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America Online E-mail Not Being Delivered
Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Posted: 21:15 PM (EST)
America Online [AOL] have implemented some of the most
aggressive
e-mail filtering
policies on the internet. Their intent is to reduce the amount of spam received
by their subscribers, free up server resources and reduce the time wasted opening
and disposing of spam.
While all of this is well intentioned, their e-mail filtering methods are
also filtering out legitimate mail. Like many others I have brought this
to the attention of the postmaster@aol.com. I filed a complaint some time ago
that our company does not spam anyone, that we are not on any blacklist, that
our servers are safe from unauthorized access and that our e-mail should
be allowed to pass. After speaking directly with one of their representatives
they assured me that our mail was indeed now getting through.
Well overtime
it seems that things have reverted back to their initial state. Once again our
mail is not being allowed to pass onto our AOL subscribers. And it isn't just
us, because many others are making the same complaint. For example, even if
an AOL subscriber were to give their e-mail address to a friend, there is no
guarantee the e-mail from that friend will make it past the AOL filters.
This
is the same thing as having a postal employee go through your mail by hand
to dispose of the junk for you but without your consent. The problem is that
if a legitimate letter was hidden within the folds of the junk flyers or had
the appearance of junk mail then it too would be tossed into the trash.
As an online application service provider and homepage host
we accept all ISP e-mail accounts in the registration process. Once the registration
is complete the new member then retrieves their password from their inbox and
logs in to begin using their subscribed service. If AOL does not allow our
mail to get through then the new client cannot login and is left wondering
why their login information was never delivered. This not only reflects
badly upon us, but impinges on internet commercial
activities and ultimately is counterproductive to our company's revenue
stream. We have now taken steps to proactively address this issue.
As a result we now restrict anyone
from registering for our services with an AOL e-mail account. We no longer
want to shoulder additional customer complaints that arise due to AOL
filtering policies.
We hope other service providers adopt this same restriction
on AOL account holders. Perhaps AOL subscribers will then take a closer
look at their ISP and ask themselves if overly aggressive filtering methods
and paternalistic internet service providers are actually worth it ... especially
if the subscriber cannot receive legitimate and requested mail.
If you are
receiving spam then call your ISP and request a new e-mail address, purchase
a new email address from a service provider or change to a different ISP. And
to keep your inbox protected do not publish your e-mail address or allow your
e-mail address to be published openly on the internet.
Ron Poole is the managing editor of Hair Say Headlines and Hair Say Newsroom.
Copyright 2005 Beauty By Us Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Hair Say Newsroom : RSS Feed Item15 _ July 13/05
