Dreamhost and other hosting companies have effectively disabled Mail Merge

[RT Strategies]

I run a small polling business. Since 1993, I have been sending polling
information to clients, friends and colleagues about once a month.
People ask me to add them to the mailing list, and I do. People hit
REPLY and ask me to remove them from the mailing list, and I do. Over
15 years, the list, which I maintain as a Contact folder in MS Outlook,
has grown to 1,100 names. When I have interesting information to share,
I open a Word document, use Mail Merge, and send the note. In the past,
this took about 5 minutes. This worked with Dreamhost for as long as I
have used them, since October 2005. Suddenly this spring, Dreamhost
started blocking emails sent using Mail Merge. Upon inquiry, they said
I was limited to 200 emails per hour. With 1,000 names on the list,
that means what used to take 5 minutes would now take 5 hours. When I
tried it their way (breaking up the list into lists ranging from 94
names to 175 names) I still got QUOTA bouncebacks. When I questioned
them about blocking my emails this way, the response from Craig at
Dreamhost was, "First, I did not say that you could freely send 200
emails per hour however you saw fit.\" Huh? The hosting company tells
me how I can and cannot communicate with clients, friends and
colleagues? I have called a half-dozen other hosting companies, and
all reported the same new policy. In effect, the hosting companies
have disabled Mail Merge for small businesses like me. This must be
affecting others. Care to share your experiences?

 

[Tom [Pepper] Willett]

It's their way of helping combat spam.

:
: I run a small polling business. Since 1993, I have been sending polling
: information to clients, friends and colleagues about once a month.
: People ask me to add them to the mailing list, and I do. People hit
: REPLY and ask me to remove them from the mailing list, and I do. Over
: 15 years, the list, which I maintain as a Contact folder in MS Outlook,
: has grown to 1,100 names. When I have interesting information to share,
: I open a Word document, use Mail Merge, and send the note. In the past,
: this took about 5 minutes. This worked with Dreamhost for as long as I
: have used them, since October 2005. Suddenly this spring, Dreamhost
: started blocking emails sent using Mail Merge. Upon inquiry, they said
: I was limited to 200 emails per hour. With 1,000 names on the list,
: that means what used to take 5 minutes would now take 5 hours. When I
: tried it their way (breaking up the list into lists ranging from 94
: names to 175 names) I still got QUOTA bouncebacks. When I questioned
: them about blocking my emails this way, the response from Craig at
: Dreamhost was, "First, I did not say that you could freely send 200
: emails per hour however you saw fit.\" Huh? The hosting company tells
: me how I can and cannot communicate with clients, friends and
: colleagues? I have called a half-dozen other hosting companies, and
: all reported the same new policy. In effect, the hosting companies
: have disabled Mail Merge for small businesses like me. This must be
: affecting others. Care to share your experiences?
:
:
: --
: RT Strategies

 

[RT Strategies]

Yeah, I get that. I am not spamming anyone. I am fulfilling my promise
to add people who ask to my mailing list and to send them information
they might want to have. So.....who has a solution? After 15 years, I
am not interested in making all 1100 people report to a website, click a
link, give me permission to send them emails. Sheeeesh. There must be
others who have used Mail Merge successfully in the past, only to be
blocked this spring by new policies that cannot differentiate between
malicious spammers and people who innocently use Mail Merge. I am
looking for suggestions for finding a new hosting company that will not
block 1000 emails I send out by Mail Merge approximately once a month.

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

This is not Office/Outlook related. Take up the issue with your ISP. They are the ones who set limits and have policies for how many addresses can be included. Many ISPs offer a business plan or an exception plan (like for little league or charitable functions). Ask your ISP.

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact.
How to ask a question:
http://support.microsoft.com/KB/555375


After furious head scratching, RT Strategies asked:

| I run a small polling business. Since 1993, I have been sending
| polling information to clients, friends and colleagues about once a
| month. People ask me to add them to the mailing list, and I do.
| People hit REPLY and ask me to remove them from the mailing list, and
| I do. Over 15 years, the list, which I maintain as a Contact folder
| in MS Outlook, has grown to 1,100 names. When I have interesting
| information to share, I open a Word document, use Mail Merge, and
| send the note. In the past, this took about 5 minutes. This worked
| with Dreamhost for as long as I have used them, since October 2005.
| Suddenly this spring, Dreamhost started blocking emails sent using
| Mail Merge. Upon inquiry, they said I was limited to 200 emails per
| hour. With 1,000 names on the list, that means what used to take 5
| minutes would now take 5 hours. When I tried it their way (breaking
| up the list into lists ranging from 94 names to 175 names) I still
| got QUOTA bouncebacks. When I questioned them about blocking my
| emails this way, the response from Craig at Dreamhost was, "First, I
| did not say that you could freely send 200 emails per hour however
| you saw fit.\" Huh? The hosting company tells me how I can and
| cannot communicate with clients, friends and colleagues? I have
| called a half-dozen other hosting companies, and all reported the
| same new policy. In effect, the hosting companies have disabled Mail
| Merge for small businesses like me. This must be affecting others.
| Care to share your experiences? T

 

[RT Strategies]

I understand who is at fault here. That's why the headline says
Dreamhost and other hosting companies are the ones who are effectively
disabling important Office/Outlook functions unilaterally. What do I
mean by that? I described a typical business situation I face: An
international company asks me to conduct a poll in 121 countries. That
means about 15 people at headquarters plus at least one person in each
country for this client are involved in planning the project. That, in
turn, means I will often receive an email including everyone involved,
and be asked to hit REPLY ALL. I asked Dreamhost if they would block
that REPLY ALL email. Yes, no question, they said, they would block
that email. I also had a tech support guy named Craig at Dreamhost send
me this gem today:
\"I did not say that you could freely send ...emails ... however you
saw fit\"

Who are these people? I am now patiently working my way down the list
of PC Magazine's top ten shared hosting companies. Six have policies
like Dreamhost, restricting email traffic to the extent it makes it
impossible for my little business to act professionally with clients I
have served for over 15 years. Two appear to allow the one little thing
I'd like to do: Send an email once a month using MS Mail Merge to 1000
people on a list of clients and colleagues that I maintain. One is
HostGator. Anyone have an opinion of them? The other I won't
name--their sales people initially said I would have no Dreamhost-like
problems with them, but then when we had some specific questions, the
sales person sent us to tech support who said, \"We can't answer that
question today, all our engineers are out of the office.\" Did not give
me confidence in their customer support. If anyone has solved the riddle
of how to send 1000 emails using Mail Merge and a shared hosting
company, let me know.