7/20/2008

Yahoo! 8 days later

Nothing has really changed -- I still cannot use my Yahoo ID!
My website has been reinstated at www.jimandwendy.com but I cannot log in to the domain control panel or edit my pages or site.
My email server has been reinstated at jimandwendy.com and Jim, Dallas and Wildflower can send and receive email. I cannot. I am unable to access my email online or through outlook. I cannot administer my email server. Email sent to me is going to the server but I can't retrieve it.

One major spin off here is that most of my online subscriptions, along with accounts, warranty registrations, etc are all linked to my personal email address. Receipts for online purchases go to my personal address. In many cases I am able to log to the account and enter a new email but this only works if I have the password. If not -- it gets emailed to my personal address where I cannot access it.

In an outlook folder I have saved all emails to and from Yahoo! regarding this situation. There are 50 emails in the folder. Many from Yahoo! are the auto responder emails for a form submission. The replies are noted in earlier posts -- 'its a billing issue', 'its a known issue but has been fixed', 'your email is a forgery', 'your premium services have been suspended for a TOS violation' and the most popular 'We need more information.' There was also a mailer daemon message on one form submission that bounced.

My most recent contact was with billing. The billing department seems to be capable of thought. common sense and reason and logic. Unfortunately the billing department is not able to rectify the situation. One tech even tried a 3 way call to account verification to have my password reset but ran into the same scripted responses I continue to get. No one seems able to contact abuse.

At this point I am at a standstill. My last call was to billing, when I read the responses from the variety of replies including the mailer daemon error message. He discussed it with the tech lead and I was left with the promise that this was going to be looked into further and abuse would be contacted somehow. My number was taken and I was told I would get a call back in 1 to 48 hours. It is now 43 hours since that call.

7/17/2008

AT&T, SBC and Yahoo! working apart

I want to report that this morning Jim has his email back and http://www.jimandwendy.com/ is back up.
I can still not access this, check for my email or manage my hosted web account or servers. My Yahoo! ID is still not functioning and a call to have it activated resulted in the same thing I have been told since this started -- go online and fill out the abuse report form.

I sent an email to the address for abuse hosting-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com that I reported being given in my last blog entry. I did not receive a response. I sent several more -- I have not received a response for any of them.

I have, however, started getting responses from some of the online abuse report forms that I have submitted. Two of them suggested this was a billing issue and to contact billing. They gave me the online URL for contacting billing through the small business site (that I can't do because I have no Yahoo ID) and also a phone number because billing prefers to work on the phone. So I phoned the number I was given for billing.... after a few minutes on hold a recorded announcement came on and said my wait tile was approximately 30 minutes. After 10 minutes of this announcement periodically interrupting the silence a second announcement told of the high level of calls, long wait periods and suggested I access the billing information online. After the recorded announcement delivered the URL -- it disconnected. I called again 4 times -- I was diconnected after 10 minutes on hold 4 times.

I called the customer service/ password reset number. I was told again that I would have to go online and fill out the Yahoo abuse report. I explained that I had done this several times and was receiving the responses saying it was billing not abuse. I was told her report was showing both and she suggested I call the number for billing. I asked her to connect me since I was repeatedly disconnected after 10 minutes. She transferred my call and I was placed on hold. This time I at least got music -- and Jim and I listened to over 90 minutes worth of it before my call was finally answered. My immediate opinion,however, was that it could well have been worth the wait. Not only was he listening to the details of what happened but he was trying to determine why and come up with a fix. He determined immediately that there were no billing issues and discussed the sequence of events that had transpired. He located a note on his records that the account had been 'cancelled by user'. He attempted to reset the domain for jimandwendy.com and also the email servers but was unable to because my Yahoo ID would not allow access. He escalated the problem and said he would make sure it was looked at and resolved.
While we were on the phone he contacted password reset and asked them to reset my ID. Despite the fact that I had an email from abuse saying it was a billing issue, and I had the billing department requesting the account be reinstated, it still could not be done. This time we were both told to complete the online form to contact Abuse.
This morning Jim announced that his email was working again. I tried www.jimandwendy.com and it worked. An email sent to myself at wendy @jimandwendy.com has not yet bounced.

BUT, I still can not access my email. Outlook continues to report an error in logging in. When I go to jimandwendy.com and attempt to access my webmail I get a Yahoo login screen that does not accept my user name or password. I click the password reset link and I am told it can't be reset online. I call the help number and I am told my User ID was terminated by abuse for a TOS violation and to go to abuse and complete the online form. Repeated attempts at disclosing the fact that I have done this and have a handful of replies resulted in being told -- you will have to fill out the online abuse form and report this to them. I was told I would receive a reply in 24 hours.

