The Ultimate Guide to Fixing and Preventing Aweber Bans
Do you want to remove an Aweber ban? Do you want to prevent an Aweber ban?
If so, keep reading. We’ll share secrets about Aweber’s banning process so you understand what you’re up against. Then, we’ll give you detailed info about fixing and preventing Aweber bans and suspensions. In all honesty, your options are limited when it comes to fixing an Aweber ban but we’ll get into the details later.
Let’s start with surprising facts about Aweber bans and suspensions.
Aweber Closes Accounts Without Warning
Aweber bans people without forewarning. This is true for new customers and long-term customers alike. Long-time Aweber user Slyfong opines, “To be honest, I'm very disappointed with Aweber. I've been using their service for... over 3 years now, and without a single word of notice, I (try to) log in one morning, [and] find my account TERMINATED.”
Aweber takes pride in not giving offenders any forewarning. Aweber’s anti-spam policy explicitly says, “Once we've made a decision, we act fast."
Aweber May Not Give Back Your Leads
If you’re banned on Aweber, you could lose all your data.
That’s exactly what happened to Slyfong who recounts, “Also, the guy on the phone told me they WOULD NOT send me a backup of my leads, which I find totally unacceptable. I don't have anything resembling a recent backup, as I never thought it to be necessary - I play by all the rules, spam count is always below 2.0, double opt-in from day 1, and I send my subscribers relevant content.”
Aweber May Give Back Your Leads
On the other hand, some marketers get their data back. Ryan Guina was an Aweber customer with 30,000 emails. He was banned in 2012 for violating the terms of service. Like Slyfong, he couldn’t even log in to his account. However, unlike Slyfong, he was sent his data in a ZIP file.
Aweber Doesn’t Give Suspensions
MailChimp often punishes senders by giving them the Omnivore Error, which is like a suspension. Omnivore can be removed by erasing the bad addresses from your email list. Unlike MailChimp, Aweber prefers to permanently ban customers who run afoul of their terms of service.
Aweber Bans Your Account and You
Here’s what an official Aweber email says, “We ask that you do not open a new account as we can no longer service your business.” In other words, Aweber isn’t just banning your account but you as well.
Aweber Responds to Banned Customers Slowly
The official exit email from Aweber says, “if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.” That’s a friendly posture, but former customers say communication is downtempo and plodding. Former Aweber customer Peng Joon, a client that lost a massive list of 500,oo0 names said, “I've sent them an email and am still waiting for a reply. Internet marketer Slyfong adds, “ I immediately launched a Live Chat with one Kristie, but her responses were slow and obviously scripted. I called their customer hotline and spoke with one Mark, and his responses were word for word whatever Kristie was copy/pasting me. In the end, I gave up and said I wanted to talk to their Best Practices Manager, who wasn't available but "promised," to give me a call back - I'm still waiting for that call.”
Aweber’s Terms of Service Permit Immediate Bans Without Warning
Peng Joon says this about Aweber, “Then again, I'm pretty sure in their TOS, it states that they can do pretty much whatever they want to my account.”
Peng hit the nail on the head. The Aweber terms of service (ToS) are not in the customers' favor. The ToS say that “sending unsolicited email is STRICTLY prohibited.” They add this behavior will result in the “immediate termination of your account without refund.” They also toss in that “Aweber is the sole arbiter as to what constitutes a violation.”
Aweber Has a Low Complainer Threshold
Aweber’s complainer threshold is 0.001%. Here’s are some numbers to help make that percentage more real.
1 complaint for every 1,000 people, 5 complaints for every 5,000 people, 20 complaints for every 20,000 people, 50 complaints for every 50,000 people, 100 complaints for every 100,000 people
Unchecked Spam Would Ruin Aweber
The top ESPs are companies such as MailChimp, GetResponse, and Aweber. These businesses stay on top because they have better email deliverability rates than their competitors. When ESPs send too much spam, they are flagged by ISPs, and their deliverability rates sink. When Aweber bans customers they announce via an exit email, “[you] have become too much of a risk to our sending reputation.”
