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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Hear back from them yet?
No not yet. I only sent it this morning 🙂
I’ll be sure to update here when I do (or if I don’t)
i see you have same problems with most of us… its just that most are us are too stupid and no idea how to issue a complain in a polite yet poisonous manner… (if u know wat i mean)….
hope u have a solution to this….
ill be checking back… but for now… tata and gud luck…
Y!A is a friggin’ nightmare. no matter what political persuasion you fall under, you are likely to offend someone and become a target if you post in any of the politics forums. worse is that there are some obvious psychotics (and children) with self-esteem issues. i have three accounts because i’ve noticed that whenever i get a “top contributor” badge my violation notices increase exponentially. so i basically have to stop posting on an account whenever it gets “badged”. i have appealed a number of violations successfully though. in some cases i have argued that the questions posted represented a corruption of the form and so any answer was therefore valid. i said in my letter that if they wanted to delete the question i’d answered i was fine with that, but if the so-called question was allowed to remain then my answer should as well. in other cases i’ve simply found answers that matched mine in tone and wording and presented them as evidence in my behalf. another tactic is to REFUSE to go to final appeal after receiving your violation notice. continue to go back to the first return address and demand that they honor their own terms of service, i.e. actually read the first appeal and respond instead of ignoring it and sending a form letter. another thing that works is calling them out and stating that you are aware of the fact that the first name on the denial of your appeal ISN’T a real person and and including your number and requesting a phone call.
I wasn’t given the choice of appealing it, they didn’t even bother letting me know what I supposedly did or what question(s) were the problem. They dumped me and told me to read the ToS (which the link was dead at the time). It’s a pile of steaming doggie doo.
SAME PROBLEM HERE! I AM BOY-COTTING YAHOO>
The exact same thing happened to me and I wanted to find out why, since Yahoo! wouldn’t answer. I found an article on wikipedia about Yahoo! Answers. Apparently there are trolls who create multiple accounts and falsely report random users. I believe this is what happened to me.
The issue for me is that Yahoo wouldn’t tell me or give me a chance to fight it. A company that will drop you so easily is a waste of my time.
so how long is suspension cause i’ve been suspended for about a week will i ever get reinstated?
Forever. You won’t get reinstated.
I’m having the same problem with yahoo. Someone went through answers and flagged all of my answers, and I got the same form letter responses as the person posting this.
I asked for an explanation as to how what I wrote violated the TOS and of coarse I just got the second form letter saying it had been reveiwed and did indeed violate the TOS. Still no explanation…I seriously doubt this review was done by a living person who understands english. In fact here is one of the “violation” answers:
Question: I want to flip or rent a property, I have 5000 to invest. Is their a program or a way to start?
Question Details: This will be my first real estate purchase. My credit isn’t the best but, I’m repairing it now. Is thier a program or a way that will allow me to start with $5000.00 and is this the time to invest with the market the way it is? And what kind of property ( distressed,foreclosure,etc.) would you recommend?
Deleted Answer: If it’s your first real estate purchase, I suggest living in the property. You’ll have a much broader range of financing options available to you as an owner occupant instead of an investor. If you’re willing to fix the place up while you’re living there you may be able to get a better deal on a fixer…but don’t try to do too much. Paint, flooring, fixtures that’s about it for the first go. Look for a property priced so that you will be comfortable with the payments so that when you’re ready to buy your 2nd property, you can rent it out and not lose money. Best place to start is by talking with a local Realtor and lender. If your credit isn’t repaired enough for approval there are other options. You could find someone who wants to partner with you and co-sign the loan. You could find a lease option, but I don’t recommend that in most cases.
Violation Reason:Community Guidelines and/or Terms Of Service Violation
So, because I participated and answered someone’s questions in good faith with the intention of providing useful information, I may now lose all my emails and attachments after years of being a loyal yahoo customer…and with absolutely no reasonable explanation or warning. If I had known that was possible, there’s no way I would have even bothered with yahoo answers in the first place.
btw, If any one can see how the answer above could have been a yahoo answers violation, please let me know. I’m just looking for a reasonable explanation, not a mindless form letter.
@Damon: I doubt you did violate their terms since I know for a fact that they will dump you without cause (me for example). Note that though they say your e-mail is blocked, I was able to still access my e-mail. Not that I’ll use it for much knowing that they might dump me any time for now reason and also because it’s constantly full of spam anyway.
