tell you almost unequivocally, the problem is almost always on the AOSmell side.
It has to do with them still believing they are the tail wagging the dog that is the Internet.
Sure was the case 10 years ago, but not anymore.
However, for many of the same reasons we still have DOS code working within Windows, and for many of the same reasons the US Missile Defense Shield is still co-ordinated using COBOL software left over from the Nixon administration, (pre-Microsoft), AOSmell still uses their aged proprietary email system. Many of the reasons have their roots of origin stemming from VHS vs. Betamax Syndrome. In the early 90's AOL wanted you to use THEIR stuff, and ONLY their stuff. That much hasn't changed.
If people were smart, they would dump AOL as fast as possible.
Or did you really think the building of AOL world headquarters in the shadow of Langley was a coincidence?
Do you really think it is coincidence that both AOL and the Langley IT building are both built directly above the physical hardware and cabling/fiber optic network that serves as one of the 7 primary hubs of the Internet? EVERYTHING that goes on the Internet, electronically moves through these seven hubs. Its a critical part of the sophisticated mechanism that makes the Internet what it is.

And in the end, its all about controlling the flow of information, stemming the flow of resistance, and dampening down the Questioning of Authority.

(sorry, forgot I wasn't in the politics forum - grin)