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.

2 comments:

pearlie said...

i'm so sorry for you ... i read yr entire post from end to end (i more often than not scan read), thinking who am i to complain with my teenyweeny problem with yahoo. hope you'll quickly solve it.

wourpet said...

With Yahoo! I suspect your teeny weeny problem could very well grow. Don't let it slide.