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Ask HN: AWS SES Denial

4 points by SrFil ↗ HN
I created a landing page for my Kickstarter, and built everything on AWS- domain through route 53, connecting my email submission/management through an API (built in AWS) that then hits an AWS lambda function. It was supposed to then call the simple email service to store emails, but when I requested access to production they denied me and asked for more details. I provided the details as best I could, but they clearly didn't like my answer because, "We reviewed your request and determined that your use of Amazon SES could have a negative impact on our service. We are denying this request to prevent other Amazon SES customers from experiencing interruptions in service. For security purposes, we are unable to provide specific details." Is there a way to change things so that I might be approved? Or can someone recommend a good alternative?

7 comments

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SrFil
I guess there are lots of options, I'm going to try EmailOctopus.
TheJCDenton
I have been in a similar situation. They are incredily picky, maybe because a few years ago, they were incredibly accepting. The minimum would be that they share their criterias, or at least enough details for us to infer what would be a deal breaker for them. As of now it's not sufficiently clear. Good luck.
SrFil
Thanks, glad to hear it's not just me.
ryanmccullagh
Sounds spammy to me. You don't seem to have a product, but you're collecting emails, presumably without an actual product, but a preview of a product that doesn't exist yet? Do you have a tangible product today?
gus_massa
Written in a different way: It may be very difficult for AWS to distingish honest early project and scams [1], so they may have decided to nuke all of them from orbit.

[1] and even projects that start as a honest idea, but then it's badly executed or it's more difficult than expected and gradually turns into a scam or just lose all the money.

RulerOf
We have something like a dozen AWS accounts. As sub accounts were opened for new projects, we did the thing to get SES opened up for sending, and kept getting denied.

We ended up not pursuing SES privileges in any of the new accounts, and route all email through the oldest ones that were established before SES approval got harder.

kingofthehills
just use send grid of like a million of other providers