A few weeks ago we lamented the growing number of outages at various Google services including the GMail service that caused maximum distress to some of their users. Well, it seems like same outage afflictions are impacting Yahoo Mail service as well. A reader tipped us off, lamenting that it had been 72 hours since he had been able to get his email.
“Many Yahoo Mail users have received no email since Friday 2/9. Can still send, but basically are cut off for receiving,” he wrote in. We could make some snarky remarks about Clogged Pipes but this is a rather serious problem for a growing number of folks.
Check out this ever growing thread of complaints on Yahoo Answers, which doesn’t have any answers for those who are left in the lurch. There is an online petition complaining about this, and nearly 26 people have signed this petition.
We are also appalled that one of the only way that seemingly exists to discuss this problem with Yahoo! is to pay $29.99 for a “express help” package which they offer. We refuse to pay a provider to get support for a problem that they are causing!
mine’s been fine – as usual – and i use yahoo for all my personal/misc email as well as business email and web site hosting.
it’s always been an ultra-reliable service and i’ve been using yahoo that long my yahoo id/email is carlg@yahoo.com … however, wasn’t it over that period that the internet was being hacked at a rather fundamental level – can’t recall details but the hacking was causing some DNS issues worldwide?
i must say since those attacks ‘the internet’ has been generally very slow for us, with web sites often failing to be found, etc – most odd.
what’s really going on, one wonders?
mine has been fine…getting the usual 350+junk and 10 useful mails a day.
Nearly 26??! Man, when they cross that magical 26 person barrier all heck is gonna break lose.
C’mon Om. 26 complaints. Out of how many users? Tens of millions for sure. You gotta give those guys a break and stop putting Google on a pedestal.
26 out of 250 million, according to comScore. 😉
A small fraction of our users may have experienced some email delivery issues over the weekend, but the problem has now been resolved. We believe it was an isolated incident.
Ryan Kennedy
Yahoo! Mail
Agree with SheeniMeeni .. Seriously Om, it does look like you are getting more and more pro-google, pro-apple, completely anti-microsoft and anti-yahoo too?!
When posts show this favoritism, its no fun!
Sheeni Meeni and Joe Shmoe,
well who is putting Google on a pedestal. they had problems with their GMail and I wrote about that. I have no bias against anyone, though I do love Apple computers.
The problem is that since both you have left no contact information, I cannot send you the links to the previous articles.
Anyway if you have the time, go read Yahoo ANswers page on the complaints and make a decision for yourself. Ony 26 have signed the petition, but there are many more who are suffering from email issues.
Ryan
Good attitude.
26 out of 250 million signed the petition, now that number is upto 42. The thread on Answers is still talking about problems people are having.
How about explaining everything on Yodel before someone else has to point out – after all these are all your customers and have been looking for answers.
Following complaints issues: YouTube RSS feeds are broken, at least Internet Explorer 7 cannot render them, because they are not standard complaint –
http://blogs.x2line.com/al/archive/2007/02/11/2839.aspx
I’ve never had issues with Y! Mail (and I spend 8-10 hrs) on email.
42 or even 400 out of 250MM – is not bad – but not good either.
And finally, I agree that if there is a serious outage, it should be proactively reported.
Had problems sending to Yahoo addresses today – sent e-mail to six addresses (3 Yahoo, 3 not) from Gmail and none of the Yahoo addresses have gotten it yet. However, those addresses are receiving mail from other Yahoo users…so I don’t know what the deal is.
I currently can’t access my Yahoo! mailbox.
I’m going to add my name to the petition…
I’m one of the people that wrote about how reliable Y! mail was when you wrote the gmail post…well, naturally, it has been problematic since then. I have multiple Y! accounts, some associated with domains that Y! hosts, and frequently my accounts get stuck and then reload with a message that states something like mail needs to reload due to routine server maintenance. Pure speculation but maybe due to their IM integration efforts? Certainly “routine” server maintenance has become much more routine lately…
My email on Yahoo! has been working fine. In my opinion, their email product is superior to all the others out there. Never have had any issues.
