High AWeber Bounce Rate?

by 67 replies
80
I've been with AWeber for several years, and my bounces and complaints have always been virtually nil.

All of a sudden, over the past week or so, my bounce rate has increased consistently and drastically. Is anyone else experiencing this?

John
#main internet marketing discussion forum #aweber #bounce #high #rate
  • I havent noticed a change, when you say bounce rate what kind of a percentage are u talking about ?

    Woc
  • Yes, it's happened to me too. I am not sure why.
    • [1] reply
    • Not only has our bounce rate increased - But, our delivery has gone in the toilet. We are having trouble even getting the "confirmation" emails to people that have requested them.

      Needless to say, this has irritated us more than a little bit.
      • [1] reply
  • I was a bit concerned when my bounce rate jumped to nearly 3% last week.

    Today it jumped to 8%.

    Not good.
    • [1] reply
    • It used be practically close to zero %. Now my broadcasts average a bounce rate of around 6.5%.
  • My bounce rate with Aweber is usually 0.1% but the last two emails have been ~1.4%. Still not bad, but much higher than usual.
  • I sent broadcasts to over 10k subscribers today across a few different niches.

    My marketing lists had a 2.4% bounce rate and my health lists a 4.4% bounce rate.

    What's going on?
    • [1] reply
    • Weird. I went from 1-2 bounces to 41 bounces suddenly on my last broadcast about 3 days ago. Thought it was just me!
      • [1] reply
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • let me guess... a rogue email marketer ruined it for everyone else.. one bad apple ruins the whole basket.. maybe .. just speculation.. aweber competitor did this to them?... you know email marketing industry competition is fierce..

    time to consider a new email service provider (ESP) ??...
    • [2] replies
    • Yep.. this last week 3% roughly across a couple lists. Haven't sent out today though.
    • Digigo,

      Where do you come up with this stuff?

      This could be something that affects other providers as well, if it's a large receiver that's changed or broken something in their filtering system. It could be Aweber-specific and temporary. It could be something I haven't considered.

      It could also be limited to a few people with something in their content or formatting triggering it. There's simply not enough information yet to be sure there IS a problem, much less what causes it.


      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • it is just my speculation.. from what the OP said.. "increased consistently and drastically" while everything else remains the same...

    I agree we do not know for sure it is a network wide problem at this point... but then the old news

    http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...mpromised.html

    does not sound too comforting.. as we get more information. we will know it could be receiver side problem as you suggested..
    • [1] reply
    • Digigo,

      I am not questioning John's data, or anyone else's. I'm simply not forming any conclusions on whether it's a systemic problem or something isolated to a few people.

      Without having some basis on which to form an opinion on IF there's a general problem, it would be foolish to pronounce on a cause. Speculate on what might happen? Sure, but you have to remember it's nothing but that - speculation on possibilities.

      There are a LOT of things that can, and do, mess with various providers from time to time. I'm not aware of any that are exempt from occasional problems.


      Paul
  • I noticed about a 1-2.5 % bounce rate also. Has anyone contacted aweber?
  • Yeah I'm having this issue as well.

    I have studied the trend in the last few months. Before December, it seems like bounce numbers and percentages were being reported. Then for most of December and January, there were no percentages being reported and bounces seemed (incredibly) low.

    It could be that only in the last week or so that bounces are now being recorded in the system. So it could be just clearing the backlog.

    The key thing is emails will only be deleted "once they are undeliverable 3 times in 60 days (and those 3 times are separated by at least a week)".

    Let's see how things pan out.

    Fabian
  • I blame Paul Myers. Until someone proves me wrong, Paul Myers did it and he's not even sorry he did it. I'm also working on an alternate theory that involves Fig Newtons™, spray cheese, and the hole in the ozone layer. I'll have more on this later.
    • [1] reply
    • Scott,

      It's not the spams causing it. The bounces I'm seeing were from a broadcast to confirmed subscribers.

      Well, it could be spam indirectly, at least in theory. If enough lists start sending confirmations to From addresses that either don't exist or hit the "This is Spam" button, that could spike the complaint rate and get blocks in at less savvy providers/blacklists.

      Byron,

      I'm pretty sure we'll hear from Tom soon.

      John,That's okay. I'm used to it.


      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • Hi Paul,

    Thanks...that's good to know.

