Crisis Guide
Your email account is frozen.
Here’s how to fix it today.
Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, SendGrid, Brevo — they all suspend accounts that exceed bounce or spam complaint thresholds. It feels sudden, but the warning signs were in your list data all along. This guide walks you through: what happened, how to get reinstated, and how to make sure it never happens again.
Why ESPs suspend accounts
ESPs share sending infrastructure across thousands of customers. One customer with bad list hygiene — high bounces, spam complaints, spam traps — damages the shared IP reputation and hurts deliverability for everyone. Suspensions protect the platform and other customers.
2%
Common bounce threshold. Many ESPs flag accounts around this level, though exact thresholds vary by platform.
0.1-0.3%
Common complaint range. Google’s published threshold is 0.3%. Other ESPs may act at lower levels. Exact thresholds vary.
1 hit
Spam trap risk. Hitting a pristine spam trap is one of the most serious triggers. The impact depends on the platform and the type of trap.
One of the most common root causes: sending to an unverified or stale list. Other causes include authentication issues, complaint spikes from unwanted email, spam trap hits, or sudden changes in sending patterns. Invalid addresses produce hard bounces. Catch-all addresses produce delayed bounces. Old addresses may have become spam traps. Role-based addresses generate spam complaints. All of these count against your account health.
Step 1: Don’t panic. Read the suspension notice.
Every ESP sends a suspension or warning email. Read it carefully — it usually tells you:
What triggered the suspension: bounce rate, complaint rate, spam trap hit, or content flag. This is your starting point.
Whether it’s temporary or permanent: Most first suspensions are temporary “account reviews.” The ESP wants you to fix the problem before they re-enable sending. Permanent bans are rare on a first offense.
What they want you to do: Some ESPs ask you to reply with a remediation plan. Others ask you to clean your list and resubmit. Read what they’re asking — the faster you respond with the right action, the faster you get reinstated.
Step 2: Verify your entire list. Right now.
This is the single most important step. Before you respond to the ESP, before you appeal, before anything — verify every email address on your list.
Upload your full contact list to QEV. When results come back:
Remove immediately
Invalid — hard bounces waiting to happen. These caused or contributed to your suspension.
Remove or isolate
Catch-all — accept everything but may bounce days later. Remove for now. You can test small batches later from a healthy account.
Remove from marketing
Role-based (info@, admin@, sales@) — shared inboxes with higher complaint rates. Remove from all sends during recovery. You can cautiously reintroduce for transactional email only after your account health stabilizes.
Keep — this is your clean list
SafeToSend — real people, real inboxes. This is the only segment you should send to when your account is reinstated.
Step 3: Check your authentication
While your list is verifying, check your email authentication. Some ESPs flag accounts with broken or missing authentication records even if the list is clean.
Use QEV’s free tools to check all three:
If any of these are missing or misconfigured, fix them before requesting reinstatement. Your ESP will check. Full authentication guide →
Step 4: Respond to your ESP with a remediation plan
Now you have the data: a clean, verified list and confirmed authentication. Respond to your ESP with a clear plan. Most ESPs reinstate accounts when they see you’ve taken concrete action.
What to include in your response:
Template: ESP Reinstatement Request
Hi [ESP support team],
I understand my account was flagged for [bounce rate / spam complaints / list quality]. I’ve taken the following steps to resolve this:
1. Verified my entire contact list using a third-party email verification service. I removed all invalid, catch-all, role-based, and disposable addresses. My list has been reduced from [X] to [Y] contacts — only verified, safe-to-send addresses remain.
2. Confirmed email authentication. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are all correctly configured for my sending domain.
3. Planned a gradual restart. When reinstated, I will send to a small segment of my most engaged contacts first (500-1,000) and increase gradually over 2 weeks while monitoring bounce and complaint rates.
4. Set up ongoing hygiene. I will re-verify my list every 60-90 days and verify all new contacts before importing.
I’m committed to maintaining list quality going forward. Please let me know if you need any additional information to reinstate my account.
Adapt this template to your specific situation. The key: show concrete actions taken, not just promises.
Step 5: When reinstated — restart gradually
Note: The timeline below is a conservative example. Your actual restart pace depends on your list size, ESP, and how severe the suspension was. When in doubt, go slower.
You’re back in. Now don’t repeat the mistake. Your ESP is watching your account closely after reinstatement.
Week 1
Send to your most engaged contacts only — people who opened or clicked in the last 30 days. Small batches (500-1,000). Monitor bounce rate (must stay under 1%) and complaints (under 0.1%).
Week 2
If Week 1 metrics are clean, double volume. Expand to contacts who engaged in the last 60 days. Keep monitoring.
Week 3-4
Gradually increase to full SafeToSend list. If bounces or complaints spike at any point, stop and re-check that segment.
Ongoing
Re-verify every 60-90 days. Verify new contacts before importing. Never send to unverified lists again.
Why this happened — and how to prevent it
ESP suspensions almost always trace back to one of these root causes:
Imported an unverified list
Old purchased list, scraped contacts, or a CSV that hadn’t been cleaned in months. Prevention: verify every list before importing.
List went stale
A list that was clean 6 months ago now has 10-15% invalid addresses. Prevention: re-verify every 60-90 days.
Sent to full list instead of SafeToSend
Verified the list but imported the “Valid” file instead of “SafeToSend.” Catch-all and role addresses inflated bounce and complaint rates. Prevention: always use SafeToSend only.
No double opt-in
Contacts didn’t confirm their subscription. Higher chance of complaints (“I didn’t sign up for this”). Prevention: use double opt-in or verify at signup with QEV API.
ESP Suspension Recovery — Quick Reference
Step 1
Read the suspension notice. Identify what triggered it.
Step 2
Verify your entire list with QEV. Remove everything except SafeToSend.
Step 3
Check authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) with free tools.
Step 4
Respond with remediation plan: what you did, what you’ll do going forward.
Step 5
Restart gradually: small batches, engaged contacts first, increase over 2-4 weeks.
Prevent
Verify before importing. Re-verify every 60-90 days. SafeToSend only. Never send to unverified lists.
Related guides
Diagnostic
Email Troubleshooter →
Verified but still bouncing? 6-step diagnostic to find what’s broken.
Prevention
First ESP Setup Guide →
5 things to do before your first campaign — so this never happens again.
Need expert help?
Free Deliverability Consulting →
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