Unfortunately, we just had to suspend another account because of SPAM.  You wouldn't believe the series of e-mail I've recieved from this one customer calling us "unfair."  UNBELIEVABLE!

This isn't the first time we've had to pull the plug on an account due to SPAM.  Since we explicitly warn against SPAM in the acceptable use policy (AUP) as every other hosting company does, and we always wait for the second offense before suspending the account, everyone who gets suspended for SPAM has been fairly warned.  This latest offense generated 3 separate complaints within a two week period.  After the first offense, we clearly communicated with the customer that the account would be suspended and the account would be fined if we saw another complaint.  Ensuring that we don't see any SPAM complaints is the customer's responsibility.

If I had been them, I would have either found a way to ensure no more SPAM was associated with my account, kept regular backups just in case, and/or found another hosting company so that I could move the account on my own time table.  You probably would have too.  But, you see, most of these guys who send SPAM don't see themselves as sending SPAM.  You wouldn't believe the justifications I've seen.

So, if you send bulk e-mail, let's make one thing perfectly clear.  If someone you send email to thinks it is spam and reports it.  If we get a spam complaint.  Then, regardless of what YOU think it is, we consider it SPAM and will treat it as such.

Here's the part I just have to shake my head at.

In most cases, the customer does not have a backup of there files.  How stupid is that?  You know you are at risk of ticking your vendor off to the point of terminating your account and you expect to be able to get the files off the server after the account has been suspended.  WHAT are they smokin'?

So, if you send bulk e-mail, here's another thing to get straight.  If your account gets suspended, for any reason, don't expect us to retrieve your files for you.

Now, let's address the question of being "unfair."  Obviously, no one likes having their account suspended or worse terminated.  But, we have a business to run here and quite frankly, having SPAM associated with our facility puts all of our accounts at jeopardy.  You see, this decision is not something we just made up, we have a supplier (who has a supplier, who...) well, you get the idea.  My supplier will terminate my account to protect his account.  His supplier will terminate him to protect his account.  So, I have to be ruthless in my treatment of SPAM so that none of my other customers suffer from the effects.  Am I being unfair?  Actually, what is unfair is that someone thinks they can make up their own rules even after agreeing to the AUP (everyone agrees to this when they sign up.)  If we did not protect our servers from being associated with spam in this way, our mail servers would be banned on other mail servers and our other customers would complain, correctly, about not getting the service they paid for.

Unfair?  I can understand people being upset.  But, after being warned that the account is at risk, I don't think we can reasonably be classified as being unfair.  Unfair would be terminating the account after one complaint.

Considering the fact that we have multiple post on the web site concerning SPAM, that we include the topic in the AUP, and that we don't terminate on the first offense, I think we are being more than fair.  If you have a problem with how we handle SPAM, don't bother signing up for an account.  You won't be happy and we don't need the trouble.  However, if you've been using another service provider that has had their email servers banned because they don't protect you from the effects of SPAM like we do, you'll want to sign up now.