Important Contacts

When it comes to credit-based safelist marketing, one thing that many people over look is their contact email address inbox.

Oh, sure, they have one... but all too many delete everything in them, without so much as a quick glance. It seems they especially ignore emails from admins... Maybe it's because they assume that, like other programs, safelist admin emails are just another marketing pitch. And, frankly, it's true that many safelist admins DO tend to abuse their privilege. But not all.

The trouble is, a contact email address is also the ONLY way an admin HAS of contacting a member about his account... or to respond to a support ticket.

Read that line again. Because, in the last week, I have had three ridiculous support tickets-- all because the members did not read the response I sent to their contact email address.

The first was from a member asking about banner ads... I responded within minutes. About an hour later, I received a second ticket from the same member saying, "why haven't you responded? Don't you want my business?" I thought, "well, obviously, he didn't check his email... I'll give him a few minutes." Then I received a third email from this person saying, "Obviously, you do not take your business seriously, since you never responded to my question-- I am taking my business elsewhere."

I wondered if he ever checked his contact email address.

The next day, I received an email from a gentleman, asking why his pages weren't loading. He also said that he had sent a support ticket about this issue a week ago and I never responded and that if I did not respond within 24 hours, the subscription he had just started would be cancelled and he would complain to Paypal.

Now... I always respond to all support tickets immediately. However, since my answer was that his security settings were probably too high, so that his own browser would not allow the pages to load (which is a common problem with many of the newer computers), I assumed his email was probably filtering out my responses, too.

And, while you may think that's not his fault... all I can say is, "why is he using an email address that filters emails?" Sorry. But if he expects a response, it's up to him to provide an email address that works-- and to read the responses I send.

Plus, I did not appreciate being threatened and the assumption made immediately that the fault was mine. So, I went and refunded his money right away-- and sent an email to his paypal email address (maybe he'll read that one), as well as his contact address, answering his question and telling him not only how to fix his security settings, but how to cancel his subscription-- and letting him know that I HAD answered his email, but I couldn't read it to him, too!

There was another incident in which a member had broken the TOS, and I sent him a warning that he would lose his account if he did not stop the activity (posting the same message multiple times within a day). The next day, sure enough, he did the same thing. So I deleted his account-- at THAT point he sent me a support ticket, demanding to know WHY I had deleted his account.

Plus, inevitably, each time I clear off the in-active members, there is at least one person who writes, "why did I lose my account?" This, despite numerous reminders sent out that members must LOG IN to keep their account active...

People... if you're going to belong to a safelist, read the messages from the Admin. There may be some that use it (apart from solo ads, which are clearly marked) for promotion. But this is also the ONLY way an admin can contact a member directly when there's a problem with their account.

I really don't have much sympathy for these members. Why not? I belong to over 30 safelists and even more Traffic Exchanges. Each day, I go through all the emails from all of them-- I want to know what the admins are saying... I want to know about the specials they're running. But, obviously, all too often, members don't bother... not my fault.

I almost feel like running a really, really great special... like, "Free Upgrade For Life" just to see if anyone is watching.