Day before yesterday I tried logging in to my Yahoo account, the one I am using since many years. I got an error message saying "This ID is not yet taken". I started panicking - was my account deleted by mistake or by a hacker maliciously????

Then reasoning took over. I tried to create a new account using the same ID. That attempt failed saying that the ID was not available as it was already taken. Phew! That means the ID was valid. First validation!!

I then sent a mail to that ID. It did not bounce. Double verification!!

Next I tried to contact Yahoo customer care. Here the fun part started.
For contacting Yahoo mail support services, the prominently visible
support links require you to login to mail first!! What about cases like mine where I can't login in the first case?? Nobody though of that?? :-O

The "help wizard" has support for cases where you have forgotten your ID or password, etc. But nothing for login errors in the system itself.

Googling revealed that there is a Yahoo mail for mobile link that usually works even if the rest of the login system kicks you out. I tried that at http://us.m.yahoo.com/p/login?.done=http%3A%2F%2Fus.m.yahoo.com%2Fp%2Fmail%3F



It worked!! I could access my mails!! Triple verification!!

I went back to the Yahoo mail help site. Somehow I found a link that does not require you to login, and sent feedback. (It is so well hidden, I may not find that link again :-) ).

After 1 day, I could miraculously login again. There is no response to my feedback mail, but I am still happy! :-)

Overall: Usability of the customer care section of Yahoo needs big-time improvement. Requiring folks to compulsorily login to contact Customer Care is just bad design!