    I was just curious about the possible timing of this happening, as it's never happened before until recently and when it started happening the number of bounces of mine started going up too (into the triple digits).

    Hope to hear from Tom soon and the problem is resolved or understood.

    Oh yeah...and I like spray cheese, so I hope that isn't the culprit.

    Thanks again,

    Scott
  • UPDATE: I've replaced cheese spray with Aquanet™ hairspray circa 1975 in my earlier alternate theory, creating an alternate alternate theory. Now it all makes perfect sense. Paul Myers is not to blame, although one simulation did show a 2nd cousin, once removed, as a distinctly possible choice as the root cause here. So while he is now officially off the hook, his family line is still implicated. Maybe. In theory.
  • Maybe it's a good time for the CEO to come respond to this problem. He's done it before and hopefully he'll do it again.
  • I can't even get my emails sent out. I sent out a broadcast on the 9th. None of them got sent. I emailed their support, didn't get a response. So I tried to send the broadcast out again today. Same thing, none of them were sent.

    I am local to them, and we got hit with a blizzard on Wednesday. Which was on top of another 2'+ feet of snow we got on Friday. Our major highways were closed Wednesday. So I'm guessing they are a bit backed up since they didn't even go in on Wednesday.

    Power was/is out in some parts of the area. So I wouldn't be surprised if the snow caused some sort of damage.

    I've met Tom, the CEO, before. Very nice guy. I'm sure he'll get everything taken care of.
    • [1] reply
    • I hope he and his system can reinstate my 700 or so subscribers who were automatically unsubscribed due to the bounces. Here's hoping.
  • This is my advice:

    Do not broadcast until things get back to normal!

    It cost me 700 subscribers (6% of my mailing list) before I realized my mistake. Remember, Aweber will automatically unsubscribe your subscribers if the messages to them are undeliverable 3 times within a 60-day period.
  • Hi guys

    normally when i send out a mail to 10,000 i only get about 3-4 bounces but when i sent it out to 8,000 in the food niche last night it was 12 so there must be a glitch in the system.

    kind regards

    sam
    X
    • [1] reply
    • Wow, looks like i left AW just in time ....
  • OK Let me throw the proverbial spanner:-

    My bounce rate declined substantially on my last broadcast, was way below my average

    Michael
    • [2] replies
    • I should point out that I think outages causing this is what's unlikely, not that Aweber would call "No route to host" a bounce. That should be treated as one.

      I don't think it's Hotmail, because the numbers would be higher. More precisely, I don't think it's across their whole platform. It's possible there's something that affects part of their system, as they're... somewhat disorganized.

      If it is a localized problem, say a datacenter out or a bit of fiber cut, it would have to be a big place.

      The geographic issue is one thing that would explain that much bouncing from a wide range of domains that didn't include any of the big 4 (Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL). Another is a listing in a smaller spam filtering system.

      Again, there are probably other things I'm not thinking of at the moment. This is an area with a lot of possible points of failure.

      Sam ... Going from 3 bounces to 12 doesn't tell much, as those could be work addresses for people who couldn't get to the office for a few days and have full mailboxes. Just as one example. There's a ton of ways for that small a hiccup to happen.


      Paul
      • [1] reply
    • What time did you schedule your broadcast for?

      For everyone else:

      I'm beginning to this this may be a cyber attack done at certain intervals. To further investigate this, the following info is needed.

      1. What time did you send your 4 most recent broadcasts (preferrably in GMT if you can, so it's easier to spot a trend)?

      2. Bounce rates of each broadcast, and please highlight in red text the unusual ones.

      I suspect a trend will develop, which will give many clues as to what is actually going on.
  • Same problem here. It realy hurts me with my "small" list.

    Any answers from aweber?

    Patrick
    • [1] reply
    • Patrick,Unlikely for today. They've had real issues with getting into the office, as the major roads and a lot of city streets have been closed because of the snow. They'll probably need today to start getting caught up and get things under control.


      Paul
  • I thought it was just me. I did clean out some undeliverables yesterday and found out some email address owners got names like viagra whatever. So I guess they were having a spam attack on their servers. But I think the issue was solved now.
  • I'm not with Aweber, but I will say that over 90% of those lists I join up to, all go into my Spam box for some reason.

    Getresponse on the other hand, i'm lucky to see 5-10% of those lists I join up to who use GR go in the spam area.

