A couple weeks ago Amazon threatened to ban me from sending mail through SES. tl;dr: After a couple rounds of me saying to them, "WTF are you even talking about", they relented!

This is not the outcome that I in any way expected.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. The changes you made to your email-sending processes have a positive impact [...] You can continue to use SES to send email as you normally would.

The changes I made were: none. They are referring to the none changes that I did not make.

Here's the whole dumb exchange, for those of you who find humor in such idiocy. Double-quoted HTML entities in the are their own; much inspire, very confidence.

We recently performed a manual review of your account's email-sending practices. During our review, we identified characteristics that could cause email providers or anti-spam organizations to classify your messages as spam.

The methods we use to make this decision are proprietary, so unfortunately we can't provide specific details. In general, we only perform manual reviews when our automated systems indicate that an account is sending unsolicited email.

Please review your email-sending practices and procedures to determine the causes of this issue. Common factors that could cause this issue include, but aren't limited to, the following: [...]

Well allow me to retort:

I use SES for two types of emails:

• Transactional emails in response to purchases;
• Promotional emails to customers who have opted in for such communication at the time of purchase.

To do so:

• My server supports SPF, DKIM and DMARC. I have verified that it is configured correctly.
• Every email contains RFC 8058 List-Unsubscribe headers, as well as clear unsubscribe links in the body of the message. And they work.
• Bounces are processed. Any address which bounces more than 3 times is never mailed again, unless they re-subscribe.
• No messages contain broken links.
• Message bodies contain links only to my own site.
• Every message is extremely clear about its purpose and content.

In summary, I am following every known customer-email best-practice that there is.

You said:

The methods we use to make this decision are proprietary, so unfortunately we can't provide specific details.

Ok, well, WTF am I supposed to do with this? If you won't even tell me what you think the problem is, how am I expected to correct it?

Then some flunky in a call center pasted a reply template:

Your appeal did not provide the information we need to make a decision.

To ensure that your mailing list only contains recipients who want to receive your emails, we recommend that you perform a "permission pass" on your existing lists of email recipients. In a permission pass, you ask your customers to confirm that they still want to receive emails from you. You should then remove all recipients who do not respond from your lists.

It's important that the sender of the email is clear and that your recipients know who is sending them email. If the email is not clearly branded and identifiable as being from the entity that the recipient signed up to get email from, recipients are likely to ignore your mail or mark it as spam. While reviewing your email-sending practices, we noticed that it is hard to tell who your mail is from. It is also recommended to include a disclaimer in your email which provides clarity to the recipients on why they are receiving these mails. SES requires that you clearly align the emails you send with your organization by following the best practices. After you make changes to your mail, please send additional volume with SES so we can ensure you are sending high quality content. For more information, see the following post on the AWS Messaging and Targeting blog:

You should only use Amazon SES to send email to recipients who have signed up and specifically requested to receive email from you. Mail sent to recipients that have not explicitly requested it can be classified by mailbox providers and anti-spam organizations as unwanted sending. Make sure that your mailing list only include addresses of recipients who signed up and agreed to receive your email. For additional information about Amazon SES list management best practices, please see:

Please reply to this message with your answers to the following questions:

-- What changes have you made to your systems or processes? Only include information about changes you have already implemented, not those that you plan to implement in the future.

-- How will these changes prevent similar issues from occurring in the future?

When we receive your response, we will continue to review your case. If we believe the changes you made will prevent this issue from occurring again in the future, we will end the review period for your account.

Thank you for contacting Amazon Web Services.

We value your feedback. Please share your experience by rating this and other correspondences in the AWS Support Center. You can rate a correspondence by selecting the stars in the top right corner of the correspondence.

Well allow me to retort:

To ensure that your mailing list only contains recipients who want to receive your emails, we recommend that you perform a "permission pass" on your existing lists of email recipients. In a permission pass, you ask your customers to confirm that they still want to receive emails from you. You should then remove all recipients who do not respond from your lists.

No, I'm not going to do that. As I said, all of my subscribers have opted in. 100% of them. I have never imported someone else's list or anything like that. These are all my customers, and they all have an unsubscribe button right there. I'm not going to auto-unsubscribe a bunch of them just becuase they happen not to be paying attention this week.

While reviewing your email-sending practices, we noticed that it is hard to tell who your mail is from.

What in the WORLD are you talking about?? Please show me an example of an email from me that you think makes it "hard to tell who the mail is from".

Every message -- every single one -- has a From address of either:

From: DNA Lounge no-reply@dnalounge.com or
From: DNA Lounge orders@dnalounge.com Explain to me what is unclear about that. I'll wait.

You should only use Amazon SES to send email to recipients who have signed up and specifically requested to receive email from you.

I am doing this. I have done this. For decades. Why are you wasting my time?

-- What changes have you made to your systems or processes? Only include information about changes you have already implemented, not those that you plan to implement in the future.

None, because nothing is wrong and you're talking nonsense.

-- How will these changes prevent similar issues from occurring in the future?

I cannot predict what nonsense you might talk in the future.

They... relented???

Hello,

We've made a change to the status of your Amazon SES account. These changes are outlined in this message.

NOTE

We only change your sending status in order to protect your reputation as a sender, and to ensure that other SES customers' ability to send email isn't impacted. We may pause your account's ability to send email so that you have time to address these issues. When you fix these issues, we'll restore your account's ability to send email.

IMPORTANT CHANGE IN YOUR SENDING STATUS

You're listed as the primary contact for AWS account [REDACTED]. We placed your SES account in the US West (Oregon) Region under review on 09-11-2024. The review period has ended because you resolved the issue before the end of the review period.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. The changes you made to your email-sending processes have a positive impact on your sender reputation among email providers.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

You can continue to use SES to send email as you normally would. Please keep in place any changes you made during this process. We'll continue to monitor your sending metrics. If we notice additional issues in the future, we may place your account under review or pause your account's ability to send email, in order to protect your reputation as a sender.

Yes, I will definitely keep all none of those changes in place. Thank you for your prompt attention in this matter!

Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.