The War Between Spammers and ISPs/Mail Services
We support fully the anti-spam motivations of all ISPs and mail services. But hundreds of thousands of good e-mails are wrongly blocked daily. It's so common, ISPs and mail services have a term for it... "false positives." (In a war, it's called "collateral damage.")
False positives occur due to a near-infinite combination of reasons, that usually involve some combination of the following...
- filtering e-mail is extremely complex and "false positives" are inevitable, even in the hands of the most sophisticated and best intentioned
- ISPs can set the tightness of the net of the filter, resulting in a higher "false-positive" rate -- the overzealous ISP catches more tuna, but also catches more dolphins by mistake
- honest marketing companies can become "accidental dolphins" in a variety of way... using words in their e-mails that trigger filters by mistake (ex., "income"), having affiliates who do something wrong without their knowledge, having too many inactive e-mail addresses in their list of customers, sabotage by unethical competitors, etc., etc., etc.
- some filters are run by unfair, vigilante groups who are actually more anti-business than anti-spam, and too quick to "shoot first and never ask questions."
Yes, "false positives" are so common that ISPs and mail services take it for granted. But we don't. And our word for "false positive" is "mistake." After all, if you think about it, here's the bottom line...
1) You want an e-mail from Hypnosis Download whether that be an order, subscription, or response to a request for support.
2) Hypnosis Downloads sends the requested e-mail.
3) Your ISP or mail service mistakenly filters it out.
4) You do not get the mail that you want.
Not great. It's a mistake. But on the other hand, your ISP or mail service is trying to protect you from spam. So...
As long as you can whitelist yourself and receive the mail you want, there's no real damage done. We all have to put up with some inconvenience to fight spam, as long as the ISPs are doing their most to keep your inconvenience, and ours, to the "necessary minimum."
What worries us the most? We worry that you might think that somehow we here at Hypnosis Downloads are at fault, especially if you have trouble whitelisting yourself (Hotmail is notoriously ineffective at whitelisting, or "safelisting" as they call it).
We're not at fault. We are "false positives," collateral damage in the war between spammers and filters. And you, unfortunately, are stuck here in the cross-fire with us.
If you have trouble whitelisting, contact your ISP or mail service's help by e-mail, Web form, or best of all directly by phone. But beware...
Your ISP or mail service may even try to convince you that somehow we are to blame (we know that some do, because our customers and affiliates have told us). It's far easier to blame us, or to say "it's at the other end," than it is to admit they are failing their fundamental obligation to deliver the mail.
If they refuse to accept responsibility, cut to the chase and remind them of the fundamental, common-sense, sequence of events...
1) You want an e-mail from Hypnosis Downloads, whether that be an order, subscription, or response to a request for support.
2) Hypnosis Downloads sends the requested e-mail.
3) Your ISP or mail service filters it out.
4) You do not get the mail that you want.
Ultimately, war or no war, it is the DUTY of the ISP to deliver the mail. That is the level at which the above sequence is breaking down.
And it is as simple as that. So...
Ask them, one final time, to whitelist you. We are sending the e-mail you want to the address you indicated. So it's up to your ISP or mail service to deliver the mail.
You may not be able to whitelist for one or more reasons...
1) Your ISP will not do it -- bad ISPs may make up all kinds of excuses, or even blame us, but the bottom line is that they are not delivering e-mail that YOU want. Period.
2) You can't get their support group to tell you how to whitelist. Either they don't answer you, or they dance around the question, or deflect blame.
3) They don't provide the tools to whitelist, or the tools don't work. For example, the "safe list" at Hotmail does not work when you want to permit an address through their filter.
4) Your ISP responds to a whitelist request BY TURNING OFF THE SPAM FILTERS COMPLETELY. That's like asking someone to put a gate in the high wall around your house and the reply is... "Sure, we'll just take the ENTIRE wall down." Allowing spam is an irresponsible and self-focused response to a valid request -- it merely turfs the problem back onto the customer, which is an unacceptable reply. Do not accept this poor proposition.
There is only one good reason not to whitelist, and that is to block known spammers. We don't spam. We never have.
And you want this mail.
So if you cannot whitelist Hypnosis Downloads, consider these two inarguable truisms...
- It is your basic right to receive e-mail that you want.
- It is the fundamental obligation of your ISP or mail service to deliver mail that you want.
No matter what the reasons for not whitelisting, it all boils down to the same thing. You have a bad ISP who is not fulfilling their obligation to you. You won't get what you want with an ISP like that.
ISPs who are sloppy with "false positives" don't care about the innocent companies caught up in the filters like dolphins in a tuna net. But worse, if they won't whitelist e-mail that you want, they don't care about you, their supposedly valued customer.
So what to do??
1) Complain by sending an e-mail to "abuse@" and "postmaster@" followed by the domain (ex., if you are using an address@hotmail.com, send your complaint to abuse@@hotmail.com and postmaster@@hotmail.com). Mail to those addresses has an excellent chance of being seen. You might not get a reply, but regardless, it is important to register a complaint when a company does not deliver the service for which you contracted.
2) Enter a different e-mail address into our contact form, and e-mail your question to us again.
We are sincerely sorry for this bother. This is not our fault. If your ISP won't whitelist us, and instead tries to confuse the issue or say bad things about us, please ask them to cc us. We have nothing to hide and are being very open about it -- we'll see if they are, too. If they refuse to cc us, please send us a cc of their communication.
No matter what they may say to make us look bad, it's really very simple...
We sent the mail. You want the mail. It is the obligation of your ISP/mail service to deliver it, no matter what they say.
Switch providers. And let them know why.
