Aweber Account Suspended – Is Yours At Risk?
Posted by Guido Nussbaum | Posted in News | Posted on 18-06-2010
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Hey guys,
today I have a very sad story to share… My Aweber Account was suspended and closed and I don’t like to say this… but your account might be at risk as well.
Here is what happened:
I’ve received a support request from one of my customers at Traffic Witch. I’ve pasted the important part of that support request below.
————————
Aweber doesn’t allow me to log in:
Sorry, the account you tried to access is currently unavailable from your IP because of too many requests. If you are the owner of this account, please contact help[at]aweber.com for assistance. Please reference “Web Form Throttle: trafficwitch **ip address removed**” in your support ticket.
Frankly, I’m tired of aweber. They cause too much trouble.
————————
I contacted the Aweber Live Support. I gave them this error message, the Traffic Witch website URL and my Aweber account login as they requested that. It took them a few minutes and then they replied to me that I was violating their Terms Of Service the way I’ve integrated the Aweber form at Traffic Witch.
Well, I told them that this is how all membershipsite scripts integrate Aweber. I haven’t seen any membershipsite script that didn’t do it that way and I’ve tested many of them.
The Aweber Support people didn’t care about other websites and gave me a deadline to remove the Aweber form from Traffic Witch. I was shocked and even speaking to a Supervisor didn’t solve the problem, they say it’s against their TOS to integrate the Aweber form in the php code and pass the subscriber data to Aweber after entering the subscriber data in the membershipsite script database first. I would have to use some kind of Email Parser to do the integration they say.
Well, I took action quickly and switched the form integration of my Traffic Witch site to another autoresponder company before the Aweber Deadline was over. Seems that this didn’t matter… they closed my account without a further warning. They didn’t even ask if I’ve removed the form.
So when I tried to login to Aweber today, this is what I saw:
So, if you are using a membershipsite script that integrates Aweber in the PHP code (and I don’t know of any that do it differently), then you might most likely be violating their TOS and your account could be suspended without any further notice. Your subscribers could be completely gone if you don’t do backups!
Normally I’d suggest you go and contact their support to make sure you are not violating their TOS… but as you can see in my example, exactly this move could get your account closed.
By the way, I’m not the only one that got his Aweber account suspended. Several fellow Traffic Exchange owners had to move to a new autoresponder company as well and some of the big names in the internet marketing industry as well, including Frank Bauer who wrote about this on his blog.
So, make sure you don’t integrate Aweber with any membershipsite script (unless you use their own email parsers)… otherwise you might either get your account suspended or you might run into the problem that your subscribers can’t click on your links due to too many IP requests (don’t ask me how too many requests can be happen, I’m speachless).
Anyways, now I’m a bit out of email business, at least for a while until I’ve imported my lists into a new autoresponder company… which is hopefully soon, so that I can contact my subscribers again. I’ll keep you updated on how I solve this problem.
Let me know what you think and post your comment below.
Guido Nussbaum
Contains over 200 directories that you can submit your sites to.
How was the script communicating with aweber.
The plugin I use for amember creates an IP audit trail and has a double opt-in. Supposedly this is in compliance with them.
Maybe your script just sent in the members email to aweber as if they were subscribing themselves- with no ip audit trail?
David
Thanks for Sharing Guido!
Jorge
The script simply submitted the Aweber form through javascript, the
Ip address of the signups was transfered to Aweber. The problem
was that the Aweber form was in the php code and not shown
directly on the signup page (there was a custom built signup form
on the page that handed the data to the Aweber form in the php code).
I had a similar issue with the integration. Luckily, I didn’t have to go through the account suspension.
I was using php to submit the data through an http request. Aweber stopped accepting these entries not long after I setup the survey. They block an IP after so many entries. Since it was from my server the IP was always the same.
When I contacted support, they indicated that I needed to use an e-mail parser instead. The downside was that in order for them to make me an e-mail parser, they charge $150.00. I looked around my account and found out that I could write my own parser for free.
So, I borrowed some of the regular expressions from the provided parsers and got it working fairly quickly.
I have been getting a large number of signups and no errors yet!
Wow! I’m speechless also. The fact that they just closed your account just like that (snap). So sorry.
Take care,
Donna
Hello Guido, what happened to you made me think about what happened to me with Aweber just a few days ago.
