UPDATE (12:15pm PDT): Last night (Thursday, 5/29), our engineering team pushed an update to our backend that introduced a bug that affects the way that we generate email campaigns for StackSocial and our StackCommerce partners.
StackSocial is responsible for managing the eCommerce stores and email lists for multiple publishers, so each day we send out dozens of custom email campaigns. Unfortunately, this particular bug caused all campaigns today to be sent to out to the entire email list.
While we discovered the bug shortly after we pushed our campaigns this morning, we were unable to stop the campaigns from completing, so each subscriber continued to receive emails from StackSocial and various partners even after it was apparent there was an issue.
The bug has now been fixed, and we are committed to ensuring nothing like this ever happens again. On behalf of StackSocial and all of our StackCommerce partners, we sincerely apologize, and take full ownership for screwing up so badly!
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@stacksocial.com.
—
10:00am PDT: Earlier this morning our email system accidentally sent you multiple emails from StackSocial and our partners. This was caused by an engineering error in our system, rest-assured, we were not hacked, it was simply human error.
We take pride in respecting your email inbox, and, unfortunately, we messed up big time today.
Please accept our sincere apologies on behalf of StackSocial and all of our partners, and know that your email address is safe, and that our team is actively resolving the issue to ensure this never happens again.
— WE WILL BE UPDATING THIS POST WITH ADDITIONAL UPDATES AND INFORMATION AS WE HAVE IT THROUGHOUT THE DAY. —
Apologies yet again, and thank you for your continued support.
With respect,
Josh Payne
CEO & Founder
StackSocial
I’ve received 20+ emails. If this is your business to market stuff you need to be more careful since I will either get my email removed from the mailing list or set up a rule to delete stuff automatically. It may seem minor to delete a few emails but if this is the primary purpose of your business then you have to get it right.
TS – I couldn’t agree more. We have resolved the issue and have put measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We appreciate your support!
You’re not the only one to receive 20+ emails, but cut them some slack! They owned up to their mistake and I’m certain they feel bad enough already. No one’s perfect. At least they didn’t drop the ball and let it go like so many other companies have. Everyone’s human, and I’m sure you’ve made your own fair share of mistakes throughout your life. Yes, most people “want” to “get it right,” but, for whatever reason, that doesn’t always happen. Accept that fact and you’ll live a longer and happier life. People, programs, machinery, and equipment all fail from time-to time, and some more than others. Period. This company did their best in expediently warning everyone involved, so as far as I’m concerned, they’ve done their due diligence and went well above and beyond most other corporations. Harp on those who fail AND fail to do anything about it, instead of harping on those who make a nobel attempt. StackSocial has my support.
thank you cyberlis! much appreciated. 🙂
Ahhh – that explains it – I was just visiting the website right now to find the appropriate contact email address to report what appeared to be spam that I received earlier today. On the upside, at least it was the result of a mistake rather than malicious access to our accounts.
exactly…silver lining i suppose! appreciate you staying with us shane.
I saw I had 20+ emails and I’m like woah I must be popular. Then I saw this and I’m like aaah ok. I ain’t even mad, you guys do such a good job getting great deals a slip up once in a while is fine by me. *thumbs up*
thanks jake!
Is this why I got multiple emails from random companies? All with stacksocial style sites but random names like Linux Deals or HongKiat or TUAW? I dont even know what those are. It says deal ending in 300 days or something too. Theres a boat load of the emails. But are these legit pages? or affiliate pages or something?
we power commerce on a number of sites including stacksocial. they are our partner sites…yes, they are legit. 🙂
And do they all offer the same bundles everytime ? or should we hunt all them for good deals ?
I guess the “EnjoyPfizer” is not from you. I have a lot of them too, I guess they think I have a problem !
Ok thanks for the heads up. I saw the 20 email thing and thought ok that makes sense but some of them were so random in name lol. Why would there be a mac bundle under linux deals. And some of them said deal ending in 300 days (or something like that) when it said 4 days on the site lol. Thanks for heads up. Glad you guys caught that jaunt fast so i didnt keep getting a full email
Thanks for the clarification. It sucks but don’t beat yourself up … I’m sure it feels huge when you’re caught in the middle of all this but it’s really not that bad. I can’t believe how some people overreacted on Social Media … it’s just a few extra emails, it’s not that big of a deal. You just delete them and you’re done in 30 seconds. Some people should have taken their chill pill this morning. The people that unsubscribed because of this were certainly not loyal followers and would have never bought from you anyway. Keep up the good work!
thanks EW! i hear you on that. 😉
Thanks for providing the email explaining what had happened. I’m very happy and relieved you were not hacked.
yes, everything is secure. it was human error…our engineers are top notch, but even the best make mistakes sometimes. we’re on top of it!
