It is just mail5 that is having an issue right now with comcast, others have had issues in the past and it somewhat skews the “comcast complaints” because of the number of mail servers we have in place.
Again,
I realize that not all of this is within your control. But, my client used to host with their local ISP. They NEVER had this problem and they NEVER had a Spam problem with their other host.
Now they host with me (for about 2 months now) and they are getting dumped on with Spam on a daily basis!
In addition, they are getting 2-5 Mailer Daemon reports per day telling them that their outbound emails are being blocked!
They have customers telling them that they are not receiving their original emails OR their replies!
They are contacting me daily to complain! All I can do is keep on telling them that everything seems to be working on my end and I can’t figure out what could be wrong! I’ve explained over and over to them that sometimes emails get blocked by other servers and that there is nothing I can do about it!
But you know what? When it comes right down to it, they could care less what my explanations really are! They can care less about Spam! They can care less about ANY excuses I give them because the bottom line to them is - make it work without a hitch!
If they had no problem with their previous host and now they are having a ton of problems with me, the only thing they can do is jump ship! And that is exactly what they are now doing!
As I said earlier, this is number two in one week.
So, I understand the viewpoint Jodohost is taking with this problem from a business standpoint. But unfortunately, your viewpoint doesn?t do me or my customer’s any good.
I have to start searching for another solution before I end up losing all of my customers. It is much easier for my clients to switch back to their previous hosts than it is for me to switch to another company to resell through. But I can no longer continue to lose clients like this! It is killing my business which predominately is web site development. The hosting is just a value-added service I offer to my clients.
I either have to stop hosting their sites or switch hosts myself. But whatever I do, I have to do it fast!
Again, I am not directing my obvious anger at you personally Stephen, but I am upset because I can’t get any answers that are helping me to deal with my client.
When I hear from Jodohost that there is nothing you can do, and subsequently I say the same to my client, they have a very simple reply for me! It is:
“OK! We understand! We’ll move back to our original host then! Please have it done today!”
I just have to find a real answer to give them, but I am afraid there isn’t one! X(
Cap’n,
It would be good if we could keep this in the other topic, it was in customers only and we moved it to public access area even, we are not hiding anything but it is all the same issue.
It is also something that is affecting all, even ISPs and such, and sadly with lack of legislation from our government in the US will get worse and worse as Verizon, AT&T, Level3 and Comcast start segmenting off their networks from the rest unless people are willing to pay, this will start in the coming years not just being email but websites as well. I am going to merge these topics.
Would also like to note, we are not doing nothing about it we are spending a LOT of time and effort on it and about to spend very substantial amounts of money on a monthly basis for a commercial service availibility.
Stephen,
I originally posted this in the Reseller Support Forum. I assumed that Reseller Support was what it says it is. I am not sure what you mean when you say you moved it. It still seems to be in the same place.
Anyway, I have a question for you. Is it possible to move a clients emails to a different mail server? The clients that I have on mail3 don’t seem to be having a problem with blacklisting, but mail5 does. Is there a way to move them from mail5 to mail3 and if so, how do I do it?
Thanks!
Cap’n, there is no way to move it to mail3, and it does not solve the issue it only moves the issue, so it is not a good practice. I moved the topic but left a permenent redirect for you in the other thread 
Ok, sorry about posting this in the wrong place.
If I can’t move the mail from 5 to 3, then, is there a way for Jodohost to get unblacklisted from the Comcast server? I know that isn’t the only one blocking emails from Jodohost, but we have to start somewhere.
I just spoke to my client for almost an hour. They are very angry, but I have managed to calm them down to some extent. I did this by telling them I would try to find an answer as to why their emails are not being sent.
What can I do in that regard, so I can finally tell them it will work again? Any suggestions?
We have been unlisted from comcast, then relisted then unlisted, all for no legit reason. We are still working on it.
Hey Cap’n Code…
I have had some good interaction with Yash on this topic, and I will concur with Stephen that Jodo is really trying to do something (although details may be hazy). Check out the part of this thread before yours was added to it…
That said, I, like you, offer hosting only as a value for my real business, web design. I have been discussing options with my partners as to what to do when a client wants to jump ship.
