The source code for class.dept.php ships with the function /** * getAlertEmail * * Fetches either the department email (for replies) if configured. * Otherwise, the system alert email address is used. */ function getAlertEmail() { global $cfg; if ($this->email) return $this->email; return $cfg ? $cfg->getDefaultEmail() : null; }Its my belief that this SHOULD be /** * getAlertEmail * * Fetches either the department email (for replies) if configured. * Otherwise, the system alert email address is used. */ function getAlertEmail() { global $cfg; if ($this->email) return $this->email; return $cfg ? $cfg->getAlertEmail() : null; }Otherwise the default alert email set in the configuration option (admin->email->settings->default alert email) does not get used in the situation where no department alert email has been set. In this circumstance the default system email is used. Consequently on my system I have made this code change and alert emails now behave as I would expect, where as in the original default installation, alert emails with no department override were sent drom the default system email. In my view this is a bug.I'm not asking for any help and I don't have any problem about it, but it my research trying to find why my alert emails were not being sent correctly I discovered several earlier posts that were trying to understand the problem and not getting answers that solved the problem that I was experiencing. I've merely opened this thread so that other people who may be experiencing the same problem, will have a possible solution to try, and also to alert the developers that IF this IS a bug, they can fix it for a subsequent release.I'm no PHP expert, but making the change above has fixed the behaviour to be both as I would expect and as I previously experienced with my old v1.6 installation that I have just upgraded.