Firstly I was in another famous autoresponder.
Curious about quality of Aweber, I joined.
Well, I wasn’t able to import my list because they were requesting another double opt-in.
So I miss half of my list.
Consequently I terminated my account, because after a two days talking with support brought me nowhere.
They said : “Send us an e-mail and we will accept your lists coming by Get…..”.
Ok, I said, and I sent the mail.
Two days ago they said this not the right way to do business with lists (I remember you that the lists were coming from personal products I’m selling, no affiliates products).
So in one day I comprehended how Aweber is going, and I think that the next year they will get 1 registered user on the 100′000 that will join.
Thanks again for letting me know about your story, that was terrible.
See you soon,
Alessandro Zamboni
That’s why I don’t use aweber, or get response plus they charge you more money as your list grows. I use TrafficWave and don’t have any problems.
Sorry this happened to you, Guido.
This is one of the reasons I’m always in a quandry over how to manage my list. Use an “in-house” AR, and you’re vulnerable if there’s a problem with your own server, use an outside service and you’re susceptible to things like this.
I contacted my AR provider before moving over to the service to explain exactly what I required, and everything seemed fine, but I still wonder what might happen in the future as the list gets bigger.
First of all, I’m so sorry to hear about your troubles Guido! I do know that Aweber has been leaning towards not supporting the Traffic Exchange industry for a while now. This is a major reason for some moving their lists over to Traffic Wave, because it’s just TE friendly.
This has been an ongoing discussion in NMF and TE Live for a few months. Unfortunately, the way that most Traffic Exchange scripts are coded, they’re actually against most web hosts TOS too.
I just recently found out that because a user must login to their Traffic Exchange account and hit Delete My Account to stop receiving emails, this is in violation of the new CAN-SPAM requirements. These new laws state that a person opted in to receive emails of any kind must be able to do one of two things to unsubscribe to the mailings. 1) Reply directly to the email and request removal, or 2) click a link inside the email that immediately removes their email address from the subscription.
You guys be safe out there! It’s definitely a difficult time to be a Traffic Exchange owner.
All the best
Actually Wishlist Member uses the parsing feature of aweber, so not ALL membership site software does the same… but that’s neither here or there: Aweber behaves a lot like google: they behave as if they were the only game in town.
hi, Guido,
sorry to hear about this issue with Aweber. I don’t use them. When I first started emailing seriously to my different lists a couple of years back, I first used Aweber as that’s where so many “gurus” were/are, right? Well, it took me about 2 weeks to run into a problem with them, so I closed my account and have been elsewhere since.
but my question is, since you are a major upline in GVO, why are you not using their EResponder platform?
Once they get big, they can throw their weight around. Google, Paypal, Amazon…. and now Aweber. Oh well … (sigh)
Elliot, that’s exactly where I moved… well actualy I’m now using 2 autoresponders: GVO and Traffic Wave.
Yes, the Can-Spam thing is the reason I stopped using the mailers that are inside the membershipsite scripts already
over a year ago… but what about the Referral Notification and Sales Notification emails that get sent out by the
scripts… not sure if they fall under Can-Spam.
That’s actually a really great question. I don’t know if they classify notification emails as opted in or just more of a system generated service by being a member of a program.
I would sincerely hope they don’t categories those important system notifications as SPAM. We might all be in trouble then, TE or no TE.
Sorry to hear of all the Aweber problems… I never liked Aweber and have over the years heard of others (big time internet marketers too!) always having problems, particularly with their support. Just one of the many reasons I never even tried using them. My autoresponder needs aren’t as big as yours nor do I have TE memberships. I opted for Traffic Wave and have been very happy with both their service and SUPPORT. Pricing too! At this time I am also testing MailChimp on one of my sites but do have reservations about using them. I do hope your get everything straightened out and back in business quickly!
So sorry Guido…
That is just awful.
I’d like to suggest wizard autoresponder – it is also cheaper.
Heather
Sorry to hear about your aweber troubles Guido,
It seems they are getting more and more strange these days…
I’m a co – owner of http://www.WizardResponderPro.com and we seem to be booming with Aweber clients coming to us after being suspended or banned for issues like yours AND even a couple who were banned for using a subject line that seemed spammy!!
They obviously have so many customers these days that they can easily afford to throw them out like trash!