- We try to build personal relationships with our clients – get them to trust us. They are more willing to listen to our options and the reasons for the issues (in the case of Comcast, a significant portion of blame lies on Comcast policies, while some lies on Jodo’s filtering capabilities) if they trust us.
- If they say they want to leave, our first reaction will be to empathize with them, but let them know that there is NO SUCH THING as an ISP with no spam and no email issues. Even if they run their own mail server, problems arise. Offer workarounds (you can send from gmail, with replyto being [email protected]). Show them documentation on problems others have – I mentioned it before, let your client google ‘mail blacklist comcast’ – it is not exclusively an issue here.
- Tell them what Jodo is doing. This is where I think Jodo is really lacking – we don’t have a solid understanding of what Jodo is doing for us, so we cannot relay that our clients. Maybe a project list somewhere with goals. I think the fact they respond quickly on the forums is great and we can pass that along.
- Sign up with a different hosting company. For example, I have an old account at webhost4life – if I had a design client tell me he won’t host here anymore, I would tell him I would be happy to move his site elsewhere, and suggest WH4L, or anywhere the client wanted to go – like you mentioned, hosting is not our bread and butter.
- Post, post, post. If we don’t tell Jodo we are having problems, and if we don’t do it together, how are they to know? I would encourage you, as you peruse posts, to reply, “I have that problem, too” – that shows Jodo we think it needs to be dealt with.
well, that is just my 2 cents worth of rambling…
It is being dealt with, as for providing exact details of what we are doing, it is hard now because we are actually in contract talks for exactly what will be provided by mailwise and how it is to be provided. You can go to mailwise.com and read what they do. We are talking to them about a huge contract, and it takes time to be worked out, as the details needed in such a case need to be precise. I can’t really say more than this on the subject now, because we have to be careful in this phase of things.
Stephen,
I realize that you are working on the API to reduce Spam. The problem that I am currently trying to resolve with my customer is about the Blacklisting of the mail5 Domain.
Can someone explain to me how I am supposed to explain that problem to my client?
I appreciate your suggestions timruns, but unfortunately, they are all too little, too late!
At this point, my client wants to see results. They are not interested in more excuses or delays. Paying customers don’t really care how things get done or how long it takes to get them done, they just want them done, now.
I agree with you about “building long term relationships with your customers”. We do the same thing. Aside from building our client a brand new website that they absolutely love, we have never had the chance to build a long term relationship with them in the past two months that they have been our client, because the Spam and Blacklist problems started immediately after we completed their website!
They have nothing to compare our service to other than their previous host. We never had the chance to prove our service record for them to hang their hat on!
I know that if I began working with a brand new host and starting the very first day, I had enormous problems with Spam and Blacklisting, I would be gone in a heartbeat! I am just surprised they have stuck with us this long. It must be because they like the site we built for them. But unfortunately, their patience has just about run out.
Hey, Cap’n,
I did not mean to trivialize your solution or assume that there is much we can do to make disgruntled clients not walk away once they have made that decision. My suggestions were just to try to give a little bit more incentive for those teetering on the edge to give us another try. Trust me, I have a teetering client that I will be really sad to see leave. I just credited him two months hosting, and I contact him frequently to let him know I am chasing the solution.
the mailwise solution Stephen mentions is to fix the blacklisting problem (Comcast and similars) long term – not, at least in this case, to keep spam out of our inboxes (although it may do that, too), but to keep spam from passing through the auto-forward accounts.
The problem lies in that spam travels through people’s personal email accounts through Jodo servers (the ‘forwarding’ issue). The mailwise solution, as I understand it, would filter out the spam from getting through mail5. No spam passing through, no blacklist.
Hi timruns,
I appreciate your comments as I can see you are genuinely trying to help. I apologize if I seem hostile. It?s just that it is hard to cope sometimes when you are a small dev company like we are.
