Dear <<FIRST_NAME>>,

Thank you for ordering Site Build It!.   Please print this page and keep it for future reference (use your browser's Print function -- do not use special utilities to print this page).

For your records, here is your ORDER NUMBER...

#pop.order-id#

Use your ORDER NUMBER whenever you correspond with us concerning Site Build It!. We'll be able to help you much faster.

We have just sent you an e-mail. Its subject is Get Ready for Site Build It!. It confirms this order and provides downloading and other information to get you up and running. It also serves as your receipt, should you need one. We sent this e-mail to the following address...

<<CUSTOMER_EMAIL>>

Unfortunately, because you have an MSN or Hotmail address, you likely will not receive this e-mail. (Microsoft has confirmed to us that it is filtering out our post-order e-mails.)

If you do not receive this e-mail within 30 minutes, please call us at 1-877-999-6977 (leave a message after office hours) or complete the Customer Support form (we reply within hours) at....

http://support.sitesell.com/contact-support.html

Please include the following information in your phone or e-mail message...

1) Microsoft has blocked you from receiving your post-order e-mail.

2) Your Order Number is...

#pop.order-id#

3) Provide a non-Hotmail, non-MSN e-mail address. Please double-check for typos. If you leave a phone message, please spell your e-mail address clearly. If you want to use a free, Web-based address, Yahoo! Mail receives our e-mail without problem (as does everyone else).

We will change your e-mail address in our database and re-send your Get Ready for Site Build It! e-mail right away.

Sorry for this bother. This is not our fault. Microsoft knows this is a post-order, transactional e-mail. They know that you want it. It appears that you cannot even "safe list" it.

We are not on any Microsoft black list because we do not spam. Yet our post-order e-mails are being filtered, and they refuse to let it through. The full background story is explained in the P.S. below.

Here is the important bottom line...

The Get Ready for Site Build It! e-mail contains important information that will get you up and running. So let's start your journey on a better foot by sending it to another e-mail address.

Please call or e-mail us now.

Wishing you great success,

President, SiteSell.com
 

P.S. We at SiteSell.com do not spam. We don't come close to spamming.

Transactional e-mail (i.e., the confirming, post-order e-mail that is sent after a purchase, with download instructions, receipt etc.) is regarded by all who are concerned about spam as the golden mail that you have a right to receive.

Despite this, we recently discovered that our transactional e-mail is being blocked by Microsoft, both at Hotmail and MSN. However, messages from their server always indicate that this mail is "successfully queued for delivery." This misleading message made us falsely assume that everything was OK.

In reality, it is not. Because we did not receive bounce-backs, our bounce-receiving technology could not raise the alarm. Fortunately, a number of our Hotmail-using customers started to call and ask...

"Where's my Get Ready for Site Build It! e-mail?"

Testing confirmed that none of our transactional e-mail was making it through to Hotmail/MSN users. So we tried to contact Microsoft. After many unanswered e-mails and phone call attempts, and rising frustration and panic, we finally got through to an MSN support person.

Microsoft was cooperative, escalating us through various levels. Their staff finally verified that we are not running afoul of any policies that would put us on a black list (based on their investigation of our painstakingly-compiled information -- we fully co-operated with all of their requests).

Furthermore, again based on all the information we provided, we were pleased when they identified the root cause of the problem...

MSN and Hotmail deploy a filtering system "to stop unsolicited e-mail."

No problem, we figured. We had already demonstrated that this is transactional e-mail... the most-solicited of all e-mail. It was highly wanted by you, our mutual customer. So we suggested that Microsoft whitelist that e-mail. We thought that we were all set!

Wrong.

Here was Microsoft's reply (word-for-word, unedited).

Key points from that letter...

1) "the message in question has been blocked by an MSN Hotmail filter deployed to stop unsolicited e-mail."

REPLY: This mail was HIGHLY solicited -- by you.

2) "...our #1 goal is pleasing our customers"

REPLY: Are you pleased?

3) "Microsoft does not have an obligation to deliver any particular e-mail message."

and...

"Microsoft reserves the right to not deliver any e-mail message sent to any MSN Hotmail user for any reason."

REPLY: How does this philosophy correlate with their "#1 goal of pleasing customers" outlined in point 2?

4) We must pay Bonded Sender if we want our mail to be delivered. (Bonded Sender is a company that bonds e-mail senders. E-mail from these senders is allowed to get through the spam filters of any company that has an agreement with Bonded Sender.)

REPLY: Considering Microsoft's clear disclaimers (in their letter to us) that they are evaluating the Bonded Sender program and could drop it at any time, and considering that we are not doing anything wrong, and considering that this is the highest order of solicited e-mail, we elected not to pay the $375 application + $500 bond + $500/yr. We may very well, in the future, after this issue is resolved, and if Bonded Sender hits "critical mass" -- it just seems like good business to us. But right now, bigger issues of principle are involved.

We experimented with our only other option... changing the content of the e-mail. But we would have had to butcher its contents to make it pass the filter. Of all the filters that exist in this world, it is hard to understand why this e-mail is eliminated only by Microsoft.

Clearly, I will not compromise the quality of our first message to you, a new Site Build It! owner. It is too important to get you started properly.

So the only option left is to ask you to send us a non-Hotmail, non-MSN e-mail address if you do not get your Get Ready For Site Build It! e-mail within 30 minutes.

Questions that we can't answer...

If a transactional piece of e-mail cannot get through, what does?

Why can't our mail be allowed through the filter when the e-mail is of the highest order (transactional), is wanted by the customer, and the error lies with the filter?

Why can't you, the Hotmail or MSN customer, specifically indicate that you want this e-mail by adding it to your HotMail "Safe List"?

What was the point of us working so hard to help Microsoft if the most benign situation cannot be reversed?

Why would Microsoft spend so much time investigating and then not spend one minute to whitelist this e-mail?

The only answer that we can see...

We feel that we are being pushed to use Bonded Sender. There is no other reasonable explanation. After spending so much time together to identify the problem and so much back-and-forth after that, all that remained was for a Hotmail tech support person to take a few more seconds to whitelist this e-mail (or simply permit you to whitelist it via their "Safe List" tool).

We could not believe what is happening. So we contacted Microsoft once again. We asked Microsoft to confirm that they had considered these two quick and viable solutions. We also wanted to know whether we had any other options or not. And finally, we asked them directly to open a "hole" and let your e-mail through.

Here was Microsoft's reply (this time we've edited out all the copy-and-paste boilerplate information).

Microsoft refuses to allow you to get mail you want, and not just any mail... transactional mail.

Why have we gone to all this trouble to explain this situation? Because it's natural to think that the "smaller company" must be doing something wrong in a case like this. I assure you that we are not at fault. I hope that we have demonstrated it beyond any shadow of a doubt.

For more information, contact MSN Customer Service at...

(800) 386-5550

More options to communicate with them are available at... http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;Prodoffer01&sd=GN#faq1398