• yahoo: the worst customer support ever?

    27/9/2008

    2008-09-27_1437 in light of me writing to all these photo storing / sales websites and getting back some great / good customer support responses… i turn to a company that has probably the very worst in customer support and general helpfulness: Yahoo!.

    For starters let me state the obvious: the user experience with Yahoo is HORRIFIC. the main yahoo home page is like someone ate every magazine and newspaper in the store and then threw up a website. it is totally confusing, services all over the place, news, weather, ads… but the worst thing is the stupid “region” thing. i get to experience the scintillating “YAHOO!7″: australia’s version of yahoo. i don’t want to experience the dumb aussie site just because i am in australia! anyway, i don’t want to talk about that today, i want to talk about my experience with Yahoo! 360°….

    2008-09-27_1438 when Yahoo! 360° first started i joined up and played with it for a few months, got bored and then i deleted my account. {mistake} but recently, due to great usefull services like Ping.fm, Yahoo! 360° is looking like it might be fun to use. so i head over to sign up and basically i can’t {details later}, so after trying everything i can, i look for help and the closest thing to help i can find is “Yahoo! Answers”, where yahoo get’s everyday schmucks to answer their help calls for them. i could find people who had the same problem, but nothing i could find in the “answers” actually helped. so i asked my own question {after being forced to “join” answers} - and you can read it “after the jump”-

    here is what i wrote:

    “Cannot start on 360: email is already being used?

    i used to have a 360 account, i deleted it ages ago and now i would like to start one again, every time i try to “get started” with 360, it tells me that “SORRY, this email is already being used” i have gone into my account and i have added three new, never before used with yahoo, email address’ - but no matter what email address i use, it always says “sorry this email is already being used”.
    i have emptied the cache, reset my browser, signed in and out, tried everything i’ve found on answers here…. nothing.
    is there anyway to contact the 360 team directly or what??”
    and here is the answer from user “kee”
    “No, the Y!360 team is no longer handling help requests regarding the service. You can try to contact CUSTOMER CARE by clicking the button at the bottom of this page: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/edit/re… , and ask them why the 360 part of your Yahoo account is inaccessible, then wait for their response. Although, this is customer service, so you may need to contact them a few times to get a response. When dealing with customer service, sometimes it’s necessary to be persistent. You can also call 1-866-562-7219, 1-408-349-1572, 1-408-349-3300 Hours: 8a-5p M-F (Pacific)Although, you should make sure that the accounts that you are trying to set up a 360 on are separate Yahoo accounts and not profiles under a main Yahoo account. Also, the proper way to activate a 360 account is to go through the process - click the “Get Started” button on http://360.yahoo.com and answer the questions. When you get to the last page (or if you’ve already done this for the account), then you should click on the “Yahoo! 360 Home” link on the upper right corner of that last page or the main Yahoo! 360 page.”

    so i wrote to customer care:

    G’day! i used to have a 360 account, i deleted it ages ago and now i would like to start one again, every time i try to “get started” with 360, it tells me that “SORRY, this email is already being used” i have gone into my account and i have added three new, never before used with yahoo, email address’; {that are all mine real email address}  - but no matter what email address i use, it always says “sorry this email is already being used” i have emptied the cache, reset my browser, signed in and out, tried everything i’ve found on answers here…. nothing.
    help!!
    thanks

    their oh-so-human reply:

    “Hello,

    Thank you for writing to Yahoo! 360°. We appreciate your comments regarding Yahoo! 360. Please visit our product blog at and provide us your feedback at: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/product_360

    It is through users’ feedback that we are able to continue to make improvements. Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! 360.

    For assistance with all Yahoo! services, please visit: http://help.yahoo.com/  ”
    so i went over to the blog, and tried and sent them another email:

    “hello.
    you obviously did not read my email at all. I CANNOT SIGN UP TO 360!!!!!!!!
    how the heck am i supposed to “provide feedback” on a 360 blog that only allows comments from 360 members?!?!?!???? come on!
    please someone actually help me here, don’t just give me automated responses….
    read my problem below and help!

    thanks! dj paine”

    yahoo’s reply:

    “Hello,

    Thank you for writing to Yahoo! 360°. We appreciate your comments regarding Yahoo! 360. Please visit our product blog at and provide us your feedback at: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/product_360

    It is through users’ feedback that we are able to continue to make improvements. Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! 360.

    For assistance with all Yahoo! services, please visit: http://help.yahoo.com/  ”

    AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!

    comments and suggestions welcomed!

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