It is after several weeks of incessant e-mails and long distance phone calls to Yahoo! Offices in U.S. from Australia that I finally decided to write to you. I have been a small business customer of Yahoo! And I own and operate my web domain through the company. My company domain is www.gameplanconsultants.net.

A few weeks, my Yahoo account was deactivated. I have made at least fifteen calls to the U.S. at different Yahoo! numbers but no one can tell me why the account has been deactivated. Instead, I get a form reply directing me to the Yahoo! Website indicating the terms of service. A couple of Yahoo! people that I managed to get hold of told me that the deactivation “may” be initiated by the Billing Department, but no one is available to talk to me in the Billing Department. My Yahoo! Bills were automatically charged to my VISA account, and there has never been a problem with paying Yahoo!

I have my business mail through the Yahoo! account but have been unable to access it for several weeks. The company has my address book with all my important business contacts as well as all my business correspondence. In a complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau of Silicon Valley, I had requested that the company at least send me a file containing my address book and e-mails, and I would happily move to another web hosting site. I have not done anything whatsoever to violate the terms and conditions of my contract with Yahoo! The company is arrogant and unresponsive, and a thief. What they have done is analogous to a landlord evicting you without any notice and confiscating your property despite your paying all the rent on time and abiding by the terms of the rental agreement. I would strongly caution everyone against doing business with this company, or even to use any of their free services. You never know when they will shut you down. The damage caused to my business by Yahoo! easily runs into thousands of dollars. Unfortunately, being so far from Silicon Valley, I cannot sue the company yet. The rest, please beware.