Microsoft Offers to Buy Out Yahoo!

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This just in:

Microsoft has just made an unsolicited offer to buy out Yahoo! for $44.6 billion. Read more...

This is probably a bad idea and only creates a monolith monopoly; at this pace Bill Gates will truly rule the world.

On the other hand, in the past year, Yahoo! has really deteriorated; customer service is about nil. When one calls, one is told that the wait time is 25 minutes. Yeah, right. I'm really going to wait that long.

Also, once you reach customer no-service, the representatives are surly and self-righteous; they bully their customers and love to tell them why Yahoo! is right and why the the customer is always wrong. Moreover, they engage in predatory billing and other bullying tactics; one cannot turn off automatic billing without totally cancelling the account, and even then they still want to hang on. I have a domain that I transferred months ago, and yet it still shows up in my account. And I can't get a call into customer no-service, nor can I delete the card from my account. If I get billed, I'll have to do a chargeback on my credit card.

In addition, their technology stinks, and account information often does not work. Recently, they made changes in their hosting technology which has essentially locked customers out from loading FrontPage and other kinds of pages.

I was so fed up that I ended up moving 250 domains to another registrar--that in itself was a harrowing experience; in the middle of moving domains, my AUTH codes suddenly disappeared from my account. The person on the other end had no clue as to why and had to call a supervisor, who also was clueless. I was told to try again in 24 hours, that account information often "straightens itself out." Then she asked why I was moving domains, I said,

1. Too expensive
2. Lousy customer service
3. Inflexible policies

Then she yelled at me. Not a good way to do business.

The AUTH problem finally straightened out on its own, and believe me, it was nothing the company did.

Meanwhile, I am being billed $35.00 per year for a domain that is supposed to come with my hosting plan. I have had to cancel the email that comes with the domain because some jerk was spamming, using my domain as his address, and I ended up on the black list. I had to work hard at getting my domain cleared; Yahoo!'s security stinks big time.

When I signed up my first domain (in 2001), they were a great customer service company: friendly and accommodating.

To be sure, their profits have been down, but the only way to increase profits (for the long run) is to take care of the people who support them: their customer base.

Still, I shudder at this possible buy-out because...

Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.

--Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

Definitely a bunch of Yahoos who will become very rich if this deal comes to fruition.

Ms Domainer

P.S. By the way, Google, the spell check doesn't work today.