Silly Yahoo

September 23, 2005 by Jeff Jarvis

I wanted to get back into Yahoo mail since everybody’s raving, so I tried to sign in but found they’d killed my account, as is their want. I can’t even reactivate it. How stupid. You lose a customer. They try to come back. And you slam the door in their face. Who do you think you are, AOL?

  • Angelos

    Can’t reactivate?

    I haven’t had that problem. The address I use for postings here is a valid address I have, to protect me from spam when I sign up for things (like newspapers) from vendors I don’t trust.

    It has been de-activated on me before, when I forgot to visit it for 90 days (and empty the thousands of spams), but I just turned it on again.

    Regardless, you’re right. This is all automated, no-human-contact stuff. Why would they TRY to make things difficult for people?

  • http://unbeknownst.net KirkH

    The new mail system is only available to select beta users right now. My account hasn’t switched over yet but it shouldn’t be long.

  • Mark S.

    I had a similar problem a few months ago with Netscape’s email account. My account was still active, but all my saved mail was gone.

  • http://michaelzimmer.blogspot.com Michael

    Someone else probably took the account name for thier own use.

  • http://blogspot.erasend.com kingdom2000

    ^ Yeah both are true. Some accounts haven’t been moved but also your handle (or email address) maybe have been taken by another. Usually when accounts are deleted in most systems the userid becomes available again as a choice so there is nothing stopping others from grabbing it. In yahoo that is especially likely as your email account gives you access to yahoo chat and the ability to create multiple profiles. Everytime someone creates a profiles that handle used is no longer available to create new accounts with.

    So ex:
    your was buzzmachine@yahoo.com
    You didn’t use the account, yahoo deleted it.
    I come along and create a chat profile called buzzmachine.
    You try to create your yahoo account again, but will not be able because I “own” the handle buzzmachine now. You could then try to send an email to buzzmachine@yahoo.com but because I created a chat profile, not email profile, it will not go through.

  • LL Cool F

    I believe the phrase is “as is their wont” not “want”.

  • http://blogebrity.com/blog Nick Douglas

    As is their WONT.

  • http://blogebrity.com/blog Nick Douglas

    Damn.

  • David

    Once you use GMAIL you’d never bother with Yahoo.

  • David

    >Once you use GMAIL you’d never bother with Yahoo.

    RSS Feeds for Inbox and for “Labels”.

    Ability to forward mail for free.

    POP3 Access For free.

    Unlimited account size.

    Ability to set up Filters for spam.

    Ability to have a catch all type of address. Meaning you can subscribe to newsletters or websites with something like this:

    MyGMailAccountName+BuzzMachine@gmail.com

    MyGMailAccountName+NYTimes@gmail.com

    MyGMailAccountName+BlahBlahBlah@gmail.com

    If any of the sites start spamming you, you can just filter them out and put them in spam folder.

    Why would anyone “yahoooooooooooooooo”

  • http://erasend.blogspot.com kingdom2000

    I have been using yahoo for about 8 years now. I never had a complaint about it. Not sure what mean about free forwarding either as I never had to pay to forward stuff. Actually alot of the stuff you describe yahoo does. I do have a gmail account…i only log into it now and then to keep it active but don’t see any reason to switch to it yet over yahoo.

  • http://www.poewar.com John Hewitt

    My Yahoo troubles are much worse. I was a big Yahoo fan. I used Yahoo IM and their Radio service. I used them every day. One day last week I went to log in and it wouldn’t let me. My password was suddenly invalid. i suspect this is because someone hijaaked the account.

    I tried to go through Yahoo to get the account reactivated and they have refused at every turn, citing a company policy that they will not give out information is the e-mail address you give them is not the same as the one in their records. Well, I have tried every e-mail address I ever had to no avail. My assumption is that whoever hijaacked my account changed it.

    I have done eveeything I can to prove to them that I am me, going as far as to give them the credit card number I use to pay for their Radio service. No luck. They will not deviate from their policy, which is not to give otu any infromation without a ‘valid’ e-mail.

    So, I’m stuck. Thanks yahoo. I’ll think of you every time I call my credit card people to change my numbers.

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  • Deepak Ahuja

    i totally agree with..John Hewitt

  • Shally

    Hey, in the last sentence, you wrote: “Who do you think you are, AOL?”
    Yahoo and AOL are the trademarks of 2 different companies. I can’t understand your post!