I am self-employed. I am a wholesaler who sells different odds and ends (items that could be given as a gift or used to decorate a home or an office). A couple of months ago, my wife and I decided to sell our products at the Yahoo store.
My wife and I had trouble setting up the store. Yahoo's system was not making it easy to start our own business at www.yahoostore.com. Yahoo Store asked me to choose a name for my business. I tried plugging the name of my business into the designated box, but not all of it would fit. I had to choose a shorter name for my business.
The next problem we encountered was that Yahoo's system would not accept our bank information. It asked for the expiration date on our credit card and said that the expiration date was invalid. I tried another credit card, and the system would not accept the expiration date on that card either. I have had these cards for quite some time, so there should have been no reason for the system to reject them, as both cards were due to expire in 2004.
The next problem was that Yahoo's system asked for the starting date of our business. I put in 04/02/02 (the actual date my home business was started), and the system showed me an example of how they wanted me to fill in the start date. I entered my start date in the designated box, and the system said the start date was unacceptable. I tried putting the date in all kinds of ways, but the system said the start-up date of the business was invalid. My wife and I thought maybe we should skip right down to adding merchandise to our store.
We tried to add products, but the system would not let us. At this point, my wife and I had become very frustrated. I was able to locate the contact us section and found an email address. I wrote to Yahoo that I was having a hard time setting up my business at the Yahoo store. I also wrote that I was very frustrated and that I gave up on trying to set up a business at Yahoo Store. I told them to please cancel because I was having so much difficulty, and I asked them not to take money out of my bank account.
For several days I checked for a response to my email. The only response I got was an email from Yahoo asking me to take a survey on how well they did with Yahoo Store. In the surveys I again described the problems I was having setting up the store. A couple of days went by with no response from Yahoo to my complaint, just more requests to take surveys on how well they did. A month went by with still no response to my complaints, just more surveys.
Today, 12/20/02, I looked at my online bank statement. I noticed the balance in my bank account was much lower than it should be. This is what I saw on the statement:
Description: withdrawal
Purchase Yah*yahoo store 408- $49.95
349-515 CA.
I called the telephone number. Unfortunately, I did not get the name of the man I spoke to. He told me he was a supervisor and that I could tell him the problem. I told him that Yahoo took money out of my account, that I was not able to set up my Yahoo store, and that I now had nothing to show for the $49.95 Yahoo took. I gave him my name. His records could not find my name, and his records showed no withdrawals from any bank account listed under the name I gave him. His attitude was that he did not believe me and that it sounded to him like I was making up this story. I told him I would give him the phone number of the bank I deal with and he could talk to someone there, who would tell him that this withdrawal had really been taken out by Yahoo Store. He said nothing when I told him to call the bank.
The worst part of it all is that the money Yahoo took out of my account was meant for a hotel stay. I was planning to fly home and spend Christmas with my family on the East Coast. Once I got to the East Coast, the money was meant to pay for a hotel in my hometown. I told the man on the phone what the money was meant for. He displayed no sympathy for my situation.
I was getting so frustrated talking to this man that I let my wife talk to him. When my wife talked to him, he still could not find my name in the system and could not explain how $49.95 was taken out of my account. My wife finally remembered the name we had given our Yahoo store. He found our store name in his system. Then he eventually found my name listed under the store name, but he had no bank account information in his records. I got back on the phone and asked him how it was possible that he had my store name and my full name but no bank information. He could not explain it. We told him, "You have our $49.95, and we have nothing to show for it."
We told him again and again that we just could not open a Yahoo store. He said his records showed that we had in fact opened one. We told him there were no products added to the store because Yahoo's system would not let us add any items. He said that was not his problem. My wife then said, "So what you are saying is that regardless of whether products are added to that store or not, just because we tried to open a store, you are going to charge us for it anyway." His response was yes. We will be charged for an empty store. It is not his concern whether the store has any items. What matters is that we are paying for the space. I told him that I had sent an email canceling the Yahoo store because of the difficulty setting it up. He said he receives all emails that come into the system and does not recall such an email from me canceling service.
So I told him that basically what he was saying is that Yahoo stole my money and there is nothing I can do about it. He did not see it as stealing. I told him that if he has no record of money being taken out of my account, but my online bank statement shows Yahoo Store withdrew the money, and I have nothing to show for the $49.95, I consider it Yahoo stealing money out of my account.
My wife got back on the phone and said that since he refused to help us, I guess we have no choice but to lose $49.95, and that we won't be using Yahoo again.
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