Yahoo has some wonderful free services, but I would like to give you one bit of advice when it comes to Yahoo: Don't PURCHASE anything from them.
I purchased a domain from them. Because it was so cheap, I bought 5 years of it. I saw the warning during purchase that they do not give refunds, but I didn't think anything of it. I have domains with many other companies and I have had them for many years. I have never had a problem with them, so I was sure that I would not have a problem with Yahoo. I was wrong.
Three months into the five year period, Yahoo shut my domain down and also shut down my Yahoo ID. I had received a couple of emails from Yahoo but they looked so much like spam emails, that that is what I thought they were. I read them but didn't dare use the links in them for fear of a scam.instead I went to my Yahoo account to see if it listed any problems and it didn't. Then one day the domain and Yahoo account quit working.
When this happened I learned firsthand about Yahoo's Service. What a nightmare! Yahoo does not give out their phone numbers or email addresses. They have a Help section on their website and that is it. The only thing I could do is leave a message. I found out that when the Help section said that someone would contact me in 24 hours, it took 48 hours. And if it said 48 hours, it took 4 days.
When they did send me an email, it was a form email that did not answer my question. We sent emails back and forth for two weeks (even when they said they would get right back with me, it took at least 24 hours for them to respond). Some of my emails they lost, some they forgot and asked for the same information again. Finally, after two weeks, I was told that they could not help me and I was given a telephone number.
I was excited when I called the number and someone answered. No waiting. But that person could not help me, so I had to be transferred to someone else, and then someone else. After two days of talking on the phone, I found out that my account could not be reactivated and I was out 4 and a half years of domain service. The last person did file a complaint with the higher ups at Yahoo for me. That was a few month ago. I have not heard anything from them since then.
I think that my domain was reported as sending out spam. I think this because some malicious people had reported to my other domains that I had sent out spam and I was able to explain and prove the situation to them, but Yahoo never allowed me to answer the accusation.
What I ended up finding out was that they could not enable the domain service without connecting it to the original Yahoo ID which had been deactivated by Yahoo. They would not change it to another Yahoo ID. So I had to talk to another department about activating the Yahoo ID. That department insisted that they have no way of activating a Yahoo ID after it has been deactivated even though I was never allowed to give my side of the story.
They do not give refunds but they would enable my domain if only the other department would activate the old ID. What a mess!
One of the problems with Yahoo is that no one really knows anything. If you ask them a question that is not in the list of questions that they can answer, they will put you on hold and later come back with an answer that does not answer your question. When that does not work, they transfer you to someone else.
I have never dealt with a more incompetent support staff (and I have dealt with many).
Yahoo does well with their support of their free services, but many of their pay services are rather new and they have not developed good support strategies for them. They don't seem to realize that some of their services are not free and that you should receive better service for those paid services. Maybe this is because they know that they don't give refunds and there is nothing you can do if they decide they don't want to give you the service anymore. They also put it all under a very general Terms of Service agreement which is so general that anyone could be accused of breaking them.
I know that Yahoo does not intend to rip off people, but for me (and I assume, for many others) it has turned out to be a rip off that took my hard earned money. If you plan to purchase something from Yahoo, BEWARE!
Ray
Ellsworth, Kansas
U.S.A.
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