Bad Yahoo!
I just got an e-mail from Yahoo! which basically says:
"To thank you for being one of our first Yahoo! Plus customers... we will now fuck you up."
Being a loyal Yahoo! customer, I have been paying $10 a month for a service called Yahoo! Plus since December last year. This service consisted of extra storage for my e-mail, extra storage for my photos and a couple of other "extras". I figured since I have been using Yahoo! Mail for quite some time, it made better sense to get this over .mac, whose one major flaw was I couldn't get to use my personal domain with it.
Anyway, the service I subscribed to is being cancelled on December 9 (tomorrow - ONE DAY'S NOTICE, the motherfuckers), and a new one will be re-instated on December 11. So, and this is from the e-mail, from that time until you decide to sign up for the new service, your account will revert to a FREE acccount. If your e-mail contains more than 4 MB of e-mail, you will need to purchase additional space, or you will not receive any new e-mail. Now that is probably one of the worst thank you's you can get for "being one of our first customers". Because I have more than 4 MB in my e-mail, I now have a problem.
So I tried to sign up for more space, and the page I get tells me that I'm currently subscribed to the 25 MB package (as part of the Plus service I have I assume). I actually called Yahoo! customer service to clarify things, but those boys in India have no clue what is going on. They suggested I wait for my account to be cancelled tomorrow then sign up for more space, OR save my e-mails to my hard drive (I currently have more than a thousand pieces of mail -- I am NOT doing it). And even if I sign up for more space, it will not be credited if I get the new Plus service.
This is just so unacceptable that I am now being pinned to the wall because some manager in Yahoo! can't think. Now most likely, I will just let my account run out, get bounced e-mails for a day, then read what they have to offer on December 11. I'm thinking twice about signing up even if it's cheaper. It will probably have less features anyway.
Here's the e-mail:
Dear Yahoo! Plus Subscriber:
Based on your feedback, we've improved Yahoo! Plus and will be releasing a new version on December 11, 2003. This means that the version of the Yahoo! Plus service that you are currently using will be discontinued on December 9, 2003, at 11:59 PM PST.
To thank you for being one of our first Yahoo! Plus customers, we will automatically issue a refund to your credit card for your last monthly payment by December 11.
If you wish to continue using some of your current Yahoo! Plus features you can sign up here for the new Yahoo! Plus product on or after December 11.
If you're not interested in the new Yahoo! Plus product, but would like to continue using one or more of the product features, please note the following:
My Yahoo!: You may continue to use My Yahoo! at no charge by signing in at my.yahoo.com with your current Yahoo! ID and password.
Yahoo! Mail Account: Your email account will be automatically converted to the free Yahoo! Mail product, which includes 4MB storage.
If your mailbox contains less than 4MB of mail on December 9, your service will not be disrupted.
If your mailbox is over 4MB on December 9, you will not be able to send or receive new emails unless you purchaseadditional storage or delete email (to drop under the 4MB limit). The purchase of additional storage will allow you to preserve your email archives and continue to use your Yahoo! Mail account and your email address book exactly as you do now
Archives will remain intact unless your free Yahoo! Mail account is dormant for four months.
Yahoo! Briefcase Storage: Your Briefcase account will be converted to the free 30MB product. You will continue to be able to access your files at briefcase.yahoo.com after December 9.
If you have more than 30MB of Briefcase archives, you will not be able to download more files unless you purchaseadditional storage.
Archives will remain intact unless your free Briefcase account is dormant for six months.
Please note that the new version of Yahoo! Plus available on December 11 will have many of the same features as your current version, as well as some additional features we've added based on customer feedback.
If you need further assistance with the transition, please contact us at 1-866-800-8099 or yplus-notification@yahoo-inc.com and we will gladly assist you.
Sincerely,
The Yahoo! Plus Team