Yahoo!! (Bad Neo, Bad Marketing, Erratic Customer Care, and How to Create an Account WITHOUT a Mobile)

All right, I'm a tad afraid to jinx things for others, who may need a way around Yahelldemort's latest act of utter silliness, but it may work for a few (or they won't even bother to change things, which is entirely possible).

It all started when I hopped by a Yahoo group where I was made a Mod, and I realized that the page was all wrong.

The reason? A thing called Neo that hundreds of thousands of people are hating with a passion, but that the Yahell bots and minions are defending as if their lives depended on its promotion and success.

Let's face it, like Windows8 (from A to Z, Microthingy boys), like Windows7's so-called impossibility to disable auto-arrange in Explorer (there's a crack for that, guys - just like one was made for 8 when it came out, because people who work on their computers, you know, the ones who don't just play games on them, need to have the possibility to re-arrange the icons in a way that suits them), like Google stopping to allow us to personalize the welcome page of their search engine, like............ Like sooooo many things, this is a failure.

A FAILURE (apparently, working for companies like that make you a bit deaf. Emphasis is badly needed).

Neo is unpractical, and the hours of personalization that went into our groups are down the drain - all that for teenagers who are fans of FaceBook or adults who are IT incompetent and just go: 'Oh, Shiny!' (plus the handful of silly bunnies who work for the offenders).

Once I realized that life as I knew it on Yahoo! was over (because just like the rest of the plonkers, they'll never admit that Neo is a failure, and they'll keep it, shouting at the world that it's good and better and... Oh! Go buy yourselves a collective brain, guys!), I started growling (yea... again. Soooorry!).

I don't like changes much.

Sudden, unexpected (sorry, not reading IT magazines at breakfast) changes... *grrr* I hate that.

After a decade of fun and friendships started, thanks to Yahoo!, that hurts.

Then, I realized that under another identity, I used to have a group that's dead, and that I thought should be put to rest.

That was how I wasted most of my Tuesday.

I tried to log in through two different browsers. Nada.

I tried to retrieve my ID (though I had it, because I archive important e-mails like passwords and IDs and changes to an account). Nothing.

I tried to get help with my password. Zilch.

After hours of testing, surfing, "Googling" (yea, I'm that stubborn), I finally realized that since I hadn't logged in in months, my ID had been de-activated and recycled.

*blink*

Dear Yahoo! How about you send a lil' reminder before doing that, um? I was silent, but I wanted to keep that ID. Ta. Muchly.

And then, a brand new circus started.

I managed (that was a bloody miracle, yea!) to find a way to send an e-mail to Customer Care.

First, let's be honest, I got a thorough answer describing what I needed to do. I was amazed and pleased.

Hold it right there, Diego!

Step 1: create a new ID... and to do that you MUST give a mobile phone number. Yep! You read that well, it's not an option. You don't have a mobile phone, you  CANNOT register (I tried giving my landline number, but Yahell saw through my trick).

So... I contacted the help site again, stating very clearly that I don't own a mobile phone, and 'Could you tell me what to do, please?'.

Answer: You need to give a mobile phone number for reason yadda, yadda, and yadda.

Me: Yep, but not the answer to my question. I don't own a mobile phone, and 'Could you tell me what to do, please?'.

Answer 2: Oh, sorry! You need to give a mobile phone number for reason yadda, yadda, and yadda. (No kidding! It'd be funny if it weren't so sad - I was this close to asking them if English was their native language!)

Me: Erm. Still don't have a mobile phone. Help (or may I go frell myself slowly in a different dimension)?

Last answer: Without a mobile phone, you can't register.

Okay. 
Thanks, guys, I'll go frell myself, but that's awful, unrealistic marketing.

What's that mobile phone thingy? Working for the NSA, intending to sell the lists in a few months when you've changed the ToS, discriminating people allergic to mobile phones or too poor to afford one?

I don't care what the answer is... but I do wonder if that's entirely legal where I'm currently parked, and I'm going to phone some government agency because I don't like being bullied... all the more since there is a way around.

Instead of creating a new account, I logged in with a Gmail address (it works with FaceBook, too, but the security issues are bigger there). I migrated the ownership of the group to my new ID and deleted the group I wanted to delete since the small hours of Tuesday very morning.

Then, I changed my Yahoo! password and deleted the account.

Voilà !

There was a way around, but the latest people who answered me didn't want to share it with me (it'd be way too scary if they don't know that way to connect without surrendering a mobile phone number!).

In a month, Yahoo! has managed to anger and disappoint a lot of people.

As I already tweeted:

- Whatever happened to 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.'

- 'Too big to fail' is no longer true.

So... Who else is disappointed in "upgrades" that are bad?

Come and growl with me...

Dru Stubborn de Lanor, proud to have managed to do what she wanted to do without much help from Yahoo!

PS: worth a Plonker Award, ne?