Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

blog.rongarret.info

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 267 posts

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#41

Post by abc-xyz »

nik736 wrote: post #26

What I don't understand is... when this data is oh so important, where is the backup?

Because not everyone using a mailing list service is technically capable of doing this, or understands why it's even necessary? I never used MailChimp but if I did then I would assume that the mailing lists I built with their service would be 99.999% secure, and that I'd always be able to access it even if they went out of business. Reading this thread with many users claiming similar experiences is quite frankly shocking.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#42

Post by philpem »

collyw wrote: post #4
dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #3

> I really don't like to resort to public shaming, but this really is unacceptable. Public shaming works quite well on HN; I remember quite a few cases when the problem was solved very quickly by hitting the front page. However, in this case I'd give MailChimp more time. It seems the author contacted them today. Maybe there is a reasonable explanation and they will provide it tomorrow?

Indeed. I have found that the best way to get a company to respond to a complaint in a reasonable manner is to post your complaint on their facebook or twitter profile. Its a shame that it needs to be like this.

Depends on the company.

Some simply delete complaints and block the people who left them...

The best way to get satisfaction (in the UK at least) seems to be to get a tabloid journalist involved....

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#43

Post by tjoff »

SkyPuncher wrote: post #40
hippich wrote: post #13

To people mentioning public shaming. I had a mailing list with them removed with all contacts lost and account banned without even notifying me. Customer support indeed responded, but with something like your account was banned because you are involved into cryptocurrencies (i had hashcash.io - no selling or buying of crypto is even close) and we completely wiped all your data. Only after a hint about possible public…

> So they lied in the first response (all data is wiped and unrecoverable) Not defending Mailchimp, but keep in mind the perspective and context. To a customer support agent using some backend interface, it very well could be "completely wiped". To an escalation team, they may be able to pull it from backups in an "unofficial" manner.

It is still a lie.

Also keep in mind the perspective and context that the end user has no way of knowing.

And even if the data can be recovered in an unofficial manner whether they will actually bother is highly unlikely if they care as little as they most obviously do.

So, as a user it is a pretty safe bet to just assume it is gone (but do keep poking).

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#44

Post by BenoitEssiambre »

To add a data point to this, I created a MailChimp account a couple of years ago. I never used it as other projects became priority. Recently I decided I might give it a shot again. Tried to login. My account is deleted and my email banned. I'm not tied to any weird or shady business. Dodged a bullet I guess.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#45

Post by RhodesianHunter »

lisper wrote: post #35
abc-xyz wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope everyone already using or considering using MailChimp reads this. Denying access to your mailing list even if you violated their terms is insane. Banning accounts with no warning is already bad enough - ideally they'd just disable your ability to send emails until the issue was resolved, but at least I can accept that.. but to steal people's mailing list in the process? What the fuck.

OP here. To be clear, I did not violate their TOS. And deactivating an account for inactivity is not entirely unreasonable, especially a free account. What is unreasonable IMHO, and the reason I want to bring this to people's attention, is deactivating an account without a warning , without even a notification , and with no way to recover. That is a ticking time bomb that I was simply unaware of. I never even imagine…

Two landmines:

1. The MC one 2. Relying on any free service as an important part of your business.

The adage "you get what you pay for" really does tend to hold true.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#47

Post by alfanick »

abc-xyz wrote: post #41
nik736 wrote: post #26

What I don't understand is... when this data is oh so important, where is the backup?

Because not everyone using a mailing list service is technically capable of doing this, or understands why it's even necessary? I never used MailChimp but if I did then I would assume that the mailing lists I built with their service would be 99.999% secure, and that I'd always be able to access it even if they went out of business. Reading this thread with many users claiming similar experiences is quite frankly sho…

> I never used MailChimp but if I did then I would assume that the mailing lists I built with their service would be 99.999% secure, and that I'd always be able to access it even if they went out of business.

You're saying you never used service X, yet you would absolutely trust service X and assume that even when service X is out-of-businness, you can access data related to you.

That's very surprising to read, I'm exactly the opposite - own your data, don't trust any service, they always can go away, at any random moment.

This makes me wonder, what is more popular? Absolute trust or -ENOTRUST?

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#48

Post by nlh »

I’m glad this got posted and I hope this gets resolved and MailChimp does the right thing (I’ve also upvoted the OP).

But man, I don’t envy companies deep in the anti-spam/fraud business. The impression I’ve gotten is that when you act with a lighter touch and/or give lots of info about why an account was closed, spammers/fraudsters weaponize that and either figure out how to bypass your controls or social engineer your support.

I hope I’m wrong. Any thoughts on how a company should balance good service to users (and false positives) with the need to fight black hats?

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#50

Post by lisper »

RhodesianHunter wrote: post #45
lisper wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here. To be clear, I did not violate their TOS. And deactivating an account for inactivity is not entirely unreasonable, especially a free account. What is unreasonable IMHO, and the reason I want to bring this to people's attention, is deactivating an account without a warning , without even a notification , and with no way to recover. That is a ticking time bomb that I was simply unaware of. I never even imagine…

Two landmines: 1. The MC one 2. Relying on any free service as an important part of your business. The adage "you get what you pay for" really does tend to hold true.

The irony is that if MC had sent me an email saying that I needed to upgrade to a paid account in order to keep it active, I would have sent them a check without hesitation.

That's one of the frustrating things about this. MC has turned this into a lose-lose when it really didn't have to be.

Post reply on HN