Just got suspended/terminated for violating TOS of yahoo. They indicated in was in the area of “yahoo answers”. Only thing I can think of is my 12 year old daughter ask “what type of jobs can a 12 year old do”? They keep emailing me my account is gone. Any recourses?? Please let me know.
Howard, I have not been able to find any way to convince them to be reasonable about this. As far as I can tell, there’s nothing that can be done if they choose to use a stupid policy that destroys their own user base.
If you need answers to questions, I’d suggest finding a forum that’s in the specific area of interest or creating a new Answers account and not bothering to build points knowing that eventually they’ll kick your account for no good reason.
Well, I was just suspended today after only posting a few answers to questions on Yahoo Answers for the past two days. I am positive I did not violate any TOS or Community Guidelines. I have appealed and we’ll see how that goes, but based on what I’ve been reading here and at other sites I don’t have any hope.
It sounds like Yahoo Answers may have a fatal flaw in allowing users to report abuse, then acting immediately on that to suspend accounts.
No problem, because I will be happy to move my e-mail accounts and other services away from Yahoo if they do not provide some sort of customer protection. And yes, Yahoo, we who sign up for your free services are indeed customers … not “users.” Didn’t you learn anything from Seth Godin?
Well, true to everyone else’s experience, I received an obvious form letter saying basically that they’ve reviewed my case and are permanently suspending me, including e-mail. They gave me no specific reason, even though I asked twice.
I could still access e-mail but am pulling all of my services with Yahoo, including paid search advertising for my business on Yahoo.com. I will also gladly spread the word, and I encourage others to do as well, about Yahoo’s awful customer service in this matter. Do not waste your time with Yahoo Answers. There are many more ways to establish a good reputation online, something Yahoo will only grasp as they are shutting their doors.
Well said Scott. It looks like Yahoo isn’t the only one with unfair policies:
http://www.jeremyduffy.com/amazoncom-kicking-customers-out-of-the-store
damn , ive only just read all this,i put in another post on here about my experiences with yahoo, they terminated my account too, and why dont yahoo use the term account terminated instead of account suspended? as in my eyes a suspension means “temporary” NOT “indefinately” i was thinking oh good my account will be returned its only been suspended but i learned that it was permanently gone. and jeremy you should get the perfect revenge for yourself and for us and make a rival site like yahoo(give them some competition) you would be the perfect man for the job!!!!
UGH! I just had this exact same experience yesterday! I was so upset when I received the email about my account being suspended. I have never done anything against the guidelines. If I ever respond to a question I am always supportive and sometimes will offer some information. But, it said in the email from yahoo that it had to do with Answers7. Well, I had never even heard of this! Apparently it is the Australia version of yahoo Answers. So, I filed an appeal and said I wanted to know just what I had done to get suspended! I got the same form letter you did with the links to the guidelines, etc. And, I followed that up with another appeal and received another form letter telling me nothing about why I was suspended. And, then I sent one more appeal in and got the letter that said they decided to terminate my account! I thought this meant my entire yahoo account too…but my email still works…which allowed me to send everyone in my address book my new non-yahoo email address. So, I too am boycotting yahoo!
I’m really glad you posted this information. I thought I was the only one who had this happen. Yahoo needs to get a better handle on their customer service and this ridiculous suspension thing!
Yeah, same freak’en thing happened to me. Essentially I’ve begun migrating away from using any Yahoo services at all. I actually pay for my email account, but that won’t be getting another check from me.
What really ticks me off is that if I had done something that I felt really broke the TOS I would have said, “oh well.” and not thought twice about my suspension and just created another account. The fact that my answer did not break any of the TOS stuff and I still got suspended really ticked me off.
I understand why they are being a hard @ss about this, it just makes logistics easier for them I guess, but it will end up being Yahoo answers’ downfall.
Thanks for sharing your story Chris. This seems to be a pervasive poor service problem on Yahoo’s part. It makes me think I should be more cautious the next time I try to join a service even if they have a big name.
I am so sorry this is happening to all of us but in the same note I am relieved to see I’m not the only one. I’ve been racking my brain all day trying to figure out what I could have possibly done wrong to have my account “suspended”. Turns out I probably didn’t do anything at all. Is there no requirement anywhere that when something like this happens to someoneone the company has to provide an explanation? They can really just use the “because I said so” answer? I found another site, ansberblog.com Does anyone know anything about the reliability of this? Good luck in getting this solved Jeremy. I’m waiting to hear your outcome if there is ever one. Me? I’m not willing to let it go. I WILL get answers and I’ll let you know when I do!
