Arguing a Yahoo! Account Suspension
I've had a Yahoo! account practically as long as I've been on the Internet. I've practically abandoned the mail because of the amount of spam it receives every day, but I still use it from time to time and it has a lot of historical and nostalgic value due to the e-mails that are still in there.
I've also used my account for the Yahoo! Answers service to help spread information about credit freezes and avoiding scams like lifelock. I'm guessing that last one is why I got a generic letter like this:
Oops
Your account has been suspended.
If you feel there has been a mistake, please contact us at answers-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com.
Most likely, your account was suspended in violation of Yahoo! Answers community guidelines. Click here to read the full guidelines
In the meantime, feel free to browse Yahoo! Answers
Long story short, I asked them for an explanation, and their responses were all BS of one form or another. I used to have a lot longer and more detailed description of what happened next, but rather than get into all that, I'll leave it as simple advice: when something like this happens, complaining to the Better Business Bureau and consumer protection sites like the Consumerist for publicity are good, but won't probably help. Yahoo has the right to deal with whoever they want and, at best, you can argue that as a company that so aggressively entices people to use their services, they have at least some measure of obligation to treat people fairly, but that's a stretch.
In the end, the best possible thing you can do is avoid using Yahoo! services. There are plenty of alternatives out there and I, for one, have no interest in spending time and energy on an account that can be disabled at any time for no valid reason.
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I just had this happen to me as I was checking my email and twice, when I tried to reply, a message came up on my screen telling me about some other violation or suspension over me supposedly using yahoo messenger from another computer apparently while I was checking my email on my online computer!! What the hell?!
Makes me wonder if someone hacked my account so, I replied to yahoo that that is what I thought was going on and further more warned them that they’d better find the person who hacked my account before I did.
Being hacked is the only thing that I can think of that may have happened because about a week ago, I did have a loss of temper at yahoo answers under a different account in which I began to make posts directed at trolls to deliberately offend them and I continued with my irrational ranting until I got suspended.
Later, I went back under another old account that I reactivated but, I haven’t checked on it recently so, I don’t know if that one too has been suspended or not but, the account that I use on a regular bases should not have gotten an answers violation as I’ve never been to answers with that account or at least not any time this year so, how can I be suspended over something that I took no part in?!
It’s bound to be a hacker with some kind of key logger planted on me is the only thing I can figure.
I liked your end conclusion, “In the end, the best possible thing you can do is avoid using Yahoo! services for anything. There are plenty of alternatives out there and I, for one, have no interest in spending time with a company that’s willing to drop me at any time for no valid reason at all.”
I have referred to Yahoo! as Yahell for years. Their messenger software is a piece of shit in my opinion (constantly crashing, especially if you try to use your web cam with it!) and I can’t say much for their email service either, especially since you have to pay an annual fee in order to pick it up from a POP server and so many others, like Gmail, you can do either IMAP or POP retrieval with no charge.
And I found it so interesting that they have “partnered” with AT&T to provide the mail service for those with AT&T as their ISP. It was just another confirmation that they are in trouble economically, which I’ve seen reports on. And I would tie their problems to the very poor customer relations/service they provide to those who use their service. Their advertising dollars have to have been diminishing over time because people either leave or are kicked out in droves!
Anyway, thanks for the telling of your tale and the efforts you made. It probably didn’t change Yahoo! but it may have convinced some people to avoid them like a bad headache!
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for maintaining this log.
I had the same experience as Sudha above – a “Yahoo Messenger” violation. That, of course, is utterly BS because I chat with only two friends on there. Like you, I had a Yahoo email account which was (until the alleged violation) my personal email account for the last 8 years. The spam got into it, of course.
I cannot believe some of the responses from Yahoo I have received. They have actually encouraged me to sign up again. What in their mind are these Yahoos (pun intended) thinking?
I will quit using everything yahoo made. No more yahoo in my life.
I had it happen to me yesterday. I’ve been a member of Yahoo since somewhere around 1996 or 98. Same account all these years, that’s like over twelve years.
I had answered four questions on Yahoo Answers over the weekend all asking how to make money online. I have a blog that deals with that, so I gave my blog and links. It was a hundred percent relevant to the four questions being asked. I wasn’t spamming or anything.
