eConnect Email marketing: Anti-Spam Policy: Protecting You And Your Subscribers

Welcome to eConnect Email, a platform for managing your permission-based email marketing needs. Before you use the eConnect Email system, be sure to read these Terms Of Use in their entirety. Your registration with eConnect Email signifies agreement with these Terms Of Use.

This is an agreement between eConnect Email ("us" / "we") and the customer ("you").

Services and Support

eConnect Email provides web-based email marketing software and services (the "Service").
The Service allows you to create subscription forms, collect subscriber information from your website, prepare email campaigns, and broadcast email campaigns from the system. The Service also includes other functionality as listed in the Features section, some of which require additional charges.
Before you can use the Service, you must register through the eConnect Email website. You agree to provide complete and correct information upon your registration. By registering on the eConnect Email website, you agree to this Terms Of Use Policy, the Privacy Policy, and the Anti-Spam Policy.
eConnect Email only provides its services to people who are at least 18 years old.
All eConnect Email customers must abide by our Anti-Spam Policy. Subscribing to eConnect Email’s services confirms and acknowledges that you will abide by our Anti-Spam Policy.
You acknowledge and agree that eConnect Email only provides a service as stated in point 2 under "Services and Support" and that eConnect Email does not endorse the contents of the email messages that you send through the Service.
You agree and understand that you can only use permission-based email addresses for all your campaign sending needs. The term "permission-based email address" means that you specifically requested for a person’s permission and he/she has granted you the permission to send him/her your email campaign. Please visit our Anti-Spam Policy to learn more.
You are solely responsible for ensuring that your email campaigns do not generate complaints and bounces that exceed industry standards. eConnect Email will make the sole and binding determination of what level of complaints and bounces constitutes industry standards.
eConnect Email does not guarantee that email sent through the Service will render and display consistently in all email clients. We make every effort to comply with email standards, but we cannot guarantee compatibility. You should ensure that your emails render properly by testing thoroughly before sending.
For Monthly users, all credits will be automatically refreshed on the 1st of each month. Unutilized credits will be deleted and no refund will be given.
eConnect Email provides email support through its support ticket system. While eConnect Email makes every effort to respond to all support requests within two (8) hours, during normal support hours and business days, failure to do so cannot be held against eConnect Email. The two (2) hour support window runs from when the support ticket is properly submitted to when eConnect Email provides its first response. The problem is not guaranteed to be resolved within two (8) hours.
eConnect Email’s system will create automated emails to inform you of certain issues, including but not limited to – the status of your email campaign sending or insufficient email credits.
The Service is hosted at a professional data center, which manages and maintains the web servers. eConnect Email utilizes a different data center in a separate location to manage the eConnect Email marketing website and application.
We perform full backups of all web, database and email servers each week, along with incremental backups every day for the web and database servers. These backups are not for restoring individual client data, but are only for restoring data to the servers. However, we cannot guarantee that all backup data can be restored.
eConnect Email takes privacy seriously. We work to keep all client information secure at all times. We utilize a hardware firewall to protect all our servers.