At the time of this writing it has been 123 hours (6+ days) since the first time I was told this. Emails sent to my address are no longer bouncing but instead are going to aserver where they can not be picked up.

7/14/2008

More Yahoo! Abuse

This morning the remainder of the email addresses on the jimandwendyserver have stopped working.
An early call to Yahoo! was at least successful in getting me an email address for contacting Yahoo! instead of having to fill out the abuse claim form and report myself. I have not received a reply to the email.

7/13/2008

Still being abused -- by AT&T Yahoo!

It gets worse -- if possible.
I finally got a reply from one of the online forms I filled out and reported I was not able to access the domain control panel or my email server.

The reply says:

The email that you have sent in for investigation is a forgery and not from
AT&T Internet Services.


Okay -- thats it -- the email I sent them telling them what has happened is a forgery.

But Yahoo responded right on the heels of this one. The response from them is as follows:

Wendy, I apologize for the inconvenience this issue has caused
you.
Earlier this was a known issue and now it has been resolved. Now, you
can access the Domain Control Panel of your Yahoo! Small Business account.
You can manage all the features of your Yahoo! Web Hosting account in one
central location. Just sign in to your Yahoo! Web Hosting account
at:
http://sbs.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
-
Click on the "Small Business" button at the top-right of the page.
- Enter
your Yahoo! ID and Password
- Click at the "Domain Control Panel"


Oh WOW! If only I still had a Yahoo! ID.

Meanwhile -- some of the sites are now functional on GoDaddy.com
I have http://www.coonmountainbill.com/ up and running and http://www.gaylorddubois.com/
For some reason http://www.wildflowertechcreations.com/ is opening a welcome page (its supposed to be a forward) but http://www.wildflowertech.com/ is still getting me a page cannot be found error. I have no idea what I will do with http://www.leatherlaceimages.com/ since I do not have Tina's photos that are supposed to be on that site.

An update on Yahoo! abuse

And I am still being abused.

Today my email address wildflower @jimandwendy.com began working -- I can send and receive email. This is an account on my jim and wendy server (through Yahoo!) but so is wendy @jimandwendy.com. Email to the wendy address bounces -- and the mailer daemon message says no such host server exists. But Jim can send and receive, Dallas can send and receive and wildflower can send and receive -- all thorugh the non-existent host server. The only one that does not work is wendy.
And an update on the 24 hours -- It is now 31 hours and when I phoned Yahoo! again a few minutes ago I was told (again) to fill out the abuse form and I would get a reply within 24 hours.

I asked for my authorization code so I can transfer my domain -- I was told they can't give it to me (I am the registered owner of the domain) until Yahoo! abuse authorizes the release -- and I have to fill out an abuse report form to have that happen.

I was able, with GoDaddy.com on the phone -- to get the name servers switched so I now have access to my wildflower.com email server -- and to the domains at coonmountainbill.com, wildflowertech.com, wildflowertechcreations.com and leatherlaceimages.com.

I still have no access to jimandwendy.com and that is where all the other websites are stored.

7/12/2008

Yahoo! Abuse

Or 'Abuse by Yahoo!'

I need to vent -- But It started about 2 years ago and has slowly gotten worse.

