Help - No Ketchup

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Permalink Reply by Hugh 2 hours ago

Hi Peter, Frustratingly this has been an intermittent but regular problem for 15 of the past 19 year that HoL has been running.

When we first started sending out the Ketchup, I used Mailchimp. However that is only free up to a certain point and with the pace of member growth in the early years, we quickly passed that level. So we started using the software's built-in massage broadcast faciklity. At first all went well. But within a few years, it started to be a bit hit-and-miss with people reporting that that their Ketchup wasn't getting through.

When the website was set up, support from what (in 2007) was a US-based tech start-up was first class. Sadly the company has since been resold a number of times and tech support seems to have been de-prioritised on each sale. 

I've consistently tried to get the Ketchup issue fixed. Sometimes I've managed to secure some improvement These days the response is little more than "thank you for your message. I will ensure that it is referred to the technical team'.

There appears recently to be have a rash of new reports of people not getting their Ketchup. So, I will try again to get a resolution. In the meantime, I'm afarid the only remedy is a facility I set up back in 2012 as a sticking-plaster remedy. Each week, we publish the Ketchup online and you can see it from a button on the home page. 

I know that it somewhat misses the point of getting an alert in your mailbox each week, but the cost of Mailchimp and similar services means that there is no email alternative. (The cost for even a cheaper Mailchimp alternative would be £600+ a year).

It would in theory be possible to set up a WhatsApp Group for people to join which could be used to sending out  a weekly alert, sending people to the online ewsletter, but I'm not sire that would be very satisfactory, either for us or for members. 

I'm all ears for possible solutions. 

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