Fees and Payment

You agree to utilize eConnect Email's services under one of the following three (3) service plans:
1. The Free Plan – Under this plan you will receive 150 free monthly email credits. You will also have access to our help center and customer service support team.
2. Monthly – Under the Monthly Plan, you simply pay a monthly fee to eConnect Email, charged via your credit card on the first of the month, and you can utilize eConnect Email’s services.
3. Pay As You Send – For this plan, you are required to purchase a minimum of 1,000 email credits to open an account with eConnect Email, after which you can purchase credits from eConnect Email as you need them. You order credits from eConnect Email and pay with a credit card accepted by eConnect Email. Your credits never expire but you are still bound by terms set under the Suspension, Cancellation, and Termination section and Point 5 under the similar section.
Currently, eConnect Email provides its pricing in one (1) currency, US dollar.
You agree to make all payments due to eConnect Email by a valid major credit card that is accepted by eConnect Email, unless eConnect Email agrees to alternate arrangements in writing. Currently eConnect Email accepts VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express only.
For Monthly plan customers, your monthly subscription fee will be automatically deducted on the 1st of each month. If eConnect Email fails to deduct payment from your credit card, our system will try for another two (2) days, after which your account will be put on suspension and you will be required to make payment before you can utilize eConnect Email again. If eConnect Email does not receive any payment at the end of the suspension month, your account will be cancelled. eConnect Email will store your data for another thirty (30) days, for your export purposes, after which, for privacy and security reasons, your data will be deleted and cleared from our server.
If you decide to upgrade your plan, you can choose to upgrade immediately or you can start the upgrade from the following month. If you choose to start immediately, you agree to pay the difference in price between your new plan and your former plan for the current month.
If you downgrade your plan to a lower-priced plan, the downgrade will only take effect at the end of the current billing cycle and your new monthly billing will be based on the new pricing.
To change from the Monthly Plan to the Pay As You Send Plan, you must purchase a minimum number of credits set by eConnect Email. You can still utilize your current monthly credits plus your new Pay As You Send credits. Your monthly credits will expire at the end of the current month.
If you change from the Pay As You Send Plan to the Monthly Plan, your unused eConnect Email credits will be transferred as Monthly credits.
Scheduled sending:
1. Credits will be deducted from your account within the month that your email is scheduled to be sent. If you cancel a scheduled sending, the credits will be refunded back to your account.
2. The number of credits used for scheduled sending is calculated at the time of setting up the scheduled email. No refund will be given if, on the actual date of sending, your subscriber count is lower than the initial count due to unsubscribe requests, bans or deletions by you or your subscribers. New subscribers will not be added to the scheduled count.
3. If you schedule sending for next month, we deduct your credits immediately.
You agree not to receive a refund for any payments given to eConnect Email, unless eConnect Email fails to provide its service during a given month. In that event, the refund shall not be greater than the fees you paid to eConnect Email during that month.
No refund will be given for customers whose accounts are terminated due to spam or high complaint and bounce rates. eConnect Email will conduct an investigation and update customers on the situation before making any termination decisions.
eConnect Email reserves the right to change its prices or its credit policy at any time. Before any change in policy, we will notify you by sending an email to the main email address in your eConnect Email account. We will assume your receipt of the changes if we do not receive a bounced message from your email server. We advise you to ensure deliverability of important emails from eConnect Email by putting the eConnect Email domain name under your safe senders list.

Suspension, Cancellation, and Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate any account that is caught spamming or has received a high volume of complaints and bounces.
You agree that if your account is terminated due to a breach of our Anti-Spam Policy, eConnect Email will not provide any refund of monies paid to us.
eConnect Email reserves the right to charge a reactivation fee to reactivate a suspended account.
Pay As You Send user credits have no expiration date, but eConnect Email reserves the right to suspend or terminate the account without any refund if customers are found to have a large number of subscribers and are frequently exporting their subscriber lists. This is to ensure that the eConnect Email system is not being abused. The purpose of the Pay As You Send Plan is to help marketers who do not send email campaigns frequently, and not for clients to use our system as a placeholder for their subscribers.
You can cancel your account at any time by submitting a support ticket or emailing billing[at]econnectemail.com. All cancellations will only take effect from the following month. No refunds will be given for either the Monthly Fixed Plan or Pay As You Send Plan should you cancel the account.
It is your responsibility to download your data upon cancellation. eConnect Email will store your data for thirty (30) days, after which for privacy and security reasons, it will be deleted and cleared from our server.
If your account is terminated by eConnect Email, you will be allowed to export your subscriber lists. You must complete this export within thirty (30) days of account termination, after which for privacy and security reasons, it will be deleted and cleared from our server.

System Requirements For Using eConnect Email

To use eConnect Email, you will need to have a Windows PC or Apple Macintosh with Internet Explorer 8.0 or higher or Firefox 3.0 or higher. Other operating systems may work in a limited manner but there is no guarantee of functionality. You will also require an internet connection to access eConnect Email, and this connection is to be provided by your Internet Service Provider and not eConnect Email.