Here's the scenario --
I have a Yahoo! account I created in 1995 or 96. I have used the messenger and the email and have used the Yahoo!groups frequently.
  • 2004 signed up with Yahoo! Small Business and obtained Domain Name and Web Hosting Service for www.jimandwendy.com. Initially I had email through another server (same domain name) but transferred it to a Yahoo! email plan. Everything is linked to my original Yahoo! ID. I pay annually for the domain and email server and monthly for the webhosting. Both our personal emails are on the Yahoo! email server for jimandwendy.com
  • 2005 registered 2nd domain through Yahoo! Small Business www.wildflowertech.com when I started my company. Built a website as a directory on the host site, jimandwendy.com, payable annually.
  • 2005 registered Yahoo! domain www.wildflowertechcreations.com as a link to my Ebay store, payable annually.
  • 2005 purchased single email address from Yahoo! for wildflowertech.com payable annually
  • 2006 signed up for SBC Yahoo! dial up internet because I was unhappy with my current dial up ISP. Contract guaranteed me a certain spped that I never got close to. I was on the phone with tech support 2 or 3 times a week to no avail. I cancelled account but had to pay off contract.
  • 2006 registered Yahoo! domain www.gaylorddubois.com and added as directory on jimandwendy.com and payable annually.
  • 2006 registered Yahoo! domain www.coonmountainbill.com for my mother to advertise her book of the same title. Host a page in a directory on jimandwendy.com and payed domain registration annually.
  • 2006 registered Yahoo! domain www.leatherlaceimages.com for a friend and created a photography sales website for her in a directory on jimandwendy.com, domain payable annually.
  • 2006 started getting 100's of bounced emails per day from spam being sent with my domain address. Yahoo! said it had nothing to do with their server. They suggested I turn off my catchall mail box so I would not receive the bounces. Had to clear jimandwendy.com email address from several black lists. Yahoo! assured me nothing was being sent using my domain.
  • 2007 attempted to register domain for Tammy when she was going to sell her house. I got error message that the account was locked and transaction was denied. I called Yahoo! and was told to check my credit card information. Everything was confirmed. Tech support said it was a billing issue -- billing said it was a tech support issue. Both denied the error I was getting so I took a screen shot and emailed it to them. They said it was an AT&T issue and I would have to resolve it with AT&T. I had no AT&T account but Yahoo! insisted the problem was there. They said I would be able to register the domain if I set up a new Yahoo ID. I said I wanted it linked to my current ID so I could managed all domains in one place. They said I was unable to bill anything through my current ID because the account was frozen by the owner.
  • 2007 continued to battle this issue. I was unable to make any changes to any of my domain plans because the account was frozen (by me Yahoo! said) and they continued to tell me I was going to have to create a new Yahoo! ID so I would be able to renew my other plans. Yahoo! continued to bill my credit card for the monthly fees and auto-renew on the annual fees. I could make no changes on my plans but could still access the control panel and update websites, move directories etc. Yahoo! continued to tell me it was an AT&T issue.
  • 2008 I received a renewal notice from Yahoo! that the price of my domain registration would increase from $11.95 to $34.95. I logged in to my account and 2 domains were showing an expiry date and an amount due of $11.95 each. I attempted to change my credit card information on file but it would not accept my changes. I attempted to renew the domain while the price was still $11.95 and could not.
  • July 2, 2008. Initiated transfer of 5 of my domains to godaddy.com.
  • July 3, 2008 I was contacted by godaddy.com to make sure everything was working right and to see if I had any questions.
  • July 6, 2008 I received email confirmation that domain transfers were successful. The domain forwarding was still in place and the URLs were redirected to the directories on my jimandwendy.com site.
  • July 10, 2008 Yahoo! billed my credit card for registration renewal on 2 domain names.
  • July 12, 2008 I signed into Yahoo and access my domain control panel. I cancelled Yahoo! plan on coonmountainbill.com and gaylorddubois.com. I tested URLs and was able to access both pages. I made an edit to coonmountainbill.com with MSFrontPage and published the corrected page.
  • July 12,2008 I cancelled Yahoo! plan on leatherlaceimages.com because it had also been moved to godaddy.com. After clicking finish I attempted to access the domain control panel and was denied access. I clicked on my Mail button on the Yahoo! toolbar (showing 2 new emails) and was asked for my password. My password was declined.
  • July 12, 2008 email server for wildflowertech and for jimandwendy.com were both requesting passwords through Outlook. Passwords were rejected. Mail button on toolbar continued to count incoming email but I had no access to them. Tried to access domain control panel and could not. attempted to domain web pages -- 3 had notice of suspension -- jimandwendy.com was 'page cannot be found'
  • Contacted Yahoo! and was told I would have to enter abuse report to Yahoo! Abuse. When I asked what information I was reporting and who I was reporting on he told me to enter my Yahoo! ID and said I would get a reply in 24 hours about whether my ID could be reinstated. I asked how I could access my domain control panel or my email server. He said I could not and had been cancelled because of abuse. I asked what happened to my website for jimandwendy.com and my business website at wildflowertech.com. He said he could not access them. I asked what would happen on my email server -- he said he did not know because they were all showing as terminated.
  • July 12, 2008 Received an email from Yahoo! It said:
    "I have analyzed your message and it is best addressed by our Account
    Verification team. To protect account security, this team requires specific
    information about your Yahoo! account that you provided during sign-up or when
    you last updated your account, so I will need to ask you to contact them
    directly to provide the necessary info to resolve your issue."
    It also gave the following information --
    Call 866-850-4303 (Open 7 days a week, 6 am - 6 pm Pacific Standard
    Time)
    I called at 3:15 pm mountain time and recorded message said office was closed.

I clicked the link in the email and was directed to the form I had filled out to report the error. I filled it out again. I received the same email reply.

  • July 12, 2008 -- I can log into Yahoo! Groups -- it says 'Hello Wourpet' I cannot customize my avatar. I cannot access my webmail. I cannot access my domain control panel. I get an error message on each of my domains -- even those registered through GoDaddy.com, because the routing information is on the Yahoo DNS server.