“We refuse to pay a provider to get support for a problem that they are causing!”
Its a FREE SERVICE people. Get over it. Sheesh.
I would certainly be upset if my yahoo mail started acting erratically, but this is carrying it too far, IMO.
Wow Om. You love Apple Computers. Imagine how many people in India would have computers if Apple were the dominant computer manufacturer, and kept hardware and software tied together and keep charging exhorbitant prices. I don’t think many people would have been able to afford $2000 a pop.
my yahoo account has over 24000 (!) emails in its inbox, despite the fact that I directed its spam checker to delete all spam immediately. It simply does nto work!
Have not been able to use it for over 6 months now, and have been unable to delete such a large inbox… the cript is unable to handle all the emails…and guess what.. it is all spam. I ask people to use my gmail instead is they would like to reach me.
“We refuse to pay a provider to get support for a problem that they are causing!”
Dude! All paid support is for problems caused by the vendor.
If their service or product was perfect there would be no need for support. That’s why support is such a money maker and that’s why software can be shipped with scores of bugs. Wink, wink. Get with the program and pay the toll.
i’d agree with Taco de Vries that the spam on Yahoo Mail is a much bigger long-term problem – it’s totally out of control. I stopped using Yahoo as my main email when Gmail came along but had to stop forwarding because of all the crap it sent on. the irony being i abandoned hotmail for yahoo for the exact same reason. and today gmail is opened up to the great unwashed… maybe by the time gmail tips over we’ll have all abandoned email anyway.
My yahoo email has been down for a week. I can send, but I’m not getting any mail, and it’s like the database is down, because all my folders when I open them say “you have no messages in your so and so folder” but it still says the number of messages I have in each one. I’ve had to switch to my other yahoo account which is working fine in original mail but the beta isn’t working at all.
I can’t even log in to my yahoo account. After scanning the web for information, I’ve found complaints of repeated outages. Not encouraging.
I’ve used Yahoo mail for a long time. Most of the time it works perfectly. Sometimes, like today, it won’t let me pick up my mail. Sometimes the problem is that the ads take forever to resolve.
Those problems I can live with, it’s free after all. But what I can’t live with is the recent banner ads that either (1) play audio, or (2) open up windows which cover over the mail I am trying to select.
I realize that the email is paid for by the ads, but they are getting way out of hand. Last week when I was picking up my email at work, one of these audio ads came on very loud and it disturbed the other people in my office.
I’m in marketing and I create ads for a living, however, I’d never create one that was truly anoying–that only generates outrage
I’m getting dozens of emails each day for the past week from POSTMASTER@, SYSTEMADMINISTRATOR@, MAILER_DAEMON@___ and MAIL DELIVERY SYSTEM all with delivery failure or failure notice subjects…all to people I’ve never emailed. It’s crazy. And anoying as sin. I’ve been a loyal Yahoo user for a decade and have NEVER experienced this. Anyone want to weigh in on 1) whether this is their system’s problem or mine? 2) my assumption that because of the “crafty” senders being used, the setting in SPAM settings that says accept only emails from contacts or Certified senders isn’t working, yes?
Glad to see that I am not the only one that’s having issues with Yahoo mail. While I do like their cleaner/current UI it seems much slower.
Additionally, for the past few days I have had very spotting connections to their site and wondered if it was their issue or due to my upgrading FireFox. I decided to try IE and the issue persisted. Anyone else having connection issue to Yahoo Mail?
I have been unable to obtain my main email one screen name. I keep getting the run around how it must be my connection, etc….however, if i sign out and use my other yahoo email address, not a problem. I am going insane
Today is March 1st and I can’t even pull up the yahoo mail page. My computer says the connection to the page has timed out. This is my first major problem with yahoo and I am bummed. Is their any reliable and safe e-mail service out there? I also have noticed that lately when I send an e mail sometimes a copy will not be saved. Also when I go back to the in-box sometimes I am not let in. I found your web page after seeing if their was any news posting a problem with yahoo mail.