I just got an email a week or so ago saying that my account was canceled effective immediately with Aweber. Now for those guys who aren’t in the internet webmaster world, Aweber is a paid email mailing provider. It’s how I communicate with you guys via newsletter.
Out of nowhere they cancelled me.
Why?
They said I had pornography or sex-related materials on my site in an unfriendly, not even considering my side of it email.
Ok… I was thinking about the content, you know David Wygant writes some pretty heavy stuff at times. But NO, it wasn’t a sex-related post. Over the phone they gave me the URLs for this post, this post, and this post.
I thought it was funny. Is this some crazy evangelical owned firm in Pennsylvania?
I read over the Terms of Service that they said I had violated and found this:
“Pornography and sex-related merchandising are prohibited on any AWeber Systems server. AWeber Systems will be the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation of this provision.”
Ok, that’s fine. But are those photos pornographic? To my knowledge Maxim, GQ and FHM aren’t pornography. And if they really want porn, I’m sure we all can show them what real PORN is.
Onto the second point, NONE OF THESE IMAGES WERE HOSTED ON AWEBER SERVERS! None of my emails even mentioned those posts, so I was not in violation of their stated Terms of Service. So I’m filing a complaint with American Express and getting part of my money back.
I have switched to GetResponse, which I was thinking about doing a few months ago, and it’s system is so much more friendly to use subscribing/unsubscribing and SPAM features are superior to Awebers.
I highly recommend Getresponse for those guys looking for an email mailing provider and Aweber can kiss my “porn” anytime.
It’s such a hassle switching, because MANY of you guys aren’t yet subscribed to the new service and were confused when I resent an email asking you to confirm the subscription.
so guys take this opportunity to subscribe to the newsletter through the top right box that says “Downlaod Free Annihilation Report”. If you were subscribed before and you haven’t gotten an email from me lately, that’s why.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Crap i just signed up with aweber. Did they at least let you take your list with you?
I got them to export it for me, but I lost over 3000 subscribers. Yeah, ditch them immediately. Getresponse are great because they don’t require a verification email before their put on your list via a website signup (only when you’re importing the first time). If I could go back, I’d go with Getresponse the whole time.
i just wrote my own send-mail program
and if you’re careful enough you can get a better delivery rate than with an auto responder, even with a large list
That sucks… clearly they didn’t like the “dream” posts.
I bet this lady runs Aweber: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chris1/51853775/
Chev where do you find this stuff! haha
Wow that sucks man. I’m glad I saw this post, I was about to open an aweber account in the next few weeks. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll definitely check out the other company.
On a related note, I’ve been arguing a lot with the Stumbleupon administration lately because whenever someone stumbles my page, it automatically gets categorized as “porn” regardless of whether the user submits to another category. It’s very frustrating because I have zero nudity/porn on my site. The only thing that comes close is a few pics of scantily clad women, but that’s certainly nothing new on stumbleupon. My guess is some feminist complained about my blog and managed to get it blacklisted…arrrghhhh
Seriously, what’s a guy have to do to run a successful seduction blog without getting categorized as porno? I blame Dr. Phil.
“Seriously, what’s a guy have to do to run a successful seduction blog without getting categorized as porno? I blame Dr. Phil.”
That’s hilarious Matt! I’m going to bite you and start blaming Dr. Phil for stuff myself.
StumbleUpon traffic is rather “flakey” and low value traffic so you’re not missing much if it is any consolation.
Wow… Matt Savage, I just “stumbled upon” your website after seeing your comments (I don’t use stumbleupon, rather just clicked on your name because I used to know a “Matt Savage” a long time ago and thought you were him LOL) and you have a very nice site. Good stuff man, keep it up
Agreed on the StumbleUpon… the only real value that it has is when those people the “stumble” through link to your content because they like it.
It’s virtually non monetizable (did I just make up a word?)
Yeah, I haven’t had much luck with StumbleUpon. The best sites are probably straight search engines, and other community blogs.
Oh man, you’re going to LOVE getresponse.
I switched over to getresponse like 2 months ago, and it’s been a pleasure since. I didn’t need to switch over for a reason like this, but I thought i’d give them a try coz Eben Pagan’s quiz-opt-in script only integrates with GetResponse.
Btw, have you tried that one? It tripled my optins. It’s true what he said. There is just something about (reveal your personality) quizzes that makes people go bonkers… Yes even men
I’m with Aweber and they rock! Stop making excuses pal. You violated their terms of service. There are a LOT of very satisfied customers with Aweber. There’s always ONE bad apple in the bunch…you!
Bob
Bob, you don’t know what you’re talking about. I explained the terms and conditions to you… yet you say I violated them. How?