Thanks SO much for letting us know what happened! I was a bit worried that a hacking had occurred. Feel much better now that I know everything is safe.
it’s the least we could do. thanks for your understanding…
I didn’t get any emails. I miss out on all the fun…. 🙁
haha – well…thats a good thing i guess…. 😉
Just give your email and we can all forward them to you !
Yeah, no…. 😉
I got like 20. I appreciate the fact you owned up to it. 🙂
you’re welcome…it doesn’t quite make up for the mistake – but we’re doing our best!
Well should’ve read this before i unsubscribed. Got around 20 here too. Glad its fixed.
Well, if you want to re-subscribe, just go here: https://eepurl.com/vjSDj 🙂
Thanks for letting us know! I was wondering what was that all about.
No worries, HG. Glad to help and thanks for understanding!
A little amusing that you sent me an email to tell me about how you sent lots of emails, but I can see how such a thing would happen. No biggie.
Ha, yeah…we debated that, but at the end of the day felt that was the only way to reach people to let them know. Thanks for the support!
Thanks for letting us know! Errors can happen once in a while. At least you weren’t hacked or anything serious. Now to clean up my inbox!
Someone should have used a StackSocial promotion to take a MailChimp training course (tehehehe)
hahahaha….well played! 😉
I couldn’t believe how many emails I was getting….went to unsubscribe but saw your message on the unsubscribe page and re-subscribed immediately. Thanks for letting us know!
thanks adam – we really appreciate you sticking with us!
Mistakes happen. Thanks for taking responsibility and communicating the issue
Thanks, Ben. Much appreciated.
I stopped counting at 28 emails. I knew it had to be something like this. Hey, stuff happens.
Love it when someone owns up to their mistakes. It shows integrity. Thank you.
It just happened, right? Don’t worry. Thanks.
Thanks HJ!
Josh, while I appreciate the apology, I’ve removed my subscription from StackSocial. I can understand a screw up here and there… we all have them, but to receive 27 “Mac Freebie Bundle 3.0” emails in 30 minutes was a little much. I like the site and I like the deals, but seeing that you guys blast the same exact email out from 27 different “companies” just feels uncalled for and shows a bit of greed on your part. Create one list, send one email. There’s no need for 27 shell companies for the same stuff.
Hey Greg, Couldn’t agree more…its certainly uncalled for and we screwed up. I wish we could be perfect 24/7, but we made a mistake. I’m sorry to see you go! Maybe you’ll be back some day. 🙂
I found it funny getting 50 emails for the same deal. Was very weird.
I removed my subscription as well and had gmail mark anything from Stacksocial as spam. An apology is nice but you’re shutting the barn door after the horse got out. Also why do you need all those seemingly shill companies? Seems disreptuable to me.
@Motoki_Mo:disqus – sorry to see you go! just to clarify, they are not “shill” companies – they are some of the top tech blogs on the web. our platform helps blogs offer relevant and innovative tech products to their readers in a “private-lablel” format. happy to explain it more over email if you’d like. 🙂
I only got the normal Stack Social emails as I always do. No spam for me 😀
🙂
Truly appreciate the update and apology. Mistakes are how we learn. Owning up to an error is something I wish more people took the time to do. PS. All devices I know of have a “delete” button that was an easy fix.
haha…true that! thanks dan!
I have to admit, I was a bit concerned. I immediately starting deleting all of the emails. Thank you for the apology and the update. I’m glad it was a simple mistake and nothing more.
Thanks for the feedback, Michael!
Not impressed. I got sixteen separate emails, most from places I had never before heard of.
Having a quick look at all the spam I received from you this morning (before I mark them all spam and delete them forever) I see that there are some interesting names.
GadetsBoy Exclusive Deals? Mac App Deals Exclusives? DudeIWantThat Exclusives?
All the subscribers just discovered that they are not at all “exclusive” – just part of the StackSocial empire, where everyone gets the same.
Josh, you went an extra mile to appologize and correct this. Respect! Now, get back on the horse. Life is back to normal.
Roger that…got some amazing products coming up this week! 🙂
Thanks Josh for the apologize , just keep Stacksocial Awesome as it is!
Will do… 🙂
How did you get my email address, how do I delete my account? How did I get an account?
You signed up either on StackSocial.com or a partner site. You can email support@stacksocial.com and we’ll help remove you from our list. Sorry to see you go!
Hey Josh, I was a designer/coder on an email marketing team and all it takes is one press of the wrong button or like in your case getting a bug trying to impove your systems. I want to thank you for keeping us informed and apologizing. We have all made mistakes. It’s how you handle them that shows your character. And you guys did the right thing. Looking forward to more emails.
@chadbossingham:disqus – thanks man. those that have been there before know how challenging it can be, and this will definitely help us step up our process going forward to prevent future errors.
I guessed it was something like that. Thanks for being a mensch about it.
