How can I get this SQL count query to return 0 count results?

Here is the query example:

strSQL = "SELECT substring(empno, 2, LEN(empno)),
                 substring(email, 1, LEN(email)-15),
                 IsNull(COUNT(DISTINCT recid),0) as thecount
          from reldocnotes
          left outer join techstaff ON reldocnotes.enteredby = substring(email, 1, LEN(email)-15)
          where techstaff.active <> '0' AND
                substring(techstaff.empno, 2, LEN(techstaff.empno)) <> '127' AND
                thedate between '"&startDate&"' AND '"&endDate&"'
          group by substring(techstaff.empno, 2, LEN(techstaff.empno)), substring(techstaff.email, 1, (LEN(techstaff.email)-15))
          order by thecount " & sortonorder & ";"

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Can anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks!