Ask HN: SendGrid account closed without warning, am I doing something sketchy?

9 points by stochastastic 3 years ago | 5 comments

SendGrid’s position seems like such a “gotcha” that I feel like I must be missing something.

The account was closed due to inactivity. I’m not sure why that’s a reason to close it, but I agree it didn’t get much use, just the occasional request for a password reset link. I logged in to find out why a password reset email didn’t go out and found my account had been deactivated.

SendGrid didn’t provide any notice that the account was in danger of being deactivated. Support says they don’t provide any warning when accounts are scheduled for closure due to inactivity. The only way to see it is to log in and notice the warning banner at the top of your dashboard. I’m not sure why a person would need to log in when everything seems to be working well.

The really confusing part is I’ve been told the account can’t be reopened because it has been deactivated too long. Support says that they would have been able to help if I had contacted them within 30 days. From my perspective today is day 1.

SendGrid’s policies seem geared toward getting the account closed down for good. The best explanation I can think of my account got flagged for abuse somehow. No clue why it would be flagged, though… I don’t _think_ I’m doing anything sketchy. Am I overlooking something obvious?

2Gkashmiri 3 years ago |

hi..

i recently suffered the same thing with github when they banned a rogue developer who had tricked me and around 500 other people into "artificially increasing stars". the unsuspecting users were banned as if "they had" committed that crime when it was the dev who had used our accounts...

i contacted support and discussed the same on HN. in the support mail, i wrote in clear terms what had happened and my position on the same. i told them about "getting my data" as in, if they wont let me access the account, i need a backup of ALL my data so that i can take my business somewhere else.

you should do the same. if they say "cannot access after 30 days", inform them that you are contacting a lawyer about deceitful tactic of deleting accounts without prior warning or recouse and give you your data back. I assume you are a paying customer so you can pressure them into that "if you wont let me use the account, i will take my business elsewhere and shame you for what you have done on social media".

you own your data on their platform so its not like they can just "not give" it back to you.

over the years, i have found that being shamed on social media is pretty scary for companies and since they are just giving corporate BS about "I’ve been told the account can’t be reopened because it has been deactivated too long".

KomoD 3 years ago | |

Yeah no, that's not the same thing at all. His account was closed for inactivity, yours was closed for breaking terms of service

extasia 3 years ago | |

What happened with your GH acct in the end mate?

I recall reading that post.

2Gkashmiri 3 years ago | | |

i got it back

KomoD 3 years ago |

It's normal, they close accounts for inactivity all the time.

You know the reason which is very clear yet you make this post anyway and ask if you did something sketchy