Reviews of SBC Yahoo! Small Business
SBC Yahoo! Small Business : User ReviewsWeb Host Site: http://smallbusiness.sbc.yahoo.com/
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SBC Yahoo! Small Business web hosting plans listed at Best Host Ratings:
- Intro
$11.95 / month, 5000 MB Space, 200.0 GB transfer - Enhanced
$19.95 / month, 10000 MB Space, 400.0 GB transfer - Premium
$39.95 / month, 20000 MB Space, 500.0 GB transfer
SBC Yahoo! Small Business average Uptime 99.926%
Based on 1536 days of uptime monitoring of 2 web sites hosted with SBC Yahoo! Small Business
Click here for complete reliability report
Yahoo has big problems!!
posted on Nov 10, 2008 by Mike LevyUser email: n/a
Web site: www.levy-consulting.com
Used the services of SBC Yahoo! Small Business for: over 3 years
Date when last hosted by SBC Yahoo! Small Business (as of Nov 10, 2008): N/A
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting Plan used: Hidden
Customer support rating: 1
Webhost Technical quality rating: 2
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services Cost/Value rating: 1
Web hosting provider Overall rating: 1
A few weeks ago, I got an email from Yahoo (which I used for hosting my business email, website, and blog). They told me I was violating their TOS (Terms of Service) but gave me no specifics whatsoever. After a bit of research, I found that my blog had been “hacked” by someone who inserted hundreds of links back to their “drug related” site among other things. Within 24 hours of receiving the email from Yahoo, I “cleaned up” the “hacked” blog – this took me about 3 hours of work to do. Then 24 hours later, without any warning, Yahoo DEACTIVATED my account. I lost all my business email, my website, my blog, my Yahoo groups that I was managing, etc. etc.
When I contacted Yahoo customer service, they said there was nothing they could do and that I would have to “email” the Yahoo Abuse team. (An interesting process, especially since they had just TERMINATED my EMAIL account!) Despite my efforts to contact Yahoo Corporate, Yahoo Abuse Department, etc. – I was NEVER able to reach ANYONE at Yahoo that was willing to even talk to me. All communication was via email.
The net result – Yahoo said they would not reactivate my account, and would not give me back any of my data files. They said I had violated their Terms of Service (TOS) and even though someone else “hacked” my blog, it was MY RESPONSIBILITY. And even though I immediately “cleaned” the hacked blog, they claimed there was still something wrong with the blog – but would not tell me ANY DETAILS as to specifically what was still wrong.
Also note that Yahoo provides its customers access to a version of WordPress for doing “blogs” – but the version they provide is very outdated, and the version they provide has significant security holes in it!!
If I had been hosting my other business website on Yahoo I would have immediately been “out of business” and it would have cost me literally tens of thousands of dollars.
From a legal perspective, I see a possible violation by Yahoo of the Federal Trade Commission Act prohibiting unfair acts in trade and commerce in that Section 15 [Termination] of the Terms of Use is unfair to impute that unexpected technical or security issues or problems that I did not cause is a “Cause” for termination. In addition, there may also be a violation of the Yahoo Privacy Policy under its section on Confidentiality and Security. There could even be a possibility of a Sarbanes Oxley securities issue.
My questions to Yahoo which still has never been answered:
1. How did I violate the TOS?
2. What section did I violate?
If Yahoo fails to return valuable data to me, then I believe I can find sufficient legal bases to convince Yahoo to release the data to me – but at what cost? I can’t really afford to go up against their big corporate legal team!
I hope someone (hopefully you?) can publish my story to at least warn other small business owners to NEVER use Yahoo hosting services for their business. The risk is way too high!
What appalls me the most is that I have been a loyal small business customer of Yahoo for over FIVE YEARS! And this is how they treat a “good customer”? Seems like they’ve chosen to punish their good customers for the acts of unscrupulous hackers!
Is this the way Jerry Yang (Yahoo co-founder) is choosing to treat his customers? Perhaps he has more problems than just what the AllThingsDigital blog posted a few days ago:
“There are very real questions about whether Yang has the right talent and temperament for the job at hand … After all, the stock is in the basement, after Yahoo (YHOO) lost a lucrative bird in the hand in the form of a $31 per share offer from Microsoft (MSFT). Next, a weak economic environment is forcing it to cut deeply into the muscle of its many businesses, with slashing out 20 percent or more of costs, a worrisome trend if Yahoo hopes to grow when we all eventually emerge from the downturn. And, of course, more key executive departures, weak employee morale and an overall inability to clearly articulate the changes Yang has been trying to make at the company, such as its laudable open platform efforts.”
Maybe we should add “atrocious customer service” to the list of Jerry’s problems/issues?
