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> Or imagine something like a system that alerts people when X band announces a concert date in Y town. Lots of people subscribe to get an email notification about that so it's 1 email to 500 people in Duluth. Not exactly a newsletter, not exactly transactional.

That is bulk email, fyi.

> I have a friend with a service that sends out 10k-ish customized mealplans each week to their paying customers (each email is fairly unique given where they are at in the customer cycle, preferences, tracking, etc.)

This was still a bulk email based on when I talked to Mandrill about it when I initially set it up.

> Thanks for getting in touch! It's primarily designed to support transactional emails, you can send any legal, non-spam message through Mandrill as long as it maps 1:1 with a human interaction and/or alert from an automated event.

That is a literal quote I had from the support ticket when I created my Mandrill account. Both you and the OP didn't follow what I [or the Mandrill/Mailchimp employee I talked to] interpreted the ToS as.

Similarly the OP seems to be the same usecase:

> They’re merging it into MailChimp, but updated the TOS and AUP with immediate effect in ways that essentially banned what was the service’s raison d’être: sending bulk mail programmatically.

They told you it was for transactional email. I'm not sure how you concluded that meant "bulk mail" was okay.




> They told you it was for transactional email. I'm not sure how you concluded that meant "bulk mail" was okay.

It's explicitly stated to be OK in their own FAQ:

https://mandrill.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206251597-Wha...

> you can send any legal, non-spam email through Mandrill, too

and on http://mandrill.com/about/

> Use Mandrill to send automated one-to-one email like password resets and welcome messages, as well as marketing emails and customized newsletters.


It must have changed from when I first signed up. The original ToS, etc. didn't state that.

It also doesn't appear to state that presently.

For instance:

https://mandrill.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206251597-Wha...

> Mandrill is an email infrastructure service designed to help applications or websites that need to send transactional email like password resets, order confirmations, and welcome messages.

> Any bulk email should be sent through MailChimp, rather than Mandrill.


Yes, they changed it after it was tweeted at them.

https://twitter.com/mandrillapp/status/704770382750941184




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