January 5th, 2008
Thing is, Yahoo!, you harvested and used my Visa number without my permission
On Thursday I posted my ragin’ rant about how Yahoo! Personals found my new Nordstorm Visa credit card number via my Yahoo! Voice registration, and then, without my consent, applied that new credit card number to charge Yahoo! Personals account I thought I had let expire when my reporting of my old Nordstrom Visa card’s misplacement led to the cancellation of my old credit card number.
I was charged six months in advance, and am trying to get my money back. All $74.95 of it.
Yesterday, Yahoo! Personals customer “service” got back to me with a lame-ass offer: I reconfigure my Yahoo! Personals billing from semi-annual to a monthly subscription, and then, after I cancel that, I culd get a 5/6 refund on the $74.95.
First, let me paste in the note they sent me. Then, I will explain why I cannot accept this offer.
Hello Russell,
Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Personals billing.
We are sorry to hear that you were charged after you’ve cancelled. I am
glad to help you.I personally checked your Yahoo! Personals subscription with the Yahoo!
ID: “russjourn” and was able to verify that your subscription is still
showing as active. It is possible that you just deleted your profile/
personal ad. Kindly understand that doing so does not automatically
cancel your subscription.Unfortunately, since the 3-Day Cancellation period has passed, we can no
longer issue a full refund.However, since your service with us is still active and has not been
cancelled, I’m pleased to inform you that you are eligible to downgrade
your subscription from Semi-annual to Monthly.Downgrading will enable you to receive a refund for the unused months.
If you cancel your subscription at this point, we will be unable to
provide any prorated refund. We suggest you downgrade first, so we can
refund a portion of your money.To do a downgrade, you must contact Customer Care phone support by
calling:866 458 8744.
A Billing Agent will be available Monday through Friday from 8am to 6pm
PST.I hope that I was able to provide you an option regarding your concern.
It was a pleasure assisting you.Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Personals billing. If we can
assist you further, please reply directly to this email.Regards,
(I’m ommitting the signatory)
“Three-day cancellation period” my butt. After you assigned and used my credit card number without my permission?
Sorry, Yahoo! Personals for not getting it. I let Yahoo! Personals expire for a reason. When I reported my card lost, I had already stopped authorizing payments months prior. I even received invites for me to renew, but I did not.
Then, with my new credit card number available, I used it to sign up for Yahoo! Voice. At no time did I suspect that doing so would spark apparent intra-Yahoo communications that I had received a new credit card and that other Yahoo! services I had ended several months ago were all of a sudden able to be revived and re-invoiced.
As far as I am concerned, Yahoo!, what you have been doing in this case isn’t altogether different than identity theft. You are using my credit card to invoice me for services I did not request.
Now here’s what I am going to do. I am going to file a dispute with my credit card company, Nordstrom Bank. If I do not receive a complete refund, I am going to sever my business relationship with Yahoo! Voice as well.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