  • As I encourage anyone who has a concern to do, please get in touch with us
    directly. Our team is here to help. Without specific data about an individual
    subscriber list it's impossible to troubleshoot what the specific problem might.

    Couple of facts I can state without hesitation:

    * we are not blocked by any major ISP.
    * email marketing isn't over.
    * has nothing to do with the east coast blizzard.
    * has nothing to do with the previous data compromise.
    * we are not removing soft bounces.

    If your seeing an elevated undeliverable rate that you feel is higher than normal
    please call us directly so one of our team can look directly at your account.
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Boy, am I glad I labeled my guesses and speculation as guesses and speculation. Turns out there's one of those things I hadn't even considered.

      I have been informed that one possible factor is some adjustments they made to their bounce handling. Specifically, to catch things that are in reality now hard bounces, but weren't being treated as such.

      How much of an effect that has on individual lists won't be possible to tell for a few mailings. And that is probably not the issue (or all of it) with every list that's seeing the increase. Like Tom said, and as demonstrated by Michael Tracey's very different figures, every list is different and has to be looked at individually.

      In cases where it is a factor, you should consider this a Very Good Thing. Those subscribers were not getting your mailings anyway. If they bounce off, you can remove them and have lower numbers of billable leads in the account, and a more accurate grasp of the effectiveness of your mailings.

      For those of you (most reading this) who aren't familiar with the process, this is a constant point of attention in the business. Bounce messages change, new providers use the wrong codes, etc. Keeping up with it is one of the reasons I use Aweber for new subscribers, rather than my own server.

      I used to manage my own list software, and had to tweak the bounce handling all the time. Hotmail finally cured me of that when they started using cryptic and non-standard bounce messages some times, and dropping mail on the floor without response other times. I got tired of constantly adjusting the system to prune bad addresses properly. Even with Vince Sabio's ListBounce plugged in, it wasn't ever completely accurate. And Vince knows (knew?) a lot more about that stuff than I ever want to...


      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • We make adjustments to things daily, sometimes hourly. Not something that making
    an announcement about is appropriate to the vast majority of clients. As mentioned
    above, if you have concern about something you're seeing it's always better to contact
    us directly rather than guessing about possible causes. What Paul is seeing is likely
    different than what you are seeing.
  • Mine went to crap.

    I have been getting all kinds of VIA#GR*A signups, some of which are confirming.

    I contacted aWeber about how to manually delete these, but they have not gotten back to me (they answered what I did NOT ask, and told me to rename the list).

    I'm pretty sure I used to be able to scroll the list and delete who I wanted; can't now.

    Every since they got hacked I've had no confidence in any of the stats.

    PCRoger.
  • I just started a thread about this, but now that I came across this I would rather share my bounce rates and my thoughts on why it's happening here:

    Here is a screenshot of my bounce rates >>> 2010-03-05_1038 <<<<<

    Although I could be mistaken, I'm guessing that this increased bounce rate
    and decreased open rate issue has EVERYTHING to do with Aweber's recently
    being hacked of all of their data which caused a ton of spam to hit email addresses
    that were submitted to aweber forms.

    Anyone else think this is the case as well?

    - Jason
    • [1] reply
    • No, no, a thousand times no.

      Just because it went up after the hack attempt does not mean the hack attempt is the only reason.

      We need to narrow this down further, by eliminating all other possible causes for this.

      So you need to provide a ton more info than bounce rates. For example, you need a breakdown of the percentages of bounces by email provider.

      Times and dates of the broadcasts can also narrow stuff down as well.

      For all we know, the exponential bounce increase could be coming from a cyber attack on certain mail servers. Or a mail server could be experiencing an outage, or went offline for upgrades, or nutzero tweaked their spam filter the wrong way, or god knows what else.

      Don't just assume, start digging.
  • I don't know how I missed this thread because I am facing the same issue with a list and it's driving me crazy AND I don't use Aweber.

    My bounces have steady increased over the last few weeks too.
    • [1] reply
    • I see that this thread was started almost a month ago.

      Are people still having the same problem?
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    High AWeber Bounce Rate?

    I've been with AWeber for several years, and my bounces and complaints have always been virtually nil. All of a sudden, over the past week or so, my bounce rate has increased consistently and drastically. Is anyone else experiencing this?