Aweber Uses the Human Touch Instead of Automated Rules
Here’s what Aweber says about their banning process, “We don’t presume guilt. We investigate all potential spam incidents thoroughly before making a decision.”
Tom Kuzler, the CEO of Aweber, adamantly vocalizes this is indeed the case, “[Our guidelines] are applied with common sense and human review.
We're not just going to randomly cancel client accounts without a very good reason.
Aweber Thinks They’re Treated Unfairly by Dissatisfied Customers
After an internet forum got pretty heated about Aweber’s banning policies, Tom Kuzlak decided to strike back at dissatisfied customers. Here’s what he said, “Remember, what you're seeing here [is] from people who have had an account canceled. [It’s] only a small part of the bigger story.”
Of course, there are two sides to every story. Still, not letting banned customers access their data is draconian.
How to Fix Aweber Bans
We’ve discussed shocking facts about Aweber bans and suspensions. Now let’s delve into the practical. Let’s explore what can be done to remove and prevent Aweber bans.
Asking Nicely: The Only Way to Remove an Aweber Ban
Aweber hands out lifetime bans. Asking nicely is the only way to lift them.
On a mildly interesting side note, penalties are much more manageable on MailChimp. Their software (Omnivore) suspends people instead of banning them. Even better, there are easy ways to erase the suspension. We wrote an in-depth article on it called “The Beginner’s Guide to Fixing the Mailchimp Omnivore Problem.”
You can contact Aweber through phone, email, or live chat. On weekends only live chat is available. Here are the contact details.
Phone (USA): 1-877-293-2371
Phone (International): +001 215-825-2196
Email: help@aweber.com
Live Chat
How to Prevent Aweber Bans
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you’re worried about a ban from Aweber, here’s what you can do.
Use Three or More Autoresponders
As the idiom goes, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If three or more ESPs have your up-to-date data, you’ll be shielded from an unexpected Aweber ban.
Backup Your List Daily
Aweber allows you to download your list at any time (if your account is in good standing). If you download a fresh copy every day, you won’t have to worry about catastrophic data loss in the case of an unexpected ban.
Don’t Send Spam Emails- Even to Lists You Don’t Care About
The Oilman is an Aweber customer that had an email list full of cold leads. He was going to delete them but then he suddenly got a different idea. Here’s what he said about his cold leads,
“I mean, I am going to be DELETING them anyway -- so I was thinking of just trying to make a few bucks on them if possible.”
In other words, he wanted to mass mail the cold leads through Aweber. After all, someone may bite, and something is better than nothing.
However, that strategy is ill-advised. If you send irrelevant marketing messages to one list on Aweber, then Aweber may ban your entire account.
Don’t Use a Fake Address
The CAN-SPAM Act requires that every business displays a physical address in every email. If you’re a web entrepreneur or have a home business, you may be surprised to learn that Aweber posts your home address at the bottom of all your outbound emails.
Some people circumvent this by giving Aweber a fake address. Don’t do that because you can get banned. Instead, pay a nominal fee for a virtual postal address or a PO Box.
Use Email Verification Software
Aweber said they look at more than your complaint rate. So, how does Aweber really determine bans? They look at your list to see if it has following problems.
Spam Traps,Invalid MX Records,Invalid Domain, Invalid Syntax, High-Risk Keywords, Role-Based Addresses, Complainers
If you have too many emails with these problems, you’ll get banned. Fortunately, you can use email verification software to clean your list and remove these useless emails. It’s easy, quick, and tremendously accurate.
Final Thoughts About Fixing and Preventing Aweber Bans
Outside of asking nicely, you can’t do much about an Aweber ban. If you’ve been banned by Aweber, check out this list of top-rated email marketing services.
If you’re worried about an Aweber ban, remember to back up your data and join multiple ESPs. Also, use email verification software to proactively erase bad emails and keep your account in good standing.
If you have any questions about Aweber, I’d be glad to help. My name is Louk, and I’m the CEO of Bounceless. Email me at info@bounceless.com. I’ll personally answer your questions about Aweber, ESP’s, email verification software, or anything else you’d like to know.