I can see this from both sides…
These autoresponders are treated well by large email services like Yahoo! and Gmail because they give the email services assurance that their email users actually WANT the email by enforcing a strict double opt-in. They also make sure the content of the emails or the sites sending the email are not smutty or scammy in order to further insure the integrity of their service.
Aweber must strictly enforce it or else one of these email services might start sending Aweber email to the spam folder. This lowers their delivery rate which lowers their market power to customers.
I hear that Aweber by far has the highest percent delivery rate but I think Donovan is right that if you are running a site about a topic that society deems “fringe” like seduction and pick-up it is best to go with a lower delivery rate company with a greater overall tolerance.
“Bob” sounds like an Aweber employee….Nice try, “Bob”…
I moved from AWeber to hosting on my own server with Interspire and my deliverability is MUCH better – no matter how much AWeber does whitelisting and other things, you’re still sharing an IP address with thousands of other marketers who are getting the IP blocked. So no matter how great AWeber deliverability claims to be, you will ALWAYS do better sending from your own dedicated server. And with AWeber’s ridiculous new pricing, I’m saving hundreds of dollars each month hosting my own autoresponder.
I, too recommend Interspire Email Marketer, especially if you have a huge list with big campaigns. With hosted software, there are no send fees and you have full control as mentioned above.
I don’t run a dating/seduction type site of any kind, but I do use autoresponders and from my own testing I have found that Aweber doesn’t have any better delivery rate than lesser known companies like ResponseBot or Followup101.com for the type of messages I send.
My opinion is…Aweber has shouted to the world so much about how they get whitelisted on all the major services for better deliverability as a marketing tool, and all their supporters simply parrot what they’ve been told as a way to justify the exorbitant rate they’re charged every month.
Right now, I’m using Get Response for my new lists, but once I get to 10,000 subscribers, I’ll be moving to a dedicated server and my own Autoresponse Plus script so I can have more control over what goes and what doesn’t.
The following is a transcript of a chat I had with one of Aweber’s “customer service” people.
> john: I am using a wordpress theme that uses html. The video I watched doesn’t seem to pertain to what I’m trying to do. Any pointers? (THIS IS WHAT I FILLED OUT IN ORDER TO INITIATE THE CHAT)
>
> You are now speaking with Rebecca Swayze of AWeber Customer Solutions.
>
> Rebecca Swayze: Welcome to Live Support.
> john: Would the code for the form help you if I pasted it here?
>
> Rebecca Swayze: Hi John. Unfortunately I can’t take a look at the
> code, I can’t assist in changes to the HTML code.
>
> Rebecca Swayze: What exactly are you trying to accomplish?
>
> john: I’m trying to install a form on my wordpress squeeze page.
>
> john: The customer has the option of submitting the form or leaving. It’s much like an html based squeeze page
(((LOTS OF TIME GOES BY..I’m WAITING PATIENTLY))))TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC
> john: If I can’t get this worked out I’ll have to find another
> autoresponder solution.
(((((MORE TIME GOES BY))))TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC
>
> john: you still there?
>
(((NO RESPONSE….EVEN MORE TIME GOES BY)))
TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC TOC TIC F’ING TOC
> john: please tell me how to cancel my account. this is frustrating.
>
> Rebecca Swayze: I am still here John I thought that you were typing, I apologize for the inconvenience.
>
> Rebecca Swayze: To cancel your account I need your login name and password.
>
> john: *********** **************
>
> john: how long will it take to credit my account? I guess it’s easier to have me go away than it is to help me.
>
> Rebecca Swayze: It is not easier, but you asked how you go about
> canceling and I provided an answer. In regards to WordPress, I cannot provide support other than the information that you said you already had, as I am not familiar with WordPress.
>
> john: Well, thanks for the quick answer. How do we complete this
> transaction?
>
> Rebecca Swayze: I have canceled your account and $19 has been refunded to your card. Please let us know if we can assist you in the future.
>
>
> john: Thank you Rebecca. I appreciate your customer service. Wow!
http://www.aweber.com
COMMENTS ABOUT THIS TRANSCRIPT:
Aweber was initially very impressive. They called me to welcome me aboard and to see if I needed any help. I told them I was OK for the time being that I was watching their tutorial videos and would call them if I needed more help. Some people might get tech support on the phone and not even watch a tutorial I’m not one of those people.
When I did need help Aweber treated me like a red headed step kid. They dropped me like a hot rock!
The one thing that was not recorded by this transcript is the amount of time between answers. This took almost 20 minutes total. Should have taken 5 at most.
I understand that a chat rep may be assisting more than 1 customer. The thing that amazed me was the speed at which she basically said, “F*** it!, I’m going to drop this loser and refund his money”.
Way to go Aweber! I guess they have so many customers that one doesn’t matter.
I too have moved to Get Response.
Getresponse is so much better!