If your weren’t already set up I would have invited you to take a look at WizardResponder, But I happily admit I’ve heard good things about TW too
Here’s hoping your import goes smoothly
Warm Regards
Randy
Hi Guido
It’s aweful to have heard of this, and I’m afraid that AWEBER (and GETRESPONSE for that matter!) seem to want to create their own rules for this industry.
A few months ago I deleted all my contacts from GETRESPONSE account in order to go to another autoresponder. I had over 5,000 contacts in there, and I’d prepaid for a 12 month period.
I was expecting to keep my account open for the remainder of the 12 month period without having to pay the extra $50 a month in fees for the subscribers that I’d deleted.
Well this is where they create their own rules to keep the money in their own hands… Here’s what they wrote to me about the situation.
==================================
Please be advised that the cancellation of
contacts does not solve anything as the
system counts all the subscribers within
your account at the monthly peak and
takes into consideration active, inactive
and CANCELLED contacts.
We have checked the database of contacts
in your account and can see that max. number
of contacts in your account was 5,309
(2010-04-06) and 5,214 (2010-05-06).
Thus the pre-paid amount of 5000 contacts
was indeed exceeded in your account.
Unfortunately, we will not be able to issue a refund
for the last two contacts list payments. These are
legitimate transactions for the contacts that you
hosted in your account.
[ASIDE: Based on their Terms of Service]
Please note that upon upgrading your account you
were informed and agreed that :
“The Customer agrees to pay an extra “List Extension
Fee” for increasing the Contacts List according to the
subscription plan. The List Extension Fee will be the
difference between the prepaid fee and the new
payment for the increased size of the Contacts List.
(…)
[ASIDE: even if you have DELETED all your subscribers]
The List Extension Fee will be calculated based on the
highest number of contacts in the current month.”
4. Payments
http://www.getresponse.com/legal
Also, our Terms of Service to which you agreed upon
joining clearly state in point 5 that :
“the Customer shall not be entitled to any partial
or whole reimbursement of any fees or payments
already paid or due.”
[ASIDE: screw you Mr Smith, we've got your money]
http://www.getresponse.com/legal
While the terms and conditions of our service are
available on our website, we are always happy to
reply to our Customers’ questions regarding them.
In order to avoid future contact list charges, we may
set your account to limited mode at this point.
Please be so kind as to advise if you wish to have
your account put to the limited mode so as to avoid
future contact list charges.
I look forward to your reply.
=========================
The upshot of this …
If you think that your Service Provider (AWEBER, GETRESPONSE, PAYPAL, etc …) is doing you a favor by allowing you to use their service, then you’re just a SMALL PLAYER in the internet marketing world.
Don’t rely on them – get backups of everything (each month, say), and have an alternative payment processor rather than PayPal.
Brad Smith
Hey that totally sucks Guido. I’m happy you found a solution as I like to receive your emails. Let us know how your experience with GVO and traffic wave goes.
Cheers,
Jay Latour
HI Guido!
I totally agree with posted comment above, and quote him as well; “Once they get big, they can throw their weight around”
I have always seriously thought and hoped that Aweber was actually “above” behaving in this kind of shitty ways, and give all people a fair chance, so such things was likely to never to occur.
Sadly I was mistaken. But just forget about Awber, and hopefully you find a better place to do your business!!!!
Good Luck,
Alex Torp
Hi Guido,
I red it on facebook a few days ago. That is an interest post, also the comments, I have the Can-Spam rules and just beginn to check what is with this other mails.
I’ve my own Responder on the server for two of my sites, but I fight always with the hosting company about the queue mails. I’ve limit of 500/h.
Never I thought about Aweber or other, they take a high price for a support like zero.
Ok, I know it is a lot of work to change the Responder, good luck.
Hey Guido! this is sick man. I have hosted over 6 Giveaway events and have integrated AWeber with it. I have RAP and anyone who uses any of the membership site scripts or affiliate scripts like RAP would do exactly what you or I or any other marketer would do. I mean what’s the point in paying over $69 per month to a company if its not even allowing me to centralize my subscriber base? Anywayz I was little annoyed with AWeber since past 2 months for other reasons and I have already started building my list with GVO . Lets see how things work out with them
thanks for the Info though !
OK Marketers, if we’re going to use AWEBER (or other autoresponder companies), then we’re going to need an e-mail parser script.
