Live data from Hacker News

MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

blog.rongarret.info

251–260 of 267 posts

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#251
post #125
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It’s probably best to not assume malice here.

Sorry I don't believe you, the reason why is I worked in that industry and we definitely wouldn't close an account for a single complain or even many, for every email campaign there is a % of bounce rate / open / complain, obviously all those companies would be out of business if they would close accounts for complains. The only reason I see are those explained here: ( we had the same one ) https://mailchimp.com/lega…

Do you also think all of the many other people in this thread who've had the same experience are lying?

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#252

They banned me after migrating an email list over because they said I couldn't confirm how I got the emails. It was weird because the 80 emails were newsletter sign-ups from my website. After that happened I never went back.

Kind of odd considering they changed to make single opt-in the default on new mailing lists.

They’re covering their asses only legally speaking.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a manager of a customer service team, everyone on my team knows exactly whether something has been "totally wiped" or not, regardless of whether it's something that would require developer intervention to recover. To have your reps not understand this and ultimately mislead the customer (or, in this case, I suppose former customer would be more accurate) is a management/training problem, and what the rep ultimatel…

I have to disagree with this wholeheartedly because sometimes you don't want to set the expectation with a front-line representative that the data is recoverable. In many cases, you don't want reps promising to recover data that's potentially unrecoverable. It's one thing to recover data in the event of a mistake on behalf of the company but that should require a conversation with someone outside of front-line custom…

The correct response is to tell the customer that it has been deleted from the main server, and that it MAY be recoverable with escalation to the dev team. Why would you even consider telling them anything else, if that is not the truth?

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#254
240 Comment and not a single one defending Mailchimp.

Over the years, there are many articles on HN about Mails. And the general ( or even golden rule ) was not to setup your own server, it is too much hassle, waste of time. And just use something like MailChimp instead.

I think there might be a few mention for Mailgun, but most of the time it was MailChimp for recommendation.

And over the years NOT A SINGLE report or comment of their bad experience. It was all singing and praise.

Now something happened, and all of a sudden you get a huge flux of people mentioning it was similar to their own experience as well.

And this isn't the first time I see something like this. It wasn't until the ZOHO incident did people start telling their horror story about Namecheap and Godaddy.

Is there a psychological term for this? You knew it was bad, but you didn't tell your story then.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#255
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company is set up to deliver a lie, even if the last person telling it is doing so unintentionally.

Mailchip seems to be in the wrong, but ignorance isn't the same as a lie. I bet you people just assume or their manager doesn't know either. Why was my account suspended - https://mailchimp.com/help/why-accounts-get-suspended/

But that end with:

> If we suspended your account, we'll contact you as soon as possible to let you know why, and to give you details on how to fix the situation.

And that's clearly a lie, based on OP's experience, and those of other commenters.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#256
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…

FWIW, my partner too had similar experiences and now switched to rayzz.net I agree, backup or self-hosted backup is always necessary.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#257

Been there, done that. Two years ago Mailchimp deactivated our account without notice, and no explanation at first. This also impacted our transactional mails via Mandrill as the account was linked to the deactivated Mailchimp account. Even after a lot of pleading they didn't reactivate it, and there responses were generally unhelpful and in hostile language. In the end it turned out that appart from our paid(!) main…

Did you ever consider SES? I've been using Sendgrid for about two years to handle lead distribution to client CRMs (Automotive). They have good documentation and are super easy to integrate. Although, I wish the delivery notification endpoint supported multiple webhooks.

I don't think we really considered SES, to be honest.

We had to move pretty fast when we made the switch. My coworker tried Mailgun (which didn't verify our domain fast enough), while I tried Sendgrid.

There was also the added bonus that we had a free paid tier from Sendgrid as part of our accalerator program, so we had planned to switch to Sendgrid anyway.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#258
post #97
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Your data has been deleted" pretty much has always meant To whom? My mother? Nope- she thinks it's gone. So yeah- it's a lie, and you only catch it if you know better. "Yes Dad I did my homework" has pretty much always meant that he hasn't started it yet. No, it's a lie and the organization knows it. They are responsible for training their CS folks.

If I turn on Windows Backup on my Mom's laptop and she right clicks a file and selects "Delete" is the expected behavior that it be deleted in every backup as well?

Windows doesn't tell your Mom that her data has been wiped, just that a particular file has been deleted.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If management sets up a system which intentionally results in untruths being told to customers ...?

There's nothing nefarious about customer service not having access to every single possible data record on a customer. In fact, I'd be concerned if customer services had access to archived backups or raw server logs. For most intents and purposes, data existing only on archived backups or raw server logs is "completely wiped".

There's nothing nefarious about customer service not having access to every single possible data record on a customer. In fact, I'd be concerned if customer services had access to archived backups or raw server logs.

Irrelevant, customer service can know if the data record exists without having access to it.

For most intents and purposes, data existing only on archived backups or raw server logs is "completely wiped".

My intent and purpose in asking the question may not be part of "most", yet it's still valid.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If she doesn't know the backup's been set up, in her mind, yes.

Are you suggesting that the delete command shouldn't be trusted because there might be a backup of the file somewhere? You people are throwing around the word "lie" very loosely here...

> Are you suggesting that the delete command shouldn't be trusted because there might be a backup of the file somewhere?

No, the exact opposite in fact.

Am saying that if you weren't told there's a backup, you'll not think there's one and treat the data as completely deleted, even if they really aren't.

Post reply on HN