Problems with Aweber Autoresponder

I wrote this post three months ago on my Best-Mlm-Opportunities site. But I am asked questions about autoresponders so often that I wanted to make it available here as well. Short version: My experience with Aweber was quite negative. Although I have no doubt that they are technically a very good autoresponder service, their very poor customer relations left me vowing to never use them again.

I have since switched to GetResponse and have been very happy with them.

Here is the original post:

28 November 2006 - Problems with Aweber - I just signed on with Aweber, a leading autoresponder service, about a month ago because they are recommended by so many people.

I had some initial frustration with their email templates, which do not save what you type yet also require you to log in again after an undetermined amount of time. You lose all you work after you are automatically logged off and you login in again.

I lost a lengthy email I had almost finished composing. If they had posted a warning I would have composed my text in Notepad and then copied-and-pasted into their form but I frankly didn't think of it because so many programs automatically save what you type, e.g., Gmail, or at least warn you about things like an automatic log off.

My biggest problem with Aweber occurred yesterday when I received an email in the morning indicating that my account had been permanently deleted because I violated their terms of service.

I had purchased subscribers to my ezine from Glen Hopkins' highly respected co-registration service. These were subscribers who specifically requested my e-zine and had double opted in to receive it.

It did not even occur to me that these subscribers could not be imported into the Aweber system. When I imported the subscribers I clearly identified them as subscribers obtained from Glen Hopkin's service

I had already submitted three batches of leads over three consecutive days when I received the form letter via email from Aweber yesterday. My account was indeed closed; I could not access it.

I called Aweber to express my dissatisfaction for not at least calling me to indicate that I had violated their terms. The gentleman with whom I spoke was polite and professional. He explained their policy and their desire to assiduously avoid any potential accusations of spam.

I said I could understand their position but I would have appreciated a phone call explaining that I had violated their terms before they abruptly closed my account; terminated my service; and erased the list of subscribers I had gathered thus far, in addition to autoresponder emails I had written.

I wrote Aweber today via email requesting that they send me the list of subscribers and the autoresponder messages I had stored on my account. They replied that once an account is closed that the subscriber list and messages are no longer available.

I asked if that meant if it was literally impossible to retrieve such data or if they simply were not willing to do so. The customer service representative would not answer that question but instead simply repeated that the data was "not available."

I wrote to Aweber:

I understand now that I violated Aweber's terms. However, at the time I purchased those subscribers and imported them into my Aweber account I had no idea I was doing something wrong.

After all, these were individuals who had--as I specified in my import note to Aweber--already double opted in asking specifically to receive my ezine. I did not hide the fact that they were purchased subscribers. Why would I? I didn't think I was doing any thing wrong.

It would have been so easy for you all to call me and say, "I'm sorry Dr. Worthen but you can't import these subscribers." I would have then understood the terms better; I would not import any more leads; and you would still have a generally satisfied customer.

Instead you closed my account without notice; you didn't even have the courtesy to call and tell me; and you then proceeded to erase the data in my account!

I just sent that email so I don't expect to receive a response until tomorrow or Wednesday (30 NOV 06). I'll update then.

UPDATE ( 07 DEC 06) - I received a response a few days later that repeated what they had said before. The response did not answer my question about why they refuse to send me my subscriber list and messages I had written.

Postscript (18 AUG 07) - I've now been using GetResponse for several months and have been very happy with their service.