So, I got my account deactivated on Mailchimp because they say for SPAM complaints, but that is totally bogus because my subscriber list of about 15 subscribers were all opt-in on their own accord.
I once had a newsletter sign up form on Self Taught SEO, it was for the promotion of my upcoming book. The basis of the newsletter was to publish pages of my book through the newsletter so essentially subscribers get spoon fed the book before its release. I signed up for a Mailchimp account about 2-3 weeks ago because it was free and seemed reliable. Everything was fine until they deactivated my account and kicked me out of their system.
Here is the email they sent me:
Hello Anthony,
Your account was suspended because of excessive direct spam complaints and your content is written as if you are emailing folks that have never heard of your organization before.
Our service is a strict permission based newsletter service, we do not support sales prospecting type messaging.
Noting your content formatting and the complaints, we are not going to be able to assist you with your email delivery needs. You’ll need to look for a different vendor for assistance.
I don’t have any issue with Mailchimp accounts who violate their terms or those who spam, but in no way did I spam or violate their use. First, 15 subscribers is not enough to get validated as a spammer — which tells me that one person can call you spammer and that’s it Mailchimp will ban your account. That’s not good, because people make mistakes and some forget they signed up for some newsletters.
The thing is it is simple for them to see if I am a spammer or not, simply take a look at my account and see the messages I sent out as well as the way I retrieved my subscribers. They will easily notice that all 15 subscribers came by way of newsletter signup and not manually loaded by myself.
Admittedly, I may needed some help on my copy because it was kinda shabby. I tried explaining in the first message that I will include affiliate links in future mailings for monterary purposes, but not to take offense and not to click any links if they do not agree with the monetization agenda. However, I also attempted to make it perfectly clear in the same message that I will not saturate the newsletter with affiliate links nor would I use any affiliate which I do not fully endorse. With that said, I had about 20-25 autoreponder messages all set up and ready to go week by week, none of these message had any affiliate links within.
I probably could have done without that message as it probably was the reason for my demise, but still my newsletter had no affiliate links in it regardless what I tried to explain. Even though I did have every intention of sprinkling affiliate links across the newsletter. But the newsletter itself was valuable for readers, because it was written to help people learn SEO, basically pages from the book optimized for the newsletter.
I honestly think Mailchimp agenda was to release me because of my SEO status and the fact that I had a newsletter that wasn’t to their liking. You know how you start a website with a vision of a certain audience and visitor. I remeber years ago when I started a blog hosting website I wanted only a certain visitor to host their blog on my site. I remember the first active blogger to the site was someone who was into the Goth lifestyle and that’s all they wrote about, it frustrated me to wits end, but I didn’t allow my beliefs and preference dictate who joins my site nor did I allow it to make me discriminate against any particular group. Another thing that probably got Mailchimp panties in a bunch is the fact I wasn’t a paying member which made it worse.
It’s obvious to me that they had a different agenda or vision for their website and the spam blame was just a way to get rid of me. That tells me that the business is not being ran by business-minded folks, because just like the Goth blogger on my website — I could have potentially become a faithful member who upgraded to paid services. I tried rectifying the issue with Mailchimp, here is what I sent them in response:
Hi,
Can I please know about spam complaints? I haven’t spammed anyone, everyone on the list is opt-in — I only have about 15 subscribers, with no unsubscribes, so how can this raise spam concerns? Also, my content is written to help people learn — I don’t have one affiliate link in any of the content and links to my website in only one newsletter post. Is there anyway I can talk to someone over the phone in regards to this matter? I am a fan of MailChimp and wish to have this matter reinvestigated and my account reinstated. I think a mistake has been made. Please advise.
After this email, I heard crickets…no response. Obviously, they don’t want me as a member. Am I mad, no … not at all, I’ve been through worse. But am I disappointed and think Mailchimp is a bunch of crap! Cold-heartendly…YES.
I wish this company was a little more mature because they have way too much time on their hands if they are reacting harshly to spam complaints from an account with less than 15 subscribers. Imagine if large autoresponder companies did that, like GetResponse or AWebber? They would be out of business because I’m sure the spam complaint ratio is really high. I wouldn’t expect spam reaction until at least an account has 100 subscribers and at least 20% complained.
The proper approach mailchimp should have token is at least contact me with a warning and telling me that they had a number of spam complaints from my account and if they continue to receive complaints then they will be closing my account. A warning or something. I can’t be a member with a company who is responsible for storing my subscribers data and make rash decisions to ban members without warning or giving the opportunity for me to download and retrieve subscriber details.
Not one of the 15 subscribers unsubscribed from the newsletter so there is no way for me to know my newsletter wasn’t being well recieved. Who knows the true reason behind Mailchimp banning me, but I am glad I learned their unruly business practice early before I had hundreds of subscribers or worse paid for upgraded services, because that was my next step if the newsletter continued to grow as it was.
It’s been 5 days now and I’m thinking Mailchimp is not going to respond to my email, but I am at the point where I am better off without them so I doubt I’ll care about being reinstated. I can’t be with a company who holds crucial data to my business but will delete an account due to a single spam complaint and then leave me with no way to retrieve my crucial data (subscriber info). I wouldn’t advise you to rely on this company and don’t put all your eggs in one basket, because you may be next!
If you have a current and active Mailchimp account then I advise that you download and save your subscriber data frequently, also have a backup email provider because I warn, the ban comes out of no where! No warning.
Anyway, I am on a hunt for a great autoresponder company which have good features so if you have any ideas then let me know!
Glad I checked this out first. I was planning to use Mailchimp but this has given me second thoughts. I have a legitimate opt-in mailing list of 20K+ it’s likely I get a spam complaint at least once a week from subscribers who forgot they subscribed. Thanks for the heads up.
I have a 6,000+ member list to which I email 6 days a week. Just about every day I get a spam complaint or two – people who forget they joined the list, people who find clicking the ’spam’ button easier than unsubscribing from the list.
Mailchimp has not disabled my account. In fact, the list in question is a five-star list, despite the daily complaints. I consider them to be the good guys. Everyone gets spam complaints and Mailchimp knows this. They rate your lists based on a variety of factors. If you have a new list and get a high percentage of spam complaints against it that’s a red flag. It’s all about the relationship you have with Mailchimp and their ability to gauge your intent over the long haul.
The rule of thumb is one spam complaint per thousand messages, on average. It sounds like you were just unlucky.