Bluehost Exchange Plan Issue

Hello,

I am afraid your description of the issue is quite unclear.

Is this regarding a custom domain email address you purchased via Bluehost?

What do you mean by "figure out how to get out from under it." - is your emails being rejected by Microsoft users, or??

What's the email address domain name?

The issue is likely not the Bluehost plan itself but that messages are being blocked, bounced, or otherwise not delivered/read on the recipient side. The context provided only covers specific Exchange Online problems; the only directly applicable guidance is how to troubleshoot when recipients do not receive expected automatic responses or when messages are blocked by rules.

Check the following in the Exchange/Microsoft 365 side of the mailbox that is sending mail:

1. Verify no forwarding/transport rules are interfering If the mailbox has forwarding or transport rules, they can affect how messages are delivered and may cause unexpected behavior. a. Connect to Exchange Online PowerShell. b. Check for forwarding on the mailbox:

      Get-Mailbox -Identity <UserID> | FL *forwarding*,*deliver*
   

   If forwarding is enabled, disable it:

      Set-Mailbox -Identity <UserID> -DeliverToMailboxAndForward $false -ForwardingSMTPAddress $null
   

   c. Check for transport rules that might affect the mailbox:

      Get-TransportRule | FL Name,Description
   

   If any rules are clearly misconfigured for this mailbox, remove or adjust them in the Exchange admin center under mail flow → rules.
2. Avoid using transport rules for basic forwarding If both forwarding and automatic replies are needed, use Inbox rules instead of transport rules. In the Exchange admin center:
   • Open the mailbox via Open another user.
   • Go to Organize Mail → Inbox Rules.
   • Create rules there rather than using global transport rules.
3. Confirm the SMTP endpoint if using an SMTP client If an SMTP client is used to send mail (for example, a website or application), ensure it is configured to use smtp.outlook.com and not any legacy regional SMTP endpoints such as smtp-emea.outlook.com, which can cause connection failures.

If messages are still not readable or not arriving, the next step is to review the exact non‑delivery reports (NDRs) or error messages the recipients get (for example, 550 5.x.x codes) and then apply the specific NDR troubleshooting steps for that code in Exchange Online.

References:

• Senders don't receive Out of Office notifications from a Microsoft 365 user when Forwarding is enabled
• Error when you try to connect to Exchange Online by using an SMTP client