Sorry for going off topic here but Eric, I was just scrolling through the comments and your “Thanks for being a mensch about it.” stroke me as I’ve never heard someone using this particular German loan. – funny. It absolutely makes sentences in this context apart from the article before ‘mensch’ . We don’t use an article with the term “Mensch bleiben” (=stay human) in order to express that we can admit having made mistakes or not always functioning perfectly.
Cheers from Germany
Ben
I really like that way you’ve handled this!
Mistakes happen, but not everyone takes the time to apologize and to reassure. You folks are awesome. I have even more confidence in you now than before this
happened. Thank you!
@zedsteven:disqus – thank you for the kind words!
This is a wonderful way to handle issues. Many would have just let it go and said nothing. You chose to take owneship and apologize. Totally refreshing and reassuring to customers as well. Thank you.
@royharper53:disqus – thank you … its the least we could do. now, we can get back to finding you more great tech gear!
Its not the end of the world, not sure why people bi*ching about this
When this initially happened I was honestly slightly perturbed. I figured it was a bug though but it still was somewhat annoying. This apology completely reverses my opinion. Sincere apology, sincere mistake, moving on, wish more companies and people were this willing to own up to their screw ups. Happy to continue being a StackSocial customer.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Really good to see the head of a business take the hit and stand by the team through a mistake. Makes for a good business environment imo. Respect.
I appreciate the apology as well, but it comes a little late for me. Being dangerously impulsive as I am, I couldn’t help but place an order for every offer I received. Sure, I’m broke, but I’ve got a ton (literally) of cool stuff!
Well done for acknowledging the issue ! Keep up the great work.
you’re welcome…thanks!
Thanks for taking the time (unusual in today’s business environment and refreshing) to explain what was going on with my inbox yesterday and to take responsibility for it. So often something like this happens and we’re left scratching our heads wondering if there is something sinister going on but not being able to do anything about it.
@disqus_qvG3hIOYys:disqus – yeah, we weren’t sure people would want yet another email in their inbox, but i think you’ve made the point that it has helped people understand what happened and why. thanks for your support!
Thanks for your email. The inordinately large number of emails with the same message had me concerned. It is good to know that you care about your clientele enough to inform them of mistakes. Thank you.
And remember that the only people who don’t make mistakes are the people who do nothing.
@Steve:disqus – i like that last line….so true. thank you for your feedback!
This ist not acceptable and I suggested to cancel all your eMessages. Besser iss das!
I didn’t get mad about the 27 messages I got, as you have explained timely enough. However I’d like you to clarify another (seems to be) unrelated issue:
[BEGIN]
From: Neatberry
To: [my email address registered ONLY for StackSocial] <=====
Reply-To: support@neatberry.com
Subject: Neatberry May Newsletter – Anniversary
Date: Sat, 31 May 2014 10:03:19 +0000 (UTC)
Hello new user!
You have received this introductionary e-mail as our greeting to the new user of our products. We are Neatberry & CandySquare software vendor focused on Mac market and photography application, our newsletter typically provides some information about releases, special offers, discounts, coupons for our products as well as some special promotions from our choosen partners.
This e-mail is the only one you will receive as a new users, however, we encourage you to subscribe to our regular newsletter in order to get cool promos in the future.
[END]
Neatberry never mentions StackSocial in this message. What happened?
My guess is that you probably got https://stacksocial.com/sales/the-mac-freebie-bundle-3-0 which includes one of the products made by Neatberry (https://neatberry.com/products/vidiary/). I got the same e-mail, so I looked into it and found that they make that app. I’m guessing StackSocial shares your e-mail with certain deal vendors so that they can send you registration info. I’ve gotten deals where I get the registration or other info sent directly to me.
Got it. It would be much much better for Neatberry if they could tell me (and you) that they got my info through the freebie bundle registration. 7 apps at the same time rather than 1, I suppose not many people can recall all developers’ names.
The Neatberry welcome message was actually filtered as spam by Gmail. I was thinking whether I should “rescue” it or not, by clicking “Not spam”….
Ya, it went in my gmail spam folder too. I looked into it and then clicked “unsubscribe” after I was sure it was safe, and then went ahead and deleted it. I don’t see any reason for me to stay on their mailing list or keep the e-mail around.
Actually, the way I found out about that was because I loaded images and saw an app icon that looked like something I’d gotten on stack social. It took me a little bit to figure out which promo it was, but at least I figured out it wasn’t a malicious e-mail.
Hey Derek – Thanks for pointing this out. Eric is correct regarding the freebie bundle. I’ll sync up with the team at Neatberry and find out if there is a more clear way they can let users know why they are receiving this email…and further more, if its even necessary. Cheers.
Hey at least you got mail from them, I have been waiting for 2 months for someone from the business application side to get back to me.
As for the spammy problem, I think they handled it well, the CEO mailed everyone pretty quickly when it started and it was resolved fairly fast. I think if anything they deserve a pat on the back for handling it well.