Sure enough, yesterday, I get the suspension letter. I appeal, get the form letter of “no we’re not giving it back and we won’t tell you why.”
That’s what angers me the most, we aren’t told why, and their appeals system is horrible. You don’t get to really appeal anything. Basically, you are considered guilty without the possibility of any recourse. They don’t seem to care what you say or even read what you write, they just spit out a form letter.
I use my Yahoo account for alot of things. And it’s just beyond upsetting, especially after all the years I’ve used it. I was upset when they got rid of Geocities and then the webpages. But this is even worse.
THOSE BASTARDS.I JUST GOT MY YAHOO ANSWERS ACCOUNT SUSPENDED.I WAS LEVEL 5 WITH SIX THOUSAND POINTS.IT TOOK ME TWO YEARS TO GET THIS FAR.AND THEY DELETED IT WITH OUT EVEN A WARNING.MY ANSWER REALLY WAS AGAINST THE TERMS OF SERVICE ANS I WAS “PROMOTING SUICIDE”. ACTUALLY THAT WAS A JOKE BUT THEY SUSPENDED MY ACCOUNT THE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.I DID NOT GET A WARNING OR A SECOND CHANCE TO EVEN TRY TO RECTIFY MY MISTAKE.I TRIED POSTING AN APPEAL WITH VERY POLITELY,NOT IT GOT REJECTED.I JUST NOW POSTED A BIT MORE STRICT APPEAL HIGHLIGHTING MY INCONVENIENCE.I DON’T KNOW IF THIS WILL WORK BUT IF IT DOESN’T,I WILL GO ALL OUT AND SCREAM AT THEM USING THE F WORD AND EVERY OTHER SWEAR WORD I KNOW.AFTER ALL,WHAT DO I HAVE TO LOSE? IF THAT DOESN’T WORK,I WILL TYPE AN APPEAL IN WHICH I WILL PITY THE STAFF MEMBER IN THE KIND OF LAME JOB HE HAS AND THE MEAGER LIFE HE LEADS.I WILL ALSO MENTION HOW HE MAKES LESS THAN 1/10 OF MY SALARY(not true) AND ALSO MENTION HIS MOTHER IN A NUMBER OF OCCASIONS.THIS MIGHT GET MY ACCOUNT DELETED,BUT I WILL SET UP A NEW ONE IN G-MAIL.IT’S NOT LIKE I HAVE ANYTHING TO LOSE.AT LEAST I WILL SPEAK MY HEART.IF THAT DOESN’T GET MY ACCOUNT DELETED,I WILL CONTINUE TO INSULT THEM.THIS IS HOW PISSED I AM AT MY SUSPENSION.I WILL ALSO TRY WRITING A THREAT LIKE YOU VERY SMARTLY DID (this too will be a lie but who gives a crap).I AM ALSO MAD AS I DON’T KNOW HOW TO MAKE A NEW ANSWERS ACCOUNT WITHOUT MAKING A NEW E-MAIL ID.I CAN’T EBEN ASK IN Y!A AS MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN SUSPENDED.I HATE THOSE YAHOO STAFF MEMBERS!!!!!
My FRIEND, YOU ARE A ROLE MODEL TO EVERY Y!A MEMBER WHO HAS BEEN UNJUSTLY SUSPENDED BY THE CRUEL YAHOO COMPANY BY STANDING UP AGAINST THE TIDE OF UNJUST SUSPENSIONS.
I don’t know if laughing is the right thing here sorry if its disrespectful but your blog cracked me up lol, I hope you do do all that ,they deserve it 🙂
I’ve also just had my account terminated without any specific reason given. My yahoo account has been my main email since ’98. I am sure that I didn’t do anything to violate their TOS so I am guessing that I got hacked and my account used for nefarious purposes. Yahoo doesn’t seem to care.
It’s completely unacceptable for them to close my account for good, without the chance for appeal, like this. I have so many important emails that I need but I guess they don’t give a damn.
They also said I could sign up for a new yahoo account if I wanted to but there is no way in hell I will ever use Yahoo services ever again.
In fact, I too want to help warn others to move away from Yahoo before they screw more people over.
I guess this is my first step in that regard.
