Direct Mail - 2.2.2

I actually love(d) this program. However, running into a serial number update glitch I have found support horrible - no response whatsoever.

I really want to love this software, as it seems to be a great answer for those with needs to complex for the likes of ConstantContact.

First, the Good:

List management is great and fairly seamless. It's a bit scary that your auto-management only syncs when your computer is online, but it's not a big deal. Works well.

The eThree mailing service is generally very good during the free trial, but after that, it's a bit pricey. May be worth it given lightning speed and good deliverability.

The ablity to turn a webpage into an email by just dropping in the link is brilliant. I've seen other implementations of this that continually failed or didn't get it quite right. In this one, what you see in Safari is *exactly* what you get.

The Bad:

Don't use this if email is time-sensitive or mission-critical for your business. Once, eThree mailing service was down without notice. And the response was a pretty weak "oops." Cold comfort when you have a weekly email newsletter with revenue attached.

And the program is buggy. After a couple updates, we got an error warning every time we booted up, but without apparent problems. Always clicked to send info to publisher.

But in two different cases, about a month apart, after taking an upgrade, the program would endlessly cycle and crash on boot. And guess what -- That means you can't even get your data out.

Customer service always has the same pattern: Quick response asking for the logfile followed by radio silence of 24-48 hours. Meanwhile, you're stuck.

On the most recent, we were enterprising enough to dig through Time Machine for an old version which we finally got working.

A shame. It's a program with great potential, but its flakiness makes it a no-go.

I started using Direct Mail v. 1, nice but quite limited. Then I switched to MaxBulk Mailer: different approach and incredibly slow. When Direct Mail reached v. 2, I tried it and immediately upgraded. I'm very satisfied: modern application, excellent feedback on my mailings, very fast, simple to use. Good feedback from the developer and updating quite often. I regret I spent 92 Euros for MaxBulk suite.

The Developer does not state that your entire database goes to his server. Even if you us your own server ethreenetworks receives all of your database, every single email address. This is totally illegal.

Your hard earned database has now been captured by ethreesoftware.com

CAN YOU SAY LAWSUIT!

This is a great and feature packed upgrade to slickest and easiest app of its type for Mac. I'm very impressed, and it's been amazingly easy to send out several trial mailings over the past few days. Seems very stable, and the new features are well worth the upgrade price.