Amazon SES Suspension

18 replies
Just received a notice from Amazon SES that my email SMTP has been suspended. Reason - "Unacceptably low content".

WTF?

Anyone else get a suspension for this reason, and was able to appeal it satisfactorily?

Bounce rate, no issues. Complaint rate, no issues. They say the problem is that the content is of low quality.. Who the hell are they to criticize my content, the members opening and reading don´t think this way, sometimes these companies just amaze me, the big G, Amazon, they just do wtf they want when they want.

Funniest thing. They took payment this morning for November, and this afternoon they "suspend" my account. Charming.

Amazon say in the email that I can appeal, but I really don´t have any way of changing the content I provide to my mail list, it is what it is. Any advice? I do have a backup SMTP but this is so annoying, Amazon is very cheap and has a great brand name behind it, but this "low content" BS is beyond me. I´d like to say that the emails they send me are LOW CONTENT that I do not want to read, but I just delete those mails without crying - I have a mail list of thousands who do open and read the content I send.
#amazon #ses #suspension
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Sorry to hear that. First I've even heard of the service.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lightlysalted
    I use this service but have never had this happen. Perhaps they are making changes to their customer base. Hope you manage to sort it out soon
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    Originally Posted by ScottieDog View Post

    Funniest thing. They took payment this morning for November, and this afternoon they "suspend" my account. Charming.
    Since it is Dec 6 today, maybe the late payment had something to do with it?
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    • Profile picture of the author ScottieDog
      Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski View Post

      Since it is Dec 6 today, maybe the late payment had something to do with it?
      No idea, they take the payment automatically from my credit card.
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  • Profile picture of the author Coby
    Yes, you can appeal it successfully - but you really have to stay on them to get any answers...

    I was able to appeal a suspension by going to their forum and posting there about the problem. You will see the same thing being said by others - just look at their messages and responses and you'll see the "correct" way to approach them to get this fixed.

    Hope this helps.

    Cheers,
    Coby
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    • Profile picture of the author ScottieDog
      Originally Posted by Coby View Post

      Yes, you can appeal it successfully - but you really have to stay on them to get any answers...

      I was able to appeal a suspension by going to their forum and posting there about the problem. You will see the same thing being said by others - just look at their messages and responses and you'll see the "correct" way to approach them to get this fixed.

      Hope this helps.

      Cheers,
      Coby

      Thanks Coby, I looked in their Forum and didn´t really see anything concrete on the matter so thought people here might have direct experience. I am going to check the Forum out again. Thanks for the feedback.
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  • Profile picture of the author biggenius
    They need big orders. It will take more money to maintain small clients like you. Then profit they will get.
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    • Profile picture of the author ScottieDog
      Originally Posted by biggenius View Post

      They need big orders. It will take more money to maintain small clients like you. Then profit they will get.

      What do you see as a big order then? I wouldn´t consider myself small. LOL.
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  • Profile picture of the author biggenius
    You can make a new account using VCC. If you need VCC pm me i am selling them.
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    • Profile picture of the author ScottieDog
      Originally Posted by biggenius View Post

      You can make a new account using VCC. If you need VCC pm me i am selling them.
      I´m going to PM you on this. Thanks.

      Just want to say though, I really do not want to get another account and get into the same position, seems fruitless - I like building relationships with suppliers (as well as clients), so I think I am going to move to another supplier if they won´t re-instate my current account.

      In any event, it seems too back door to me, getting another account in another name etc - Not really interested in trying to fool anyone, when I pay for a service I simply expect to be treated professionally and as a valued client. I would think they could put two and two together very quickly anyway, as my company name has to stay the same, email format the same etc etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Rogers
    I just woke up and smelled the coffee regarding SES, ran a search, and found this thread. I'm interesting in hearing everything good and bad about it. SES appears to be priced ridiculously low in comparison to other transactional email services.
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  • Amazon SES works like a charm for me. A little bit of a learning curve to set it up, but once everything's configured and running I have no complain whatsoever.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
    Unacceptably low content means that the content inside the emails is to them, considered that of SPAM. Even though it might not be, it's triggering filters.
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    • Profile picture of the author ScottieDog
      I appealed it and it was declined. Account is still suspended.