Sofia, I got my answer in the form that I received no response. I just don’t care enough to go up the management chain to get reinstated since I could just as easily be kicked again. Anyone that would drop someone as quickly as that isn’t worth my time. And with the various stories people are leaving here, it seems that this is far from out of the ordinary.
Chances are that the only way to really do something about it is draw a lot of attention to the problem somehow or become part of the Yahoo Answers team (though you’d probably have to be pretty far up there for it to have any effect).
hey dude same thing happened to me. I just hope they dont deactivate my email because i use it for every single thing.
so even if they terminate my yahoo answer account i can still use the email, right?
@Arya: When they terminated my Answers account, its wording led me to believe that my e-mail would be gone too, but it was there when I checked. If I were you, I’d start moving your e-mail off and use a different provider like hotmail. Who’s to say when they might cut off your e-mail for no reason too?
Yahoo Answers is shit. I keep getting suspended too for no good reason. It’s like the better you answer questions the more likely you are to get suspended. Both times I’ve joined the system I’ve spent hours writing up great answers to peoples questions only to find two emails in my box the next day. The first will be a best answer congratulations and the following will be a suspension. WTF?! How can I get a best answer and then get suspended. Obviously the person who asked the question liked my answer and I have read over the TOS and rules 20 times trying to figure out what I did wrong since their “customer service” won’t actually tell you why your account is suspended. It’s ridiculous. I used to lament Yahoo falling from their internet mogul status but now I laugh each time their stock drops. Such incompetent asses deserve to lose their shirts.
@TrannyD: “Such incompetent asses deserve to lose their shirts”
Danged straight. Take care of your customers or lose them.
A few weeks ago, I got an email from Yahoo (which I used for hosting my business email, website, and blog). They told me I was violating their TOS (Terms of Service) but gave me no specifics whatsoever. After a bit of research, I found that my blog had been “hacked ? by someone who inserted hundreds of links back to their “drug related ? site among other things. Within 24 hours of receiving the email from Yahoo, I “cleaned up ? the “hacked ? blog – this took me about 3 hours of work to do. Then 24 hours later, without any warning, Yahoo DEACTIVATED my account. I lost all my business email, my website, my blog, my Yahoo groups that I was managing, etc. etc.
When I contacted Yahoo customer service, they said there was nothing they could do and that I would have to “email ? the Yahoo Abuse team. (An interesting process, especially since they had just TERMINATED my EMAIL account!) Despite my efforts to contact Yahoo Corporate, Yahoo Abuse Department, etc. – I was NEVER able to reach ANYONE at Yahoo that was willing to even talk to me. All communication was via email.
The net result – Yahoo said they would not reactivate my account, and would not give me back any of my data files. They said I had violated their Terms of Service (TOS) and even though someone else “hacked ? my blog, it was MY RESPONSIBILITY. And even though I immediately “cleaned ? the hacked blog, they claimed there was still something wrong with the blog – but would not tell me ANY DETAILS as to specifically what was still wrong.
Also note that Yahoo provides its customers access to a version of WordPress for doing “blogs ? – but the version they provide is very outdated, and the version they provide has significant security holes in it!!
If I had been hosting my other business website on Yahoo I would have immediately been “out of business ? and it would have cost me literally tens of thousands of dollars.
From a legal perspective, I see a possible violation by Yahoo of the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting unfair acts in trade and commerce in that Section 15 [Termination] of the Terms of Use is unfair to impute that unexpected technical or security issues or problems that I did not cause is a “Cause ? for termination. In addition, there may also be a violation of the Yahoo Privacy Policy under its section on Confidentiality and Security. There could even be a possibility of a Sarbanes Oxley securities issue.
My questions to Yahoo which still has never been answered:
1. How did I violate the TOS?
2. What section did I violate?
If Yahoo fails to return valuable data to me, then I believe I can find sufficient legal bases to convince Yahoo to release the data to me – but at what cost? I can’t really afford to go up against their big corporate legal team!
I hope someone (hopefully you?) can publish my story to at least warn other small business owners to NEVER use Yahoo hosting services for their business. The risk is way too high!
What appalls me the most is that I have been a loyal small business customer of Yahoo for over FIVE YEARS! And this is how they treat a “good customer ?? Seems like they’ve chosen to punish their good customers for the acts of unscrupulous hackers!
