Sunday, March 8, 2009

Yahoo Answers canceled my account!



Horrible customer service is getting really old.

A couple of years ago eBay suspended my account for a reason only the Pope may know.
Really. People say "You must have done something!" How about these apples? I had 120 Positives and 0 Negatives at eBay over 5 years. A lady complained she did not receive a $7.00 item. I emailed her and asked if she wanted a replacment. Twenty minutes later, BANG, my eBay account is suspended. After a month of emails they offered to reinstate my account. I told them to go fly a kite. Two days ago the mighty Yahoo Answers canceled my account. Here is the email I received about the cancellation:

<>

Hello greffy (wahmwed)

You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your content has been deleted. Community Guidelines help to keep Yahoo! Answers a safe and useful community, so we appreciate your consideration of its rules.

Question: should i pay someone to dispute items on my credit report to repair my bad credit?

Question Details: I am about to graduate from college and I would really like to improve my horrible credit score (541), all of which come from charged off credit cards when I first started college :-( A friend of mine found this guy who she says repaired her credit for about $500 by disputing negative items on her report and getting them removed, which made it alot easier for her to get a new car, and soon she will by buying a house. Should I go to this guy?? Does that stuff really work?? I would like to do it myself, but I wouldn't even know where to start and I would not have the time, especially with work and school... Most of the items on my report are 2-3 years old... I need advice.. Please help me improve from a 541...

Deleted Answer: I think you should try to go it alone. There is plenty of information on the web to help you get started and to finish the adventure. I believe you will learn more from this little exercise than you did in Business 101 AND 102 combined. And you will profit from this post-grad work as well!

Violation Reason:Community Guidelines and/or Terms Of Service Violation

Yahoo! Answers is a service provided to all of our Yahoo! users and we reserve the right to remove your content at any time for any reason. By posting content on Yahoo! Answers, you agree that you will not post any content that is in violation of our Community Guidelines, or the Yahoo! Terms of Service. You may read the Yahoo! Community Guidelines at: http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php We invite you to visit the Yahoo! Terms of Service at: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

If you feel this content was removed in error, please contact Customer Care and tell us why.

Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care

< /snip>


So, I took their invitation to tell them why I was removed in error. One day later I received this reply (must have done some thorough research on this one):


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Hello, Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers. We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers and/or the deactivation of your Yahoo! ID. We reviewed your case, and decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement. Once an account is disabled for a violation of the Terms of Service, the subscriber to the account will lose the ability to log in and access the account and its contents (including email and content stored with any other Yahoo! service). The account also will not be reactivated. Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account, we invite you to read the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines to help ensure your new account is not deactivated. Yahoo! Terms of Service: http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html Yahoo! Community Guidelines: http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers. Your case number for this issue is 58505257. Please reference it in all future communication about this particular issue. Regards, Cris Allen Yahoo! Customer Care 58505257 For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit: http://help.yahoo.com/

< /snip >


The good people at Yahoo Answers "
We reviewed your case, and decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement." Well, ok, maybe I did something wrong. Perhaps you did not like my source link to a page on the web? Certainly the answer I gave cannot be the reason. And that would be OK with me if you would simply tell me WHY my account was canceled.

Just give me a decent reason. I am not an unreasonable fellow. I understand how businesses need to protect themselves especially when they have a few too many lawyers on staff.


We are not idiots out here in real life, Yahoo Answers! I know I do not pay to participate in your website but at least treat us with some respect.

Well, at least you said "Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account...". Thanks for that, at least. That bitch eBay did not extend any alternatives and this may imply that your recommend that I do start a new account. That is easy enough but I would lose a lot of my hard work to build up the 450 trust points I had with you over a couple of years.

I've done business with you in other areas, Yahoo!. (Exclamation point is part of their name, right?) You've taken some of my money.


I guess I will have to do all my business with Google from now on. Until they crap on me. Then I will have to buy a gun a Amazon, I guess.

Please comment with your thoughts on this matter.

Photo by Jerry Wong


Greg Cryns

Wahm Search Engine - affordable advertising
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4 comments:

  1. Hi Greg,

    I don't work for Yahoo, but I have a guess as to why your account was removed.

    Yahoo's terms state:

    Exploiting the community

    Yahoo! Answers is a place to gain knowledge, not customers, page views, or dates. If you have years of experience in something, have a special hobby, own your own business, or if you are a knowledge partner, it's OK to accompany a good, on-topic answer with a link to your website, blog, or email to offer more information. However, it is not OK to post links that are unrelated to the topic or are clearly meant only to solicit others for personal and financial gain.

    I'm guessing your "source link to a page on the web" was likely an affiliate link. Yahoo doesn't like this. It's OK to link to your blog, especially if you've written a post about that topic, but linking directly to an affiliate program seems scammy to them.

    It's the same deal at EZineArticles, Squidoo, etc. All of them will pull your content if it doesn't have any content, but just an affiliate link. And honestly...your answer doesn't have a lot of content.

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  2. Yes, that may be true. It was not an affiliate link but a link to one of my own websites. So, you are probably right but why don't they just tell me that and permit me the opportunity to change my evil ways. ;)

    Also, if you've read any of the posts on that site you will know that many of the answers have a lot less info than I gave on this one. I really don't think my answer was the reason. Perhaps someone just does not like me telling someone what I really think about those credit "services"? Hmmm?

    ReplyDelete
  3. The same thing happened to me. Yahoo banned my answers account and they continue to surreptitiously connive and beguile their way out of every question I ask them by sending me some mass message. Now I would be fine with this if I knew what I had done wrong but when yahoo withholds information from me, despite the fact that the withholding of information concerning my fate, when viewed from a judicial standpoint, is unconstitutional and I quote "and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation"(Amendment VI to the Constitution of the United of America), that is when I become rightfully indignant. I am with you on this one Greg. I am sick and tired of large companies voicing their control over us through mass messages, spurious answers and stealthy discourse.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm so glad I found this! The same thing happened to me...just gave some friendly advice and an link to an article that I wrote and posted on my blog. The article, by the way, was an exact answer to the question being asked.I received the exact same email responses. I cannot for the life of me figure out what I did wrong...absolutely ridiculous if you ask me.

    ReplyDelete