Thank You Monkey Mail

Jan 30, 2020

F ree

R eally

E quals

E xpensive

This has been a crazy month filled with angst, thank you Monkey Mail.

Sincerely, I thank Monkey Mail for almost 5 years of continuous service. Since May 2015 I have utilized Monkey Mail to send out my 5 Acre Arts newsletter, like clockwork, on the 1st of every month. No problems with the product. Software reasonably easy to work with. Good reporting and logistics for my business needs. The only advertising was a Monkey Mail logo at the bottom of my newsletter, otherwise their product and service was FREE.

I had a good ride and now it’s over!

At 6:53am on January 1st, when my January 2020 Newsletter should have gone out, Monkey Mail decided to quarantine it instead. Yep, the (oh so important to me and my 5 Acre Arts business) newsletter promoting my TWO new classes, TWO art venues, and my participation in the Arizona Sage Art Marketplace. Alas, no newsletter left the building. FREE has become (for me) an acronym, Free Really Equals Expensive, because of what this little drama has cost me in lost time and potential business revenue.

Why is my Monkey Mail account quarantined??

To this date, a month later, I still don’t know.

And just an FYI,

FREE service from Monkey Mail DOES NOT come with any way to contact the service provider. No email, no chat, no phone, zip, zero, NADA. Do they know how frustrating it is to have my monthly communication vehicle held hostage and no way to find out why and fix it?

Here are the on-screen messages I received, and when I clicked on the links, it was a loop from one message to the other. No resolution. No way to resolve. I was given one opportunity to “contact compliance” and then the link was greyed out. I read and re-read their “Acceptable Use Policy”, no obvious abuse there.

“Someone will be in touch with you soon.”

Monkey Mail, I’m still waiting for someone to reach out and let me know what the problem is. In the meantime, just so you know, I did actually consider paying for your service. Wouldn’t it be lovely to be able to “chat” with someone 24/7? BUT, When I tried to “upgrade” my account, I received a message that I couldn’t continue because of my current account status, AND still no way to contact you. ARRGH. Talk about Catch 22. So frustrating.

During the last 3 weeks, I spoke with other companies and my mail service provider about my predicament, who all confirmed my account is not “black listed” anywhere. Thank goodness. We decided to move our mail to a more secure system (better safe than sorry) AND now I have a NEW email/newsletter program and provider, with 24/7 help by phone.