Is this the way Jerry Yang (Yahoo co-founder) is choosing to treat his customers? Perhaps he has more problems than just what the AllThingsDigital blog posted a few days ago:
“There are very real questions about whether Yang has the right talent and temperament for the job at hand … After all, the stock is in the basement, after Yahoo (YHOO) lost a lucrative bird in the hand in the form of a $31 per share offer from Microsoft (MSFT). Next, a weak economic environment is forcing it to cut deeply into the muscle of its many businesses, with slashing out 20 percent or more of costs, a worrisome trend if Yahoo hopes to grow when we all eventually emerge from the downturn. And, of course, more key executive departures, weak employee morale and an overall inability to clearly articulate the changes Yang has been trying to make at the company, such as its laudable open platform efforts. ?
Maybe we should add “atrocious customer service ? to the list of Jerry’s problems/issues?
Mike, see here:
http://www.jeremyduffy.com/like-taking-risks-use-yahoo-services-for-your-business/
Y!A sucks. I’m on my fifth account in two months now.
I came across this page searching for a reason why I can’t access my account info. When I click on my name it says “Oops. This account has been used.” Now what is this supposed to be? I’ve searched it & I find so many varying answers from “it was hacked” to “contact Y!A.”
So I emailed Y!A directly – no response. Then customer support – so far no response. They have NO customer care whatsoever.
A5h13y: You are correct. I think a previous commenter used the phrase “atrocious customer service” and I think that’s about right.
My Y/A account was suspended today and I too have absolutely no access to my email. This email account aside from the one at work is my main source for bills, conversing with friends, etc. I hope it becomes active so I can gather imperative emails. I will no longer be a Yahoo member from this point on! Their carelessness and absence in customer care has pushed me beyond limits. This suspension is absolutely ridiculous!!
MY account was suspended today. I am really upset about this issue, it needs to be taken up to someone that can fix this problem. I know I did not violate any guidelines, and do not appreciate in any way their lack of customer service, its terrible.
Hi Jeremy –
I, too, recently received the same canned answers that you received above. Were you ever able to reinstate your Yahoo Answers account? I cannot believe that they would be so quick to jump the gun without any violations actually taking place. It’s absolutely mind boggling to me.
Nope! No response, no justifications, nothing. I recently reactivated a new account with them, but I’m not spending much time on it. I’m only there to answer questions for people about Lifelock and other scams as a service to the community (but like hell am I going to go to a lot of effort to help people with computer problems and such knowing that I could disappear in a day).
OMG i am so glad i am not the only one pissed off about this. Has anyone been able to come up with a solution?
Only one. Don’t get involved with Yahoo or at least assume your account can and will be deleted at any time.
JEEZ! Yahoo did the same to me, deactivated my account – I had to call international for 25 mins on hold just to be informed that I can email abuse about the TOS “violation”. Bit of background – my yahoo email account was recently hacked by a mass mailer marketing site in China, and I emailed yahoo abuse TWICE about it, to report it – as it must be a weakness in their system – the usual waste of time pointless auto reply – followed by deactivating my account!!!
Like so many, that was my prime personal and business account, and would be a great loss – I am trying to reactivate – but with little hope.
Any suggestions on a better webmail with decent service? Does such a thing exist I wonder?
F*&K YAHOO!
My account at Yahoo! answers was suspended and I still don’t why. I got it reinstated, but I don’t know if it is a good idea to keep participating if I will just be suspended again. I wrote about it on ehow.
http://www.ehow.com/how_4858315_fix-suspended-yahoo-answers-account.html
it seems like it happens a lot of people.
Nice work. I don’t think at this point that they’re worth the $5.
Same happens to me. I used my yahoo account since 2003 then they send me an email that i terminated my account. LOL . Why should i do that! Then they replied to me they will answer back within 24hrs. 2 days had passed, no single reply >.<
I had my Yahoo account suspended Friday, but my case is different. Since 5/5/09 someone or thing had been accessing my email contact list on Yahoo and sending out emails recommending a website in my name. I immediately contacted Yahoo and after several days got an answer that said I should upgrade my antivirus. I did that and also downloaded and ran Microsoft’s Mailicious software Removal Tool and changed my password. Wrote two emails to Yahoo letting them know what I’d done and that on 5/15 a new set of emails were sent. Gave them my phone number and begged them to call me. On Friday, in the middle of writing an email, I was bounced off my account. When I couldn’t sign back in, I called them to make sure that the new password was correct and they told me I was suspended for violations with no specifics. I have tried to sign back in but I am not recogized. I’ve had Yahoo since 2000 and use it as my primary business tool, thinking that opening mail on their server was a way to protect myself from viruses…and all in all it worked, till now.
