| Author |
 Topic  |
|
JackFromSassie
Contributor
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
88 Posts |
 Posted - 06/16/2009 : 10:19:51 PM
|
If all of your SASSIE accounts have suddenly stopped receiving shop offers ... and keep getting shut off even after you turn them back on (most likely as a result of AOL automatically reporting the shop postings as mail and sending a demand to SASSIE to stop sending email to your account - see this Volition thread: http://forum.volition.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=69378&whichpage=2 )
.... we would like to offer the following two resources:
1) Our online form to collect your information to investigate the issue further AND to petition AOL to adjust their policy for mystery shop postings:
http://sassieshop.com/bnc.php?M=240&TP=7&S=10022&L=16579&C=610b70f6bd
2) And a FAQ/Tutorial page on how to use Gmail to receive SASSIE shop postings and auto-forward them to your current email address (i.e. AOL, Verizon, etc ..). Also includes instructions on how to add a new email address to Paypal and get a new MSPA certification code for a new email address)
http://sassieshop.com/site/do_not_email_guide
We need some volunteers to try using the Gmail workaround and report back here to let us know how it's working for you!
We appreciate everyone hanging in there with us on this one and we hope that this information is helpful. We're continuing to work with AOL to find a permanent resolution to this issue.
Best wishes,
Jack from SASSIE |
|
|
Deep South Tom
Contributor
Jackson, MS
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2009 : 7:25:31 PM
|
Fix your software. Don't ask customers to jump through hoops on a volunteer basis. Don't blame AOL...the auto shut off was designed into Sassie and can be designed OUT! Don't let your web designers hold you hostage or sell you a bill of goods.
The problem began when I didn't renew JS PLus. I was thinking about it but... |
Tom
MSPA Silver |
 |
|
|
Deep South Tom
Contributor
Jackson, MS
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2009 : 7:32:40 PM
|
"Hello.
This auto-generated email has been sent to let you know
that you should no longer receive Mystery Shopping shop-posting emails
at this email address.
This is because we received notification that you consider
the shop-posting emails to be 'spam'.
You can resume getting shop-posting emails by logging into
your Mystery Shopping account and enabling them.
Thank you."
....whoever wrote this gem into the Sassie program can write it out...enough said.
|
Tom
MSPA Silver |
|
|
|
Jodi Duffy
Member
USA
25 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2009 : 7:43:43 PM
|
This email deactivation is continual. It is costing me money. SASSIE is the only company/service that creates this problem, at least for me.
I don't have this problem with anyone else who sends email to me. I tend to agree with Tom. Workarounds for shoppers are not a solution. |
|
|
|
Deep South Tom
Contributor
Jackson, MS
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2009 : 8:09:28 PM
|
"We're buying a new server to send JobSlinger mails and miscellaneous mail from SASSIE companies - this way we can separate those emails from the shop posting emails."
Thanks Jack, I think you're wising up. Pointing fingers at AOL and not accepting blame is bad for business.
Why is MSPA not stepping in to help? Many of their members bought the faulty Sassie software and are cut off from their shoppers... |
Tom
MSPA Silver |
|
|
|
BeverBob
Valued Contributor
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
USA
128 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2009 : 10:08:40 PM
|
Sassie works fine with me, but of course, I don't use AOL.
AOL sux, in my book. They had a groovy idea at first, but something went haywire back about Win95 and has never been fixed - mystery shops or not.
That souped up jobslinger site has yet to load correctly here. |
Bob |
|
|
|
JackFromSassie
Contributor
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
88 Posts |
Posted - 06/18/2009 : 10:37:27 PM
|
Deep South Tom: With all due respect, your recommendation is completely unfeasible from a legal AND technical standpoint - ask any system administrator responsible for sending out millions of legitimate emails a day.
We would LOVE to remove the shut off function, BUT it would result in the following:
1) Legal action against SASSIE and the mystery shopping companies that use SASSIE for failing to comply with federal CAN SPAM regulations - when AOL says we have to stop sending email to a specific address, we have to do it. End of story.
2) Complete blocking of ALL SASSIE Email to ALL shoppers using AOL email - AOL simply won't tolerate a company that continually ignores its demands - they'll just shut if off completely and that's not good for shoppers, mystery shopping companies, or us!
SASSIE has over 1.5 million shoppers, the vast majority who use it flawlessly day in and day out. At its peak, about 30% of the shoppers used AOL - now that number is around 10-15% and dropping.
To be perfectly honest, we could simply just leave AOL shoppers to their fate and we'd be FINE - instead we're investing hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars towards improving the situation.
In the meantime I personally devoted a week of my time (including nights and weekends) researching, documenting and posting a possible workaround for AOL shoppers because I feel terrible that you folks are having trouble and I wanted to provide you some immediate options while we continue to work on the situation.