      I think it´s totally unacceptable to be honest. My bounce rate was near zero, complaint rate near to zero, hardly anyone unsubscribes from my mails because the content is what they want to read (imo).

      How Amazon can say the content is low quality is beyond me. I received a few mailshots from Amazon some days ago that I feel are low content, but it seems ok for them to send what they want - They sent me emails saying their service was expanded to another country, why do I care, even if I was still a client - so they´ve launched in China, ummm, how interesting. My emails at least are interesting to my client base, even if Amazon do not think so.

      Anyway. I would recommend people stay away from them. On the face of it the Amazon SES looks great, good name backing it up etc, very good prices, but if they are going to act like judge and jury over what they consider low quality content (regardless of all bounce, complaint stats being LOW) then its pointless. The content that companies like Get Response and Weber let through amazes me, THOSE are often low quality content, repetitive BS messages offering crap in a lot of cases, sometimes multiple times per day from the same person - something my mails never are.
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      • Profile picture of the author Coby
        Originally Posted by ScottieDog View Post

        I appealed it and it was declined. Account is still suspended.

        I think it´s totally unacceptable to be honest. My bounce rate was near zero, complaint rate near to zero, hardly anyone unsubscribes from my mails because the content is what they want to read (imo).

        How Amazon can say the content is low quality is beyond me. I received a few mailshots from Amazon some days ago that I feel are low content, but it seems ok for them to send what they want - They sent me emails saying their service was expanded to another country, why do I care, even if I was still a client - so they´ve launched in China, ummm, how interesting. My emails at least are interesting to my client base, even if Amazon do not think so.

        Anyway. I would recommend people stay away from them. On the face of it the Amazon SES looks great, good name backing it up etc, very good prices, but if they are going to act like judge and jury over what they consider low quality content (regardless of all bounce, complaint stats being LOW) then its pointless. The content that companies like Get Response and Weber let through amazes me, THOSE are often low quality content, repetitive BS messages offering crap in a lot of cases, sometimes multiple times per day from the same person - something my mails never are.
        I had the same issue with SES - cracks me up they get to decide what's "low quality" content and not the people receiving it...

        I did the same as you and just wrote them off altogether - I like to also build relationships with vendors and Amazon is not willing to do that yet with their SES service...

        I am currently using SMTP server, bulk & marketing email service - Mailjet as my SMTP provider and I'm so much happier and they are so easy to work with and they understand my business and support what I do. I suggest giving them a look.

        Good luck

        Cheers,
        Coby
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    • Profile picture of the author ScottieDog
      Originally Posted by Kingfish85 View Post

      Unacceptably low content means that the content inside the emails is to them, considered that of SPAM. Even though it might not be, it's triggering filters.

      I can appreciate the triggering of filters, but my open rate was good and complaint rate virtually zero, as was bounce rate.. Not sure what filters were triggering negatively when everything looked so positive.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kingfish85
        Originally Posted by ScottieDog View Post

        I can appreciate the triggering of filters, but my open rate was good and complaint rate virtually zero, as was bounce rate.. Not sure what filters were triggering negatively when everything looked so positive.
        Yea, but it doesn't matter. It's the same way email providers filter out spam. The content of the emails (words/phrases) is what causes an anomaly and gets flagged.
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  • Profile picture of the author writetale
    i wish someone would do a full blown out review, including a features comparison, with ALL of the autoreponder solutions curently available.....(including a FULL GLOSSARY of email terms and their respective impact).

    what really kills me about most vendors (autoresponder and otherwise) is that they ASSUME everyone knows about their corner of the world (hint: technical writers, this means YOU). explain in gory detail!

    ps. try mentioning Amazon in your newsletters at least once--might keep you out of suspension...(halfway joking, here)
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