My account was suspended too, I read the terms of service a few times and didn’t find anything that I violated. I have had my account for a few years and I never say anything mean or harmful. Then my account was terminated, so I wrote to yahoo asking for them to tell me why it was terminated and they won’t tell me. This makes me really mad because I don’t think that I did anything wrong. Now I am not sure whether or not I should try and create a new yahoo account or not, because I might have to create a new email and I can’t do that. Does anyone know of another site like yahoo answers that won’t terminate me for no reason?
hello
yahoo suspended my all yahoo accounts both email and small busines so i cant reach my domain control panel , they also changed the nameservers , how can i retake my domains? any iders? will they cancel my domain plan? or will get them after they expires ?
Please advise
best regards
I’m glad I came across this post as I recently had my yahoo account of several years terminated(claims of violation of TOS by yahoo with no specific detail). Who’s knows which of the 10+ items it could have been. I don’t believe I’ve violated any and would have loved to know which one. At first when the issue happened, I thought my account had gotten hacked and reported it as such via the yahoo help channels(we all know that this went nowhere). Reported it a second time and told them that their notice of a 48hr or whatever it was response was never met. I would agree that this is not an organization to count on and that with that type of service, they will not last. Find another provider for services as Yahoo is not the only one and soon it will fall by the wayside.
Yes, it sucks!
I had the exact same experience with Yahoo. I bet they pay less than 5 minutes of attention to each case and send the same emails around.
What is customer service focusing their effort on? Their search engine?
i have just recently had my yahoo account suspended after holding it for ten years.
i was told that i had violated ‘tos’ but when i asked which part yahoo would not say. i have tried numerous attempts to get yahoo to tell me which part of ‘tos’ i have presumably violated but they just won’t tell me.
in the ten years i have not received one violation so for this to happen is a very poor situation.
all i can think is that my account was deleted through a mistake on their side which is why they won’t admit to their wrong doings.
it is pointless asking or trying to attempt to restore your account as they seem to just send auto emails.
what is strange is that yahoo seem to want people in these situations to create new accounts,this totally baffles me.
been with google for the same length of time with no hassle or complaint.
as for yahoo their customer service is very poor and people out there need to be aware of this.
mike
you know why they wont tell you the reason, why they wont tell ANYONE the reason?; My educated guess is THEY DO NOT FREAKING KNOW, as you say they prob barely looked at any of it and are too retarded to link one email/suspension to the next so they simply do not know i bet, is this good enough ABSOLUTELY NOT our hands are tied
Wow. That was bad for you, huh? Well, I first started to use Y!A on 10/14/11. First, I got 6 reported questions (none of them were violations), then on January 12th at 3:44 PM, I got a suspension notice. It said this:
Hello samuraijacksgirl4ever(samuraijacksgirl4ever)
You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended.
If you feel you were not in violation, please contact our Customer Care and tell us why.
Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care
I contacted them & it was not understandable. They didn’t tell me what “content” it was. I tried to tell them what it was, but they didn’t tell me. The reply:
Hello,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers Customer Care.
We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers.
You have posted content in violation of our Community Guidelines or
Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended from
Yahoo! Answers and you will no longer be able to access this service.
Community Guidelines help to keep Yahoo! Answers a safe and useful
community, so we appreciate your consideration of its rules.
Your access to other Yahoo services is not affected. However, if your
use of your Yahoo! account is brought to our attention again, and we
believe that such use violates our Yahoo! Terms of Service, then your
account may be terminated without further notice.
Please refer to the Answers Community Guidelines and Yahoo! Terms of
Service for further information on participating in Yahoo! Answers.
Yahoo! Terms of Service:
http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html
Yahoo! Answers Community Guidelines:
http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers Customer Care.
Your case number for this issue is 89103925. Please reference it in all
future communication about this particular issue.
Regards,
Rachel Smith
Yahoo! Answers Customer Care
I had to make new accounts, but still, I kept getting suspended. I had to delete ALL of my accounts! I decided to use Answerbag. I’m never using Y!A again! Don’t use it again! I hope my entire account doesn’t get terminated!
Hey, there’s always Wiki Answers, Askville & Answerbag! They may be different, but they’re better that Yahoo! Answers!
Yahoo! usually sucks. Few people left the site for other services because of the following:
-They were sick of all the maintenance
-They were complaining about the glitches
-They were sick of all the problems
-They were getting all their accounts suspended/terminated!
