Anyone Else Had A Problem With Bulk Email Services?

7 replies
What a day this has been!

All afternoon I have been going back and forth with a well-known email service provider, think Aweber, Constant Contact, iContact, etc.

I just signed up with them and they charged me pro-rated for the rest of March and also for April.

So I loaded up my list with a list of BUYERS, from this forum... everyone who knew me and had bought at least one product from me.

So, I email my list with an affiliate offer and wait a couple hours and no sales.

Huh?

I find out my account with this provider has been FROZEN because I was trying to sell something to my list!!!

The senior billing rep said I would be refunded and my account closed.

To make a long story short, the company said they would not refund my fee and it was just too bad.

After talking with a couple of folks, they said there was nothing they could do.

It is not the money.

I don't care for someone saying that I cannot mail my customers because I might be trying to sell them something.

Has this happened to you?
#bulk #email #problem #services
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
    It's probably the fact you have no proof this is your list these people opted into, other than you just saying so.

    The company you went with is probably thinking:

    1) He just opened an account
    2) We do not know him
    3) He uploaded a substantial list
    4) Trying to send global email

    Now looking at that scenario any company would probably have done that. What you should have probably done was call the company on the phone before you bought the account and ask how to move your list from one company to another.

    Then you are looked at as doing things above-board and are transparent about the whole thing. If they said "We do not allow people to import their lists from other companies because we do not have any record of them opting in to your list" then fine, just send your list an email with a cool free offer and have them optin to your new list with the new company.
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Wait, so you grabbed everyone's email address who ever bought something from you on the Warrior Forum and sent a bulk unsolicited email?

    Of course they got rid of you, you are a huge liability to their company.

    Think about sending helpful emails to a list of people that you build ethically (they opt in to receive your emails).

    Rather than sell to them and sit back and wait for sales, how about you send some awesome material for them to read or view and build some credibility. Perhaps then you can be recommending a product which you have tried, tested, and know it will work for them, not just your wallet.
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    • Profile picture of the author sb
      Originally Posted by dadamson View Post

      Wait, so you grabbed everyone's email address who ever bought something from you on the Warrior Forum and sent a bulk unsolicited email?

      Of course they got rid of you, you are a huge liability to their company.

      Think about sending helpful emails to a list of people that you build ethically (they opt in to receive your emails).

      Rather than sell to them and sit back and wait for sales, how about you send some awesome material for them to read or view and build some credibility. Perhaps then you can be recommending a product which you have tried, tested, and know it will work for them, not just your wallet.
      I'm pretty sure Millard knows what he's doing. He's got a ton of credibility.
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  • Profile picture of the author sb
    I've use AutoresponsePlus for 10 years and they've always been great. You might want to check out their brand new ARPReach if you're looking. Just launched and you'll save a lot of money.

    However, I did have the post office throw out over 5,000 direct mailers that I sent by bulk, all sorted. It was a ton of work and large expense but they had no answers and didn't really care. I know they threw them out because I seeded the list and neither I or any of the other people I put in the seed list got the mailer.

    I can't say the words here that flew out of my mouth.
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  • Profile picture of the author MWGrubb58
    sb,

    Thanks for the kind words.

    Any list I have gets updates, tips, and other nifty items to help.

    It just seemed odd to me that a company that sends bulk email decides to read my mail and say I cannot send anything that concerns making money. Ha! The email was a one line email with a link, period.

    I am still trying to make them see reason.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stoney
    Constant Contact never did anything for me. Took too much time and I never got the kind of responses I get from sending a regular email to my customers. Most of the time, it just ended up in spam.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    What you did just seems un-natural. They monitor all kinds of stuff like this.
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