MailChimp deleted my account with no warning • Hacker News Board

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#11

Post by colinbartlett » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:04 PM UTC

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?

There could also be some selection bias here. I always wonder how many other attempts at public shaming never make it anywhere.

I've been locked out of my Amazon and AWS account for more than two weeks despite numerous phone calls to Amazon support and desperate pleading on social media. "We are still looking into this matter for you." I could post some nasty blog post but I have really little faith it would get me anywhere.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#12

Post by sevensor » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:05 PM UTC

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?

It's been two days since this was written. Presumably the nuclear option of posting it to HN was deferred to give Mailchimp the opportunity to fix things.

Edit: Also, considering the author's fame, I expect public shaming on HN will work quite nicely.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#13

Post by hippich » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

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 shaming, someone sent me data dump with all the emails and names. So they lied in the first response (all data is wiped and unrecoverable) and only responded to a threat.

Since then I am using Mautic and own SMTP server.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#14

Post by lotto-win » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:07 PM UTC

I agree Tech companies are getting more and more away from the customer[1], due to policies that are non-disclosed. BUT in your case - give it some time. This is premature. [1]https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/who-...

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#15

Post by acd10j » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:08 PM UTC

sfifs wrote: post #5

Hmmm... This poster has noticed an issue on 17th, mailed support and without waiting to see if there's any reply or resolution, decided to blog publicly about it the same day... seems definitely premature, maybe borderline of questionable professionalism. It appears MailChimp has a chat option for support on weekdays for paid users but since this hasn't been used, one would assume the poster is using a free plan - no…

Are you in any way affiliated directly or indirectly with MailChimp ? Reason for my concern is that this is not a exemplary practice to do victim bashing either. Even if OP is "free" customer , He has some right to complaint. Companies usually don't provide "free" tier by goodness of there heart and have legitimate business plan to do so.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#16

Post by abc-xyz » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:10 PM UTC

sfifs wrote: post #5

Hmmm... This poster has noticed an issue on 17th, mailed support and without waiting to see if there's any reply or resolution, decided to blog publicly about it the same day... seems definitely premature, maybe borderline of questionable professionalism. It appears MailChimp has a chat option for support on weekdays for paid users but since this hasn't been used, one would assume the poster is using a free plan - no…

Assuming the author is truthful, then I'd say Mailchimps actions are a lot more questionable. Shutting the account down without a warning? Making it impossible for him to see his mailing list even if the ban was deserved? I don't know about you but I'd never want to use a mailing service if I knew that I at any time could lose access to the mailing list I had spent months/years building up..

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#17

Post by the_dege » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:11 PM UTC

The real problem is that support and service notification on the internet are often really bad. The giants can afford to do whatever they want without drawbacks. The really small players on the other hand can disappear without notice. Just the other day one of our VPSs went down, the web panel was also down, we discovered on twitter, posted by another user that the hosting company was closing in 4 days. They haven't even send an email to the customers. The CEO had already removed the company from his linkedin profile!

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#18

Post by mywacaday » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:12 PM UTC

You really need to give the service a reasonable amount of time to respond to any ticket. Agree an account, paid or free, should not be deleted without notification but you need to be reasonable and give people time to resolve issues. Sometimes you can be pleasantly surprised.

Last week I had one of the best support experiences I've ever had with spotify through twitter DMs. 100% my own fault where I had signed up twice by accident by missing the "." in my email address and hadn't noticed I was being billed twice/month for 10 months. A few questions over and back getting to the bottom of the issue and it was resolved within an hour and my €100 refunded in 3 days.

Maybe I'm just feeling reasonable after my experience with spotify, if it was my account deleted maybe I'd feel different or maybe its just the season of goodwill :-)

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#19

Post by snlnspc » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:12 PM UTC

sevensor wrote: post #12

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?

It's been two days since this was written. Presumably the nuclear option of posting it to HN was deferred to give Mailchimp the opportunity to fix things. Edit: Also, considering the author's fame, I expect public shaming on HN will work quite nicely.

it didn't work the first (or second) time that this article was submitted. there was no waiting done here.

Re: MailChimp deleted my account with no warning

#20

Post by deedubaya » Wed, Dec 19, 2018, 3:13 PM UTC

I bet it sucks that the user didn't get a warning or notification...

...but as normal user of email, I appreciate a heavy hand when it comes to email lists which mailchimp deems malicious or bad for its ecosystem. It's no secret that mailchimp maintains a high standard for the quality of lists and email it delivers. The common thread in these stories seems to be malicious actors, poor/spammy content, etc. So I'm not sure it's so bad?

Has anyone with a "typical" (e-commerce shop, saas newsletter, etc) mailchimp list been shutdown without notice?