Google Groups – How to Reply to External Recipient

I am having a slight problem with Google Groups – this being sending an email to an external recipient.

Situation is as below:

1. an external party (call it EXT) sends email to provided Google group email address;
2. as Google group is set with permission to publish = Internet, an email from EXT is converted to a new topic which appears on Google Groups board;
3. when doing a reply to EXT topic as a Google group member, an email is being posted to all other group members, which is correct;
4. however EXT is not sent an email with reply and does not get any message.

I am keen to know if getting replies by EXT is possible?
Am I missing something obvious? Or is there some permission which needs to be set?

Thanks a lot for responding Ruben,

So to re-cap:

1. if any member of a google group posts (replies) to a new topic a reply is only sent internally to its group members; EXT will not receive an update;

2. if a group member clicks (reply privately to an author) – EXT will receive a reply.

There are two downsides I see here:

• private reply is not visible in group members topic breakdown – so google group members (incl. person who sent reply privately) don't see it:

• private response is always sent (as a user) instead of (on behalf of) group name, which will quickly lead to confusion;

Moreover, if EXT replies to a reply – it gets created as a new topic instead of arranging into an existing topic and sent only to memebr of a group instead to a group email.

My aim is to create a two-way communication group between Google Group members and external party (not a google domain) and I have a feeling I am missing something obvious to make it work right or Google Groups is not designed as a "ticket" platform.

Your further help is much appreciated, unfortunately Google's Wikis does not answer my questions 🙂