# Suspended? Breathe. Then do these in order.

> Suspended by your email platform? Calm triage: export your data, appeal with facts, audit your list — and an honest note about how our own gate works.

Canonical: https://emailfast.dev/alternatives/suspended

## Why platforms suspend senders

Almost every suspension traces to one of five things: a spike in spam complaints, a
spike in bounces (usually an old or purchased list meeting reality), a policy sweep
over a content category, a compromised key or form quietly blasting spam from your
account, or — sometimes — a false positive. Suspensions are what a platform's abuse
systems do to protect the reputation every one of its senders shares. We know
because we run the same kind of screening: every outbound message is machine-screened for abuse — spam, scams, phishing, brand impersonation, and malware links — at admission and again at send, on every self-serve plan; the screen is automated and runs before delivery, never a person reading your mail.

None of that makes the day less bad. Here is the order of operations.

## First: secure what's yours

1. **Export your contact list**, with its fields, while the dashboard still lets you.
2. **Export your unsubscribe and bounce lists.** These stay binding wherever you
   send next — losing them is how you re-email people who already said no.
3. **Export your templates** and note the DNS records the platform had you set.
4. **Write down the timeline** — when sending stopped, what the notice said, what
   changed in the days before. You'll want it for any appeal, theirs or anyone's.

## Second: appeal like a professional

Appeals written in fury lose. Say what you send, to whom, where the list came from,
what changed before the suspension, and what you've already fixed. If the platform
publishes an acceptable-use policy, read it before replying — the appeal that shows
you understand the rule works better than the one that argues the rule is wrong.

## Third: audit before you re-send anywhere

Be more honest with yourself than the appeal requires. Where did every segment of
the list come from? When did each address last engage? Is there a purchased or
scraped block in there from years ago? A suspension is often the first hard data a
sender gets about a list problem — use it, because the problem travels with the
list, not the platform.

## Where we stand — said plainly

We'd like your business, and we screen for the same things that got you suspended.
Both halves of that sentence are true:

- **Early access is application-gated** — every application is read by a person,
  and [what we ask](/early-access) is public: a real sending domain, an opted-in
  audience, honest answers.
- **Consent is infrastructure here**, not paperwork: hosted signup forms with double opt-in through our own delivery path, so every subscriber carries verifiable proof of consent.
- **Imports are screened.** Garbage and throwaway addresses never enter a list, we
  ask where the list came from, and outsized imports can be held for a human
  decision before they land.
- **Sending ramps deliberately** — Email Fast runs its own mail transfer agent, warmup engine, reputation breaker, and per-tenant fair queue — we run these ourselves, with no upstream ESP reselling us your delivery.

So, plainly: **if your list was purchased, we will decline** — the [acceptable use
policy](/legal/aup) is not a formality. If you were a false positive, bring the
facts; the review is human, and it's fast. We make no promises of acceptance, and a
platform that would is telling you what its other customers look like.

## If you're moving anyway

Provider-specific switch guides, each honest about what ports and what doesn't:
[SendGrid](/alternatives/sendgrid) · [Mailgun](/alternatives/mailgun) ·
[Postmark](/alternatives/postmark) · [EmailJS](/alternatives/emailjs) ·
[Mailchimp](/alternatives/mailchimp) · [beehiiv](/alternatives/beehiiv) ·
[Substack](/alternatives/substack)

And when you're ready: [apply for early access](/early-access) — migration help is
part of onboarding, and the sandbox proves your pipeline before anything real
sends: sandbox keys (ef_sandbox_…) that run the real pipeline dry: real validation, real rendering, real events, a hosted capture inbox — and no email leaves.

## Will Email Fast accept me after another platform suspended me?

Maybe — a suspension elsewhere is not automatically disqualifying, and it's not automatically forgiven either. Applications are judged on what we can verify: where your audience came from, what you send, and honest answers. A purchased or scraped list is declined regardless of your history. We make no acceptance promises to anyone, suspended or not.

## What should I export before I lose dashboard access?

Four things, in this order: your contact list with its fields, your unsubscribe and bounce lists (you are obligated to keep honoring them anywhere you send), your templates, and a note of the DNS records the old platform had you set — so you can cleanly remove them later.

## Should I just start sending from a new provider today?

No — that instinct is how one suspension becomes two. Import your unsubscribes as suppressions first, cut the segments that never engage, and start at low volume so the new reputation is built on your cleanest sending. Speed is what the situation punishes.

## I'm certain it was a false positive. What now?

It happens — automated systems at scale catch some of the wrong senders. Appeal with specifics there: what changed, when the numbers moved, why. If you apply here, bring the same facts. Every application is read by a person, and replies typically go out within a couple of business days — that's a real review, not an auto-approve.