I totally understand if you choose to not try the workaround, but if this reaction is indicative of what I can expect from AOL shoppers for my efforts, perhaps I should have invested my energies elsewhere?
Believe it or not, we ARE trying to do the right thing.
Jack from SASSIE |
|
|
|
CorrieS
Star Contributor
Briarwood, NY
USA
767 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2009 : 11:07:07 AM
|
Jack, I don't understand how having the Sassie emails sent from another account will stop them being marked as spam. Let's say I create a Gmail account, joeschmo@gmail.com . Those get forwarded to my AOL account, which now sees 100+ emails a day coming from joeschmo@gmail.com . Won't they just get marked as spam and cause the same problem? I'm trying to understand before I go through the trouble.
And what happens when my 1-month free trial to Jobslinger Plus expires and this happens again? It seems like I will have to sign up for JobslingerPlus just to use this workaround.
Maybe I'm just not getting it. |
Corrie S.
MSPA Silver Certified
shopping NYC & Nassau County... and willing to travel... |
|
|
|
JackFromSassie
Contributor
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
88 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2009 : 12:11:34 PM
|
CorrieS,
You bring up some very good questions.
The reason the workaround should work is that AOL is not about to block the "gmail.com" domain (or technically speaking, the IP addresses associated with the "gmail.com" domain) - they'd be putting themselves out of business.
Also, Gmail's "IP reputation" is very solid (it's one of AOL's biggest criteria for spam blocking)- SASSIE is just vulnerable to a percentage of our 1.5 million shoppers not liking certain job postings (or just dropping out of mystery shopping altogether) and marking it as spam and hurting our IP reputation. So as long as YOU don't mark the forwarded messages as spam, your individual account's settings should stay friendly to joeschmo@gmail.com!
Also, you totally do NOT need JobSlinger Plus to do the workaround - it just speeds things up if you have lots of SASSIE accounts to update to the new email address, Get Shop Offer Setting, MSPA cert, etc ..).
Ideally, if the workaround works for you, you won't need to ever switch those settings again, so you shouldn't need JobSlinger Plus to speed up the switching.
Bottom line: if you don't have dozens of SASSIE accounts, don't sign up for JobSlinger Plus ONLY to assist with the workaround - it's not necessary, and frankly, we don't want people paying for JobSlinger PLus for that reason only (dependency is a good business model for drug dealers, but NOT for software programmers!) - there are many other better reasons that JobSlinger Plus is catching on so quickly. |
|
|
|
Debbo
Star Contributor
Charlotte, NC
USA
267 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2009 : 2:04:41 PM
|
I spotted the "spam" email in my inbox a couple of nights ago, and dreaded the process of getting everything back to normal. With Jack's delightfully detailed instruction sheet at hand, I was back in business more quickly than I would have thought possible. Jobslinger, too, was a boon.
The fact that you can configure your Gmail settings to forward every message direct to one's original AOL address (or anywhere else) had escaped me. This clever hint will make tracking follow-up from shops so much easier and more reliable, too.
Thank you, Jack! |
Debra
MSPA Shopper of the Year 2009
Video shopping in the Carolinas and throughout the US |
|
|
|
KimE
Member
NY
USA
29 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 10:56:54 AM
|
| I have been receiving this shut off e-mail every few days now. I am so annoyed. |
Kim
Gold Certified
Step level 8 and trying
Shopping Long Island |
|
|
|
JackFromSassie
Contributor
Boston, Massachusetts
USA
88 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 12:01:44 PM
|
Debbo: You're welcome! I'm glad you were able to get the workaround up and running in a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully that will be the end of your AOL vs SASSIE problems.
----
In less happy news, we spent the last two weeks working our way through AOL's process for getting "whitelisted" and got the following response to our application:
Your Whitelist request, with the confirmation code [xxxxxxxxxxx],
has been denied.
Please review our sender best practices for tips on improving your IP’s reputation, and examine your mailing list(s). After you have established a good new 30 day mailing history, please feel free to resubmit your request.
Essentially it appears they're telling us that we need 30 days where practically no shopper reports any of the millions of shop postings we send each month as spam - that's pretty near impossible.
So to all of you who have been telling us to just "fix it" and "stop blaming AOL": WE TRIED!
We'll keep working with AOL and see if we can get them to change their mind in 30 days.
I've also sent a request in to AOL to see if shoppers can do anything to their accounts on their end to "personally whitelist" SASSIE emails (i.e. always let SASSIE emails go through, regardless of what the global AOL policy is). I'll let you know if we get a response (AOL's form explicitly says "We don't guarantee a response"!).
In the meantime, keep filling out the AOL petition and letting me know if the workaround worked for any more of you!:
http://sassieshop.com/bnc.php?M=240&TP=7&S=10022&L=16579&C=610b70f6bd
Best,
Jack
|
|
|
|
DeniseSC
Member
USA
28 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 1:12:54 PM
|
I still don't understand why, if sassie can change the settings for all of the individual shopping companies to no mail why there can't be a fix that we shoppers can access to turn all of the companies back to receiving mail without the time consuming process of going through each one. It seems as if that would solve everything.