Unacceptable Content

You agree not to use the Service to send any unacceptable content. The following list shows examples of unacceptable content, but this list is not exclusive:

Selling illegal substances.
Pornography/adult content.
Promotion or sale of products or services that are deemed unlawful.
Content that degrades a person, or religious, country or political rights.
Transmission of third party content or information that may violate or infringe upon any rights of a third party.

Email Practices

You agree to ensure the following standards are met when sending email from eConnect Email:

The From and Reply To addresses are valid email addresses. We do not allow any no-reply or do-not-reply email addresses.
Your company name and address are included in all mailings. You are allowed to use a P.O. Box if your company has one.
An unsubscribe link is clearly viewable in your message; the link should not be placed in a way that requires significant effort to recognize it.
You state clearly why the user is getting this email from you.

You also agree to follow standard internet etiquette for email and state and federal laws, including the following:

You will not harvest email addresses and import them into the eConnect Email system.
You will not buy or rent email addresses and import them into the eConnect Email system.
You will not import email addresses that you have not received any permission to send to.
You may only send messages to individuals that have given you their explicit permission to email them.
You must fully comply with unsubscribe requests. This means that you do not send messages to an unsubscribed address. All unsubscribe requests initiated from the unsubscribe link in your campaign will be automatically handled by the eConnect Email system. You will be able to view the unsubscribed email addresses, but they are only meant for your own records and historical data.

You are responsible for ensuring that your abuse complaints and bounce rates stay within a level that is in accordance with industry norms; this level is to be decided by eConnect Email in its sole and complete discretion.

Please visit our Anti-Spam Policy page to have a better understanding of what are acceptable email practices.

Batch Importing

All batch import of subscribers will be manually reviewed and approved by the eConnect Email team, who may get in touch with you for proof of permission received. If you are unable to provide eConnect Email with the requested information, the imported subscribers will be rejected. eConnect Email reserves the right to reject lists that have the characteristics of a rented or purchased list.

Intellectual Property

Subject to the Terms of Use, eConnect Email grants to you a non-exclusive, limited, fully revocable license to use the Service during the time you are in full compliance with the Terms of Use.

Subject to the Terms of Use, you will retain any and all applicable copyright and other intellectual property rights with respect to any data and/or information you create or store with the Service, to the extent that you have such rights under applicable law.

Non-Disclosure

You and eConnect Email both agree to retain in confidence all proprietary and confidential information transmitted to each other, and both parties will make no use of such confidential information except under the provisions of the Terms of Use.

eConnect Email will use all reasonable precautions and take necessary steps to prevent your distribution lists from being accessed by unauthorized persons. We will not share (unless required by law), sell or otherwise distribute the confidential information in your account.

You agree to use all reasonable precautions and take necessary steps to prevent our confidential information (including but not limited to data, scripts, source code, programs, business plans, business models, business concepts, and communications) from being acquired by unauthorized persons. You further agree to take appropriate action, with regard to any person permitted to access our confidential information and data, in order to ensure our confidential information and data are protected. You agree not to disclose our confidential information to any person for any purpose other than as provided in this Terms of Use.

Limitation of Liability

In no event will eConnect Email or its directors, employees, partners or agents be liable to you or any third person for any money damages, whether direct, indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special, or punitive damages, including for any lost profits or lost data arising from your use of the Service, even if eConnect Email is aware or has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Not withstanding anything to the contrary contained herein, eConnect Email's liability to you for any cause whatsoever, and regardless of the form of action, will at all times be limited to one (1) Monthly Plan amount or the advance credits under Pay As You Send paid by you to eConnect Email.

Force Majeure

No party shall be liable for any delay or failure to perform its obligations where such failure is as a result of Acts of Nature (including fire, flood, earthquake, storm, hurricane or other natural disaster), war, invasion, act of foreign enemies, hostilities (whether war is declared or not), civil war, rebellion, revolution, insurrection, military or usurped power or confiscation, terrorist activities, nationalization, government sanction, blockage, embargo, labor dispute, strike, lockout, interruption or failure of electricity, telephone, or communications services (including DNS propagation), failure of third party software or hardware, or other occurrences which are beyond either party's reasonable control.