On Monday, March 28th 2011 at 05:09 AM I received my last mail using Yahoo's disposable email address functionality included in my paid Yahoo Mail Plus service.
I did not notice it when I woke up that Monday morning but later in the day I started wondering: Where is my mail? I have been a Yahoo Plus Customer for many, many years and has build up more than 250 addresses in system of folders, and I use a lot of addresses for my newsletters, music, organizations and my political work.
In the evening I found out that something was wrong. My base name and all my disposable addresses were gone. Years of work - and a lot of people who could not contact me.
I went to the support page of Yahoo Mail and filled out the form and told them, what was wrong.
I waited for two days and got no response from Yahoo. Then I went back to the support, and I had an hour long chat with a nice supporter who looked into my account, and she saw with her own eyes what I had told her: My disposable addresses were gone!
But she could do nothing about it. But she promised me, that she would escalate the problem to an expert. I asked her, when Yahoo would solve the problem, but she could not say. But if I had not heard from them within 72 hours I could come back.
And nothing happened, so after 72 hours I went on the chat again. And again I had to spend one hour with a new and nice supporter, who had to look into the account and find out what was wrong. And the only thing she could do, was to escalate the problem - again!
On Tuesday, April 5th, I heard from Yahoo for the first time: "This message is to let you know that your inquiry will require some additional investigation and has been transferred to a Senior Support Agent who has specialised expertise. We try where possible to provide a written response within 24 hours, but actual time may vary."
And the actual time vary a lot. I heard nothing for two days. But then I got a new mail, which was actually an answer to my first request on Monday, March 28th. On Thursday, April 7th, Vera from Customer Care wrote to me on April 12th:
"On behalf of the Yahoo! Customer Care Team, I would like to apologise for the delay in answering your email. Thank you for taking the time to report this abnormal activity. I apologize for the frustration this is causing you. It is very unusual and looks like an unexpected bug activity. It has been reported to the engineers who will start working on it immediately.I thank you again for your continued support and apologize for any inconvenience caused. Please let me know if I can help you further. Regards, Vera."
And I did. I told her, that the problem was not solved.
I got an answer five days later, when Vera wrote back to me: "It is very unusual and looks like an unexpected bug activity. It has been reported to the engineers who will start working on it immediately. Please report back to us within 72 hours if there's no improvement."
Well, I thought Yahoo had been working on the problem a very long time... but I waited 72 hours. And nothing happened.
On Friday, April 15th, a new mail popped ud. It was a Customer Care Satisfaction Servey with case number 54179232. Amazing!
I did not take the survey but sent Yahoo a request: "Can you please help me and release my old, blocked base name so I can build up a new list of addresses based on the mails I have saved over the years."
No answer from Yahoo!
To be honest. I give up. I actually pay for the Mail Plus service. But I have found out, it is not worth it.
BUT: I have had one very nice support experience. One of the addresses, that has gone, was my Apple iTunes ID.
I called Apple and they guided me to a support page and I filled in a simple form with my information. One hour later I got a mail back telling me exactly how to change my ID to my gmail address. It took me two minutes to change the address. Two hours later I got a nice mail from Apple support asking me, if I had had any problems with the change of the email addresses, or if I needed further assistance. I answered no, and Apple closed the ticket.
Yahoo - you could learn a lot from Apple!
Yahoo: Thank you for nothing!