We are already facing considerable odds just trying to obtain clients in the first place. Then, to lose them to something that is totally out of our control is just so frustrating!
We go overboard trying to win their business and to convince them that we are the answer to a more successful Internet experience. We prove that as much as possible with the quality of our work. Then we hope that everything else falls into place. But, as you are aware at least in this case, it has not.
It is extremely embarrassing for us to have to explain to a client that we really aren?t the best answer for them (pertaining to hosting). It makes us look like we were lying to them in the first place when we told them we were.
I realize that Spam is a major problem for us all. But on the other hand, how can other hosts and ISP?s offer a much better solution then what we are providing. They are obviously doing something different. If every host had this problem, no one would have a site on the web.
I’m not trying to be a complainer here. All I am trying to do is find a way to offer my clients quality hosting for their sites. I know that Jodohost is working on attaining that some day in the future. I don’t know how long I can wait for them to achieve that, however.
Cap’n many times ISPs block SMTP anyway, why not have the client use their ISPs SMTP server? Many hosts suggest this anyway, to keep from having SMTP ports get blocked by the ISP admin teams.
Stephen,
We already had them change their SMTP Port from 25 to 587. This did not solve the problem. We asked them today if they had email through their ISP. They don’t. They use Quest and all they have is a straight DSL connection.
Even if they did have email there, would we have to forward their emails to that address? If yes, would that stop the blacklisting?
changing ports wont help but no they don’t have to change their mail service it just uses a different smtp server to send.
Dah!:rolleyes:
Sorry Stephen… of course you would just change the SMTP address. 
Man, I must have been pretty tired when I wrote this last night.
I will have to ask them if they would be willing to setup an email with Quest. At least that way, even if they still were getting blocked, there would be no way they could link that to the quality of our service. Obviously, the most important thing that could happen is that their service would be working, but our company has really taken a lot of criticism from them over the past few days for this whole incident. It is very difficult to sit and listen to a client slam your company and service for two or three days straight and there is really nothing you can do! You just have to sit and take it!
Thanks again Stephen for the advise. I will talk to them today about it. Hopefully, that will solve this at least from their perspective and just maybe, maybe they will keep their account with us.
Thanks again!
First at all, take patience my natural language is spanish !!
I sorry, but one thing is receive spam and another very diferent is to be blacklisted !!!
My client can understand why they receive spam, but doesnt understand why they are blacklisted and mail cant be send or are rejected !!
If JodoHost is blacklisted, the problem is than someone send spam and most of the problem are that to many accounts use the same IP and with only one spammer all the account at that server are blacklisted.
I have a Linux account at PowerVps for the last 2 years with my own IP name server (2 IP’s) and I use the same IP’s for the 48 domains (for all the services: website, mail server, administration, etc).
I never has been blacklisted !!
(but I have a personal relation with all my clients)
At JodoHost support is good, but they have a really mess of accounts sharing the same IP at the mail server (also if you buy private IP).
JodoHost must make something to disable this, if each user have his own IP’s and they make spam, they will be blacklisted and it’s our client problem.
In my personal case:
When an JodoHost IP is blacklisted, they change IP. But in my country (Uruguay - South America), the IP change take 20 hours !!!
discoteca,
I agree! Why should all of us have to suffer due to the actions of a few? I have never sent spam in my life and I know for a fact that none of my clients ever have, but still… we all have to deal with spam and blacklisting.
I wish there was an easy solution to this, but apparently, there is not.
Right now, I am more concerned with a couple of new web clients I just contracted with. I am afraid of hosting their websites now because it will probably come back to haunt me!
We are starting to look into some other options as well.
Cap’n’code, we are hosting 18,000 end-users on the system. We have 1300+ resellers like you that trust our system, I can assure you putting domains on our system isn’t risky.
Once again, none of our IPs are blacklisted by ANY major anti-spam list. It’s been a long tie since they have been. we do have occasional problems with smaller lists, but this isn’t a daily or weekly issue… it happens occasionally. and we deal with it promptly.