I still use it, but it gets messed up. Here’s are some of Yahoo’s BIGGEST problems:
Y!A:
-Couldn’t change our names/avatars because of error 999
-Questions not showing up due to pre-filtering software (it happened with my last acct when NONE of them showed)
-Every question I clicked in P&S showed this page: “This question has been deleted”, but then it was not just P&S, it was the entire site! EVERY question (not the ones I answered or asked) was deleted!
-I had a lot of reported questions (none of them were violations, but max was 6 in one day! Seriously!)
-Every acct I made was suspended (but I didn’t do ANYTHING wrong!)
Yahoo!:
-When we logged in, it didn’t show!
-Some people got phishing emails (I didn’t, so I’m lucky)
-When I opened Mail (the same day that the homepage didn’t show we were logged in), I got a message saying “We’re experiencing technical difficulties”. I kept refreshing & refreshing & it still happened! Sometimes it shows a 404 error & a search page.
I suggest you switch to Gmail, AOL or Hotmail
Yahoo and Yahoo employees all are Motherfcukers, full jealous of others intelligence, if your account cross the 75% best answer line, you are going to be suspended without any reason.. No prior notice, no chance if you have mistaken anything that is against the terms. W T F. I was at level 5 with 5000 points, It took me one month day & night to get this far & I didn’t do anything to violate their TOS but, Yahoo Bhainchood deleted my account. I made an appeal but it flushed in Yahooz ass hole. Gaand maar lo in haramzadon ki agar kahin mil jayen to.
Sorry man. yahoo answers account suspension doesn’t seem justified in your case. With 75% best answer you were very intelligent and I think that’s why they got suspicious. Keep low percent best answer
Thanks for the giggle!
OMG yahoo are useless. The exact same thing happend to me mutiple times, each time, opening a new account. I have no idea why I’ve been suspended. I’ve appeal twice and had no response, does anyone no what I should do, please help
Can you tell me how to get in touch with who you contacted. Appreciate it. Sorry you have to do yahoo’s job. Isnt there someway they can answer to some governmentl regulations?
I just contacted them using the e-mail they provided: answers-abuse@cc.yahoo-inc.com
My 88 and 84 year old parents are having their account deleted in “60 days” . Their mail links lead to no answers. I am positive they have not breeched any of the terms . I am positive yahoo is a noneffecient useless company as it does not care about customers as it makes sure customers can not contact them.
I agree.
I too was duped by yahoo answers citing some fictional violation I supposedly committed. I too tried to get it back, wrote to them etc with no helpful recourse given or reinstatement.
I read the bit about their confidentiality that is not legally right of them as you do have the legal right to your own information so they are hiding behind this.
To be more exact in what else I did was years ago now so my memory doesn’t quite go back that far but i did try a few different avenues to no avail 🙁
basically yahoo are $^%%^&^% for lack of a better word. I hope spmepne gets payback on them someday and i would revel in it joyously 🙂
I put in my COX email address since YAHOO has disabled mine without ANY warning, I went to go read about EYE FLOATERS, and then some pop-up, came on and said I cannot be in the conversation, because I violated their guidelines.
Not sure how since I always only read articles that I like.
I do not click on Kardashians nonsense, so not sure who I offended.
I sue yahoo for POLITICAL emails and to put credit on my DIGICEL phone in JAMAICA.
Now I have to open a new DIGICEL account through a new email, perhaps GMAIL.
Soon, YAHOO will suspend everyone and they will be OUT OF BUSINESS.
HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU YA-FOO.
It asked me for my password, and then allowed me to log in, but not respond to anything.
They even took my SAVED EMAILS AWAY!
THAT IS MESSED UP.
BYE-BYE….tons of email addys out there.
Sorry to the DCCC if you try to contact me…maybe its a GOP thang~
DWL, YAHOO has disabled ever single post or question about their “suspensions”.
Why not call it what it really is..BANNED FOR LIFE, you sily, poor business idiots.
Did You get your account back?
I did not. I just gave up on participating on Yahoo answers.
It’s very very simple.
you were making statements and ranting,
NOT asking questions or Giving proper Answers.
ditto yahoo non answer to the appeal,, sent them 3 x, like dealing with the intelligence of a slot machine