I've requested Amazon SES production access three times and been rejected again, despite documenting the safeguards in my setup. I'm using a dedicated sending subdomain rather than the apex domain, automated email verification, bounce and complaint monitoring, and other deliverability best practices.
The latest response says that account-level patterns and signals suggest my use case could negatively affect deliverability for the broader service, but it doesn't explain what specifically needs to change. My AWS account has existed on the free tier for more than four years, although I only activated SES recently.
I mainly need email for Cognito account messages and an opt-in feature where registered users receive alerts when their chosen criteria are met. If SES continues to block production access, should I move to a third-party email provider? Is there anything useful I can include in another appeal?
4 Answers
A third-party provider can send the alert emails directly, but replacing SES for Cognito isn’t always a drop-in change. You’ll generally need to configure Cognito’s custom email sender integration, which involves a Lambda function and the provider’s API or SMTP service. If you only need a small number of transactional messages, it may still be simpler than continuing to fight the approval process.
Account history may be one factor. Some people report instant approval after being established, paying customers, while newer SES usage can trigger more scrutiny even when the overall AWS account is several years old. There’s no guarantee that waiting will fix it, though, so I wouldn’t delay a project that depends on email.
Support representatives usually can’t override the final production-access decision. They may be able to review the case or route your concerns to the appropriate team, but the final decision is generally handled through the account review process. Keep everything in the existing support case and include your concrete use case, expected daily volume, sample message categories, and the safeguards that prevent unsolicited mail.
If this is holding up your launch, I’d probably move forward with another provider. For a new appeal, focus less on general best practices and spell out the actual email flows: how users opt in, what the messages look like, your expected sending volume, and how you handle unsubscribes, bounces, and complaints. A concrete explanation may give the review team more useful information than a broad checklist.
That Lambda requirement is the part I was hoping to avoid, but it sounds manageable if SES keeps blocking the launch.