As this is a HOT TOPIC, this could sell for it’s weight in gold at present
So … does anyone have an EMAIL PARSER SCRIPT that complies with AWEBER, that we could possibly get RIGHTS (MRR, PLR) to ?
Let’s nail this one on the head so that we can avoid paying the $150 fees that AWEBER want to charge.
Anyone ?
Brad Smith
Guido,
This sucks. You asked about the Referral Notification and Sales Notification emails that get sent out by the scripts. Although these types of emails automatically fall under the CAN-SPAM act because they are generated from a commercial source. HOWEVER, they fall under a much less stringent section of the act which is entitled “Transactional or Relationship Messages”.
Pulled directly from the FTC website – ( http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm ):
A. The primary purpose of an email is transactional or relationship if it consists only of content that:
facilitates or confirms a commercial transaction that the recipient already has agreed to;
gives warranty, recall, safety, or security information about a product or service;
gives information about a change in terms or features or account balance information regarding a membership, subscription, account, loan or other ongoing commercial relationship;
provides information about an employment relationship or employee benefits; or
delivers goods or services as part of a transaction that the recipient already has agreed to.
All of that asside, I am sorry again to hear you got smacked by them. Its time for me to move too!
Best of luck,
Chad
Any fixes yet? Here is what I found on Aweber..
Submitting subscribers to AWeber via a server-side script (PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, etc.) is not permitted.
This also applies to any membership software or server-side shopping cart software that you may have installed on your site.
Why Not?
Whenever a subscriber adds to your list, we need to establish an electronic Audit Trail for that subscriber.
The audit trail is necessary to prove to ISPs that the subscriber did come to you and request your information. It helps us to ensure the best possible deliverability for your — and all of our customers’ — messages.
When a third-party script attempts to add subscribers (by forwarding generated information), we are unable to establish that audit trail, because we are not collecting subscriber information firsthand.
Because of that, accepting subscribers from a third-party form or script would pose a risk to our ability to get your — and all customers’ — messages delivered.
If we couldn’t get messages delivered, we couldn’t stay in business. We like staying in business. So, we don’t allow subscribers to be posted to AWeber from third-party forms or server-side scripts.
I’ve had trouble with aweber and integrating the signup since about 2008… it just didn’t seem to be possible to do it and I spoke to their Tech at the time and got the bum’s rush.
All the best … it’s not easy trying to make a few bucks is it
Hello
I have also had similar issues just recently with Aweber.
I had a Rant on my blog about my situation and i guess it Got Tom Kulzers attention because he stopped in on my blog and commented on my rant. Didn’t really give me much to go on. you can check it out by going here.. http://www.craigcaron.com/aweber-suspending-accounts-are-you-next.html
These people are pathetic – “we’re big and tough, we won’t bother letting you solve the problem, we’ll just shut you down”. Google-style arrogance – and as with Google, we should be voting with our feet and taking our business elsewhere.
Funny to see this from the company responsible for mountains of SPAM all over the net because they let themselves get hacked and their customers’ lists get downloaded.
These days I won’t sign up to an Aweber-hosted list without creating a new throwaway email address for it.
The CEO of Aweber is dishonest. Aweber deleted my account because they did not like some of the marketing ideas I discussed in my newsletter. Ridiculous. No warning, no attempt to work with their customer. The key is that Aweber is not being clear, not being consistent and is not willing to work with their customers in a straight forward manner. So you are never sure where you stand with them. Too bad they were a great service.
Aweber are a big joke.
Inside information: they are mass deleting all IM/bizop type lists. You’ll see thousands of people that have been shut down overnight… more coming up daily.
Poor explainations given when you’re terminated without notice after 6 years as a customer.
Sure they’re telling you they gave you notice and enough feedback about your ‘activities’ – but we’re not stupid and are all aware of the real truth, regardless of what they or Tom is saying in public.
Spread the word through blogs and Facebook and tell everyone to STAY AWAY from Aweber.
Good luck to everyone in finding a new solution.
After Aweber deleted my account with 450,000 subscribers they also said they have deleted ALL my data and therefore I can’t get a backup.
This data took me 5 years and a lot of money to build up.
Bloody Bastards.
I hate Aweber whole heartedly.
I just sent out a mail to 100,000 people using a different autoresponder telling them all about my experience with Aweber and that they should all stay away and use something else instead.
That’ll teach them.