I have had aol for 12 years with the same email address and use it with all of my shopping companies. As another shopper stated, sassie is the only program that continually shuts me out. I don't have this problem with Prophet.
Denise in SC |
|
|
|
KimG
Star Contributor
Orlando, FL
USA
589 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 1:45:47 PM
|
| Once again, I got the dreaded "you're shut off" email. This is extremely frustrating, and I feel that if Sassie can shut off ALL of our emails at once, the should be able to turn them all ON at once. This is ridiculous, and you will lose valuable shoppers who will get frustrated and give up. |
Kim
silver certified njtwnf |
|
|
|
KimG
Star Contributor
Orlando, FL
USA
589 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 2:05:34 PM
|
| So I just did a live chat with AOL, and they told me to change my spam settings to "allow email from all senders." I did that, and we'll see how well that goes. |
Kim
silver certified njtwnf |
|
|
|
CabrusoBros
Star Contributor
NC
USA
744 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 2:43:58 PM
|
Yes, I would be interested in a petition. No, I would NOT be interested in having to set up yet another email account and do some dance to get emails from that account forwarded to my AOL. Nor should I have to then deal with a PayPal update. My AOL email that I have had since 1999 is the email which I have always used for shopping and I would prefer it to stay that way.
As I have asked many times before, why SASSIE has an all or nothing cut off button, but cannot do the same in reverse befuddles me. Why AOL suddenly THIS year identified SASSIE as spam worthy of being officially blocked without so much as an 'are you sure' request? I have been receiving emails from SASSIE to my AOL account since at least 2001 with companies like BAI and CSE. Trust me, if I didn't want the emails, I'd remove myself!
Please continue working with AOL. Thank you. |
|
|
|
Deep South Tom
Contributor
Jackson, MS
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 4:10:35 PM
|
Debbo,
How smooth was the process of changing your MSPA certification and e-mail address with all of your other non-Sassie MSP's?
Jack,
Perhaps you can rally all of the Sassie companies to focus/limit their e-mails for a specified 30 day period. Many of them send every listing in every state to me and I assume most other shoppers. I get 10 to 15 e-mails daily from Sassie companies about jobs outside my state. Sometimes the same shop shows up 15-20 times a month. I understand and respect their reasons, but I also see why some newbies and casual shoppers may hit the "this is spam" button.
Just an idea... |
Tom
MSPA Silver |
|
|
|
Matt H.
Apprentice
Mentor, OH
USA
3 Posts |
Posted - 06/23/2009 : 6:51:13 PM
|
| I believe like a previous post that the problem stems from downloading the JS Pro. If you decide to not renew after your 30 day free trial, they are stopping all email's from all your Sassie companies. |
Matt Hamsher |
|
|
|
MartyL
Trainee
Orange Park, FL
USA
7 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2009 : 08:23:25 AM
|
| Matt H: There is NO connection between JS Pro and the email shutoff according to AOL. I had mine shut off and never had JS Pro, and I am a paid subscriber to AOL. I spoke with AOL Tech Department and was told that it had to do with the amount of people who had indicated that they had received Spam from the Sassie address. I think that Jack from Sassie has gone to extraordinary lengths to resolve the problem and it appears that he continues to do so. What would happen if all 10 - 15% of shoppers that use AOL (approximately 225,000 by Jacks count) sent an email to AOL indicating they do not consider the Sassie shop emails as spam and specifically want them???? |
|
|
|
KellyinKaty
Apprentice
Katy, TX
USA
4 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2009 : 10:23:28 AM
|
Kim,
Accepting all emails will accept all emails that are sent to you, but Sassie will not be sending any to you because they stop sending to all AOL accounts at once.
After turning all of my Sassie email notifications back on yesterday, they just got shut off again today.
My solution: I'm NOT changing my certification email because it invalidates your current certification code and you have to start with a brand new one. I AM contacting each of the companies and telling them that I am changing my email address so that I can receive their emails, because Sassie keeps shutting off the notifications. The companies that are with Sassie will no longer recognize my certification because the new email will not match up. I'll be an uncertified shopper with those companies... |
|
|
|
Deep South Tom
Contributor
Jackson, MS
USA
73 Posts |
Posted - 06/24/2009 : 11:48:47 AM
|
Kim, Corrie, Denise, Cabruso, Matt, Marty, Kelly,
If you haven't signed Jack from Sassie's petition to AOL, you can reach it through the links in his last few posts. It was painless to fill out, and I think it's a step towards progress here. |
Tom
MSPA Silver |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
Workaround for AOL/SASSIE GET SHOP OFFER EMAIL getting shut off