I noticed you postings were for Yahoo Answers and also for 2008. Do you have any suggestions for a regular email account closed by them. Do you think contacting the BBB might help? Please, I need my over 300 email addresses for my business. I never imagined they would be so cavalier or obtuse. – Marj Hopkins
Marj, the problem you faced was most likely that someone got into your account and the correct move would have been to change your password to something very secure. This is most often a problem when you either use a single password for everything or if you give up your e-mail address password to a website to help you “find contacts” or some such nonsense. If you do manage to get your account rights back, be very careful with your password and make sure to change it to something hard to guess (that isn’t used anywhere else).
Contacting the BBB might help, but it might not. You can also try sending an e-mail to tips@consumerist.com. They actually have some readership which gives them more clout over these kinds of things.
It’s been about a week [since Friday] that my 2-year old YA account [which reached Level 7] has been suspended indefinitely without even a proper responsive citation as to what part of the Community Guides or TOS were violated. Instead, I can merely “browse” the various queries and answers and was offered the opportunity to start “a new” account and suffer possibly the same fate of another cancellation of account down the road. Nevertheless, I have finally realized from other YA forum members that they too have suffered similar fates of account closure simply because of the posting of boilerplate “duplicate” answers to repetitious queries. Apparently, such “duplicate” postings [regardless of their relevancy] is not allowed in order to gain those precious 2 points for posting an Answer. I’m still contemplating my next course of action and it appears that I am leaning towards simply giving up on YA because their editors really do not want real answers to be disseminated to inquiring members.
VicSEO: You have to wonder if someone makes a service that’s exactly like theirs but doesn’t have such draconian rules if it wouldn’t blow them out of the water popularity-wise.
Yes, the whole thing is that no one really cares that a few people can gang up and suspend you. I happen to be only slightly left of center and a fiscal “conservative” dedicated against huge debt structures instituted by a pack of phony, dung heads- but I was polite. I also believe that Americans have lost the ability to think for themselves- plenty of evidence for this, particularly of late ( last 10 years in particular).
I had my Yahoo account deleted yesterday without any warning at all. All of a sudden, the account I had been using for almost 8 years disappeared. I don’t even use Yahoo Answers! I e-mailed them (with my Google mail account ;P) and supposedly they’re reviewing my case. But seriously, I am telling everybody that this can happen to them. Perhaps Yahoo is making so much money that they’re forgetting that real live human beings are using their services, and we don’t appreciate being suspended with no prior warning whatsoever, even if it’s stated in their Terms of “Service”. Now I don’t know if I should take my chances, stick with Yahoo and just create a new account (since most people I know use it, making it easier for me) or just hightail it out of there and use a service that is more customer-friendly.
Cheers! I hope you get this issue out to the public and make them all know that Yahoo doesn’t care.
Happened to me yesterday and without any notice! I was told that it was a messenger TOS violation, I hardly use yahoo messenger. I have been a yahoo a/c holder for at least 9 years and have all my contacts on yahoo. I wonder if I will ever be able to get access to my a/c. Is there any hope at all?
From reader Trang, another sad story of how Yahoo treats their customers. Since Yahoo has integrated their messenger with e-mail, his e-mail service was cut off when he allegedly violated some terms of service on the messenger. Other than engaging the Better Business Bureau or getting a consumer protection group involved (perhaps consumerist.com), there’s not a lot to be done other than using a better service. Something like Gmail or even Hotmail.
Yahoo Answers is poorly run and has no reference value whatsoever to the academic world. It’s become a social network for temporary friends who find each through fake names and avatars. After my second account suspension, I gave up on YA.
What user site does not educate its user base by giving reasons for a suspension? This ‘figure it out for yourself’ policy is puzzling. It just goes to show you that Yahoo Answers will continue being a worthless social networking application and nothing more.
However, I appreciate your work because I thought about doing the same until I googled. Yahoo Answers is ghetto in the civil world of the web. For Yahoo’s sake, they should close it down or give it to Google to improve. I believe their employee’s are uninformed, untalented and are unhappy. How else am I to understand a company that does not care enough to give ‘answers’ about their own policies.
I think I am not alone in saying good riddance to Yahoo Answers.