Hello there,
Just read over the project application. And found if the project categories and requirements are suitable with my skills. My name is Shelingholmes, I am Mailchimp Specialist and Wordpress Developer as Well. 4 years of experience, my specialty are Integration, API, and Email Development
Based at project description, perhaps, your developer was not paying attention when setting up the form. I don't know how look like weird email that sent to subscriber. Mailchimp provides different series after someone signed up to the lists. It can be welcoming, confirmation and other. But the sure thing is, I can get rid of it
Also, I am guess if you need to send out new emails whenever you publish new post. If your developer using RSS automation, It'll send at date basis and not when we publish the post. To make this happens, We need to create custom functions with mailchimp API where we call new campaign whenever you hit publish post button
For consideration, you could visit my profile page, there are reviews and portfolios relevant with project categories here
Thank you and
Regards,
Shelingholmes