Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Friday, March 24, 2006
Idiot of the Day - Yahoo Customer Service
Once upon a time, I joined a really cool music program - MusicMatch. I’m sure you’ve all heard of it, but you never knew about my deep and (I thought) undying love for MusicMatch and its “On Demand” service where I could choose practically any artist I wanted and I could listen to their music. I don’t have an iPod and most of my music listening is done at my computer, so MusicMatch was the perfect service for me. They even had really fabulous customer service. Over the past three years (wow, time sure flies, I had no idea I signed up that long ago), I’ve had a couple of technical problems and they were always resolved quickly & politely, by email. Because, after all, they are an online only company - it makes sense that email would be their main form of contact because they know that every single one of their customers is using their service...online.
Okay, the previous paragraph was the good about MusicMatch. Now, the bad. They were taken over by Yahoo. Yahoo has TERRIBLE customer service, and Leigh-Ann and I have had several different complaints with them over the years, so it’s not something new. Their customer service was terrible for their web hosting, for their fantasy sports (the fantasy sports programs themselves are fine) and now for MusicMatch. That’s one reason I worried when they bought Flickr and wanted to force people to log in with Yahoo ids. I have a log in, I don’t need to change it to a Yahoo one.
A couple of weeks ago my bank decided to send me a new ATM card, which I didn’t want. My card wasn’t expired, I wasn’t having a problems with it, and I have a bunch of things that automatically charge to that account. Clearly, I didn’t remember every single one of them since VirginMobile threatened to cut me off, as did TiVo...and MusicMatch DID cut me off. Unlike Virgin & TiVo, MusicMatch completely reset my account when I added the new credit card number; meaning, my subscriptions that I’ve had for over THREE YEARS were gone. I’m pretty sure I was grandfathered in for certain prices. Anyway, they apparently wanted me to sign up as a new customer, which I thought was ridiculous. So, I filled out the customer service form on their website, detailing my problem and asking them what I should do. Really, there was a form, set up for customers such as myself, to ASK THEM QUESTIONS. But, I should’ve known that after Yahoo took over, the pitiful “call us” response was forthcoming. I’m not sure why they think I want to sit on hold, after I’ve already written my questions...AS...THEY...ASKED, on THEIR form.
This is the response I got to my very specific email: You can contact the Musicmatch Billing Support department Monday through Friday, 5AM to 5PM Pacific time (GMT -08:00), via telephone at (888) 814-2524. If all our representatives are busy and your call is not received, please try again during a period of lower call volume, such as the afternoon on later days in the week. I’m supposed to sit on hold to get customer support (remember, I’ve been a customer for three years), for an online service? Oh Yahoo, why do you have to be so crappy? I will not call you. I will not call any company who has email and does business online. I don’t like to make phone calls and I think email is the perfect invention, communication at any hour of the day or night.
So, Yahoo!!!!!!!, if you don’t write back and solve what should be a simple and expected problem (other people get new credit card numbers too, no?), I’m not going to subscribe again. My love is fickle and I hold a grudge.
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My brother Bo also became rather incensed at Yahoo recently; this was over the subject of his upcoming trip to Vegas, which he booked through Yahoo Travel - not so much the issue itself, but the woeful lack of customer service he experienced when trying to resolve the issue.
Helly on 03/26 at 03:46 PM -
Yahoo doesn’t deserve your love. I’m a Pandora fan, too. I’d never heard of MusicMatch, but now I’ll ignore it if it ever solicits me.
Nancy on 03/28 at 01:57 PM -
Flippy...I truly feel your pain now. I also have been a Musicmatch fan since it’s inception and it was never an issue to resolve any situation UNTIL, like you mentioned, SUPER Internet giant CRAPPY Yahoo took over!! I have been trying to access my Musicmatch account for days now with no resolving of the situation. 3 times now I have been told to clear my internet cookies, and web cache from my PC. I have even gone as far as completely removing musicmatch and reloading with not any clear fixes in sight. YAHOO has jacked up the securities of musicmatch so bad that it will not even allow me to get into my own account, after resetting passwords. I even created a BRAND NEW Yahoo account to see if I can actually access an account and that did not work. I have NOW completely disbanded from Musicmatch and will try RealPlayer instead since it actually has format conversions from M4A (apple) music files. I wish you the best of luck in your adventures to get your CC problems fixed. I am sure a complaint to BBB would get things started. p.s. I dont believe in email tag, which YAHOO seems to live by in there tech support world.
on 05/31 at 05:47 PM -
Zane, I completely gave up on MusicMatch. They basically shrugged their dumb customer service shoulders and said, “Uh, well, you just have to sign up again.” So, I downloaded Rhapsody and so far I think it’s as good or better than MusicMatch. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise.
on 05/31 at 07:08 PM
