Complaint Review: Verizon/yahoo and their paid YAHOO PROTECT PREMIUM

I never cease to be amazed how corrupt companies will rip off retired folks, living on a fixed income, and in their dry, superior manner,  just presume there are no negative consequences. 

I'm 73,  retired,  living on Social Security,  handicapped,  and selling off a collection of items I'd hoped to allow my grandchildren to inherit. 

For me, there are lots of negative consquences,  and with the  "storming" or whatever the scam artists call it now,  it may get much  worse. 

And so far, for these liars, there have been none. 

It's not the first time,  but even the Consumer Affairs officer here in Wisconsin wondered if it might be a "fake" or "phishing operation".  It wasn't. 

It was MUCH worse. 

Yup. 

Just had a very ugly ( and downright illegal!!) experience with Yahoo/Verizon. 

They no longer have "free customer service". Their current version is considered an "upgrade" and they charge $13.70 a month for it.    I had a kind of emergency in January.    Every function on my e-mails and associated services was acting strange, and most--such as my capabilities to delete and move files!!--simply wouldn't work at all.   I called them and was told there would be fee.  I authorized ONE payment....made it clear there would be NO MORE. 

The very next morning,  I sent a cancelling postcard, e-mail, and chat message to effectively CANCEL immediately what they now call "Yahoo Protect Premium". I also told the agent from whom I purchased same and gave my info that there would be NO RENEWAL of any kind, and picked a card about to expire for that reason. 

They took February and March from my account. It's intriguing how they got the information after I chewed them out and closed out the original card.   Apparently they can get account information beyond the debit card information. 

My credit union was advised long before they pulled this to not honor the debit, but they got info somewhere to use another avenue and STILL got their money. 

That fact is frightening. 

I've contacted state consumer affairs, law enforcement, and others. There have been lots and lots of messages and so on. 

But I was openly scammed.    They apparently figure, "We're a big company. We can do what we want!" 

And so far, they seem to be correct. 

Yahoo's  quality and creative "utilities"--messenger, chat, photo/"flickr", their various internet search services (some of which were superior to Google) have all disappeared, a few have deteriorated to the point of being useless. They gutted and then stripped the family and interest social groups, including our family groups and my own photo group for enthusiasts, which was a kind of teaching/"keeping my hand in" thing I did as a public service. 

Especially since being acquired by Verizon, the mobile "telephone" firm, what used to be the most innovative and sometimes exciting firm available on the Internet has deteriorated rapidly, now to the point of near uselessness. 

I'm withdrawing all my connections with them, as best I can, and changing base addresses for my e-mails. They've reconfigured that so that it has become very weird for me to utilize, and since I referred this to the police as a matter of criminal fraud, there seem to be "service issues". 

Just so you'll know--I wouldn't rely on them for anything any more. As internet service innovators go, they're a fair to middling tin can "telephone" company that I shall never deal with again. 

Also: The next firm that asks for access to my accounts on a recurring basis is someone with whom I shall NEVER do business again.    That's wound up costing me many thousands of stolen dollars in the last two decades,  and I have recovered almost NONE of their ill-gotten gain.

By far the most dishonest firms seem to be the ones in the communication businesses, or related scams.     Ironically,  this particular flim-flam is nothing much more than a way to make a dishonest buck off LOUSY service and software.