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Ridiculous Experience
posted on Jun 22, 2008 by ottoUser email: Hidden
Web site: Hidden
Used the services of SBC Yahoo! Small Business for: less than a month
Date when last hosted by SBC Yahoo! Small Business (as of Jun 22, 2008): N/A
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting Plan used: Hidden
Customer support rating: 1
Webhost Technical quality rating: 1
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services Cost/Value rating: 5
Web hosting provider Overall rating: 1
I signed up for Yahoo Small Business a week ago and it has been torture ever since. Each time i tried to use the website setup software it locked up. Started calling Tech Support (866-800-8092) and tried about 40 times. The recording immediately says wait time is more than 30 minutes, even at 2am. I waited up to 55 min one time until i gave up. Finally got through and was told it was probably my computer, even though the problem occurred on other PCs also. Another time I was told Yahoo often had problems with new web host accounts, and i should just wait. Continued to call and experienced enormous wait times. Sent several polite then several nasty emails, no response even 5 days later. I've used yahoo phone, email and search engine for years and they're very good. I am truly shocked that Yahoo is damaging its reputation by continuing this dismal service. Even the rep who took my cancellation order told me they were experiencing "high call volume this week", that they were hiring new people to solve the problem, and apologized. I'm touched! I would expect this type of web host service from a half-baked garage operation run by high-schoolers. If you have time and money to waste and don't mind jeopardizing your customers and your company reputation, give it a try. Otherwise, steer clear!
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Horrible
posted on Jan 29, 2008 by D KellerUser email: Hidden
Web site: Hidden
Used the services of SBC Yahoo! Small Business for: 1 year - 3 years
Date when last hosted by SBC Yahoo! Small Business (as of Jan 29, 2008): Current customer
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting Plan used: Hidden
Customer support rating: 1
Webhost Technical quality rating: 2
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services Cost/Value rating: 10
Web hosting provider Overall rating: 1
I wait for hours .. literally on the phone waiting to get technical support.. gave up after 2.5 hours.. Getting email errors from outsiders.. sporratic.. saying that the user account doesnt exist.. then someone will try later sending me an email & it works..
Horrible horrible tech support.. i have never ever seen this.. they advertise 24 hour support.. doesnt work if they dont pick up!!!!
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Nightmare-
posted on May 06, 2007 by HiddenUser email: Hidden
Web site: Hidden
Used the services of SBC Yahoo! Small Business for: Hidden
Date when last hosted by SBC Yahoo! Small Business (as of May 06, 2007): Hidden
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting Plan used: Hidden
Customer support rating: 1
Webhost Technical quality rating: 1
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services Cost/Value rating: 10
Web hosting provider Overall rating: 1
I am a web designer and recently redesigned a site that was already on Yahoo. If you know anything about coding, do not use this service, you cannot use Perl, forget about pretesting the FormMail (you have to use theirs) the SSL is on ANOTHER server, and the tech support is clueless-you have to ask for a manager. This is strictly for the folks who want to put up a basic site with no bells or whistles. Programmers-Stay Away!
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Told to shut up and wait
posted on Aug 25, 2006 by AnonymousUser email: Hidden
Web site: Hidden
Used the services of SBC Yahoo! Small Business for: less than a month
Date when last hosted by SBC Yahoo! Small Business (as of Aug 25, 2006): Less than 3 months ago
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting Plan used: Hidden
Customer support rating: 1
Webhost Technical quality rating: 1
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services Cost/Value rating: 5
Web hosting provider Overall rating: 1
Yahoo! disabled my website in the first crucial weeks of my company's launch. I had increasing number of hits from new customers, and then one day, the site was temporarily disabled. I called the support center and they said it was a mistake that the system 'timed out' and some other jargon regarding bandwidth. Long story short, they made a mistake. I was told that their engineers would fix it. I waited 3 days and I didn't so much as get an e-mail. I called a second time, and the tech put me on hold, and then another tech came on and put me through a mind-numbing verification procedure quizzing me on my security and billing questions so that they could verify who I was. That took 10 mins. I then asked my one line question: My site was disabled accidentally, what are you doing about it? Answer: "It has be escalated to the engineers." Me: In English. Answer: You have to wait. Me: It's been over 36 hours, when approximately. Answer: I don't know. Me: So what are you authorized to say exactly? Answer: nothing, really, just wait.
Here's my analysis of the whole support structure there. The people who answer the phone are not techs, they're part-time, low-wage customer phone loggers. All they can do is give you canned responses, and if there is no news for the company to give you (because they're so backlogged), then their answer seems to be: "shut up, sit tight, and wait until WE contact you." I am looking for a better web host. It seems Yahoo! and GeoCities have merged and did not yet update their service. Maybe they never had a coherent service to begin with.
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very, very poor
posted on Dec 01, 2005 by business userUser email:
Web site: n/a
Used the services of SBC Yahoo! Small Business for: less than a month
Date when last hosted by SBC Yahoo! Small Business (as of Dec 01, 2005): Current customer
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web Hosting Plan used: Hidden
Customer support rating: 1
Webhost Technical quality rating: 1
SBC Yahoo! Small Business Web hosting services Cost/Value rating: 6
Web hosting provider Overall rating: 1
Unbelievably poor customer support and post-sales service. Very bureaucratic and can't get any information as to status of problem reported.
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