Yahoo Terms and Conditions - YUK

Well here is a warning.

I used to have a Yahoo marketing account for creating ppc ads on their network.

When I signed up I had to read and sign up to their terms and conditions, which I did, but fleetingly, and upload some money to the account before I could create any campaigns. I used the account a bit but haven't really used it at all in the last 18 months to 2 years. I had £57 credit in the account.

Then today I received an email from Yahoo with a statement for the account, which I couldn't understand. It showed an opening balance of £57 (credit), no transactions over the month, then a curious 'adjustment' of -£57, with a final balance on the account of zero!

Normally, I would expect to see a credit of +£57 at the end of the month, if nothing had been spent. Wouldn't you?

I didn't understand. I telephoned Yahoo and a sweet person on the end of the line kindly explained to me that:

"Yahoo have closed your account because it hasn't been used for xxx months" I can't remember whether this was 2 years or 18 months or..what?

I said "Does that mean the money has gone back into my bank account?"

She replied "No, the money has been absorbed by Yahoo."

"Why?", I asked.

"It says that in the Terms and Conditions which you signed when you opened your account"

I was shocked...and exploded, uttering "!*!*!*%£"&^£&****" or words to that effect.

SO, it was my fault. I read Yahoos t&cs! I was a fool because I didn't read the T&Cs thoroughly enough to see that they had written in a very shoddy business practise - entitlement to STEAL my money.

I don't see that it's my fault for not reading Yahoo's Terms and Conditions - Would you really expect Yahoo to adopt such outrageous business practises? I thought they were better than this!

If you have a bank account and you don't use your account for a couple of years, would you expect your bank to empty the account because you failed to use it for two years? No! Nor me.

I rang my bank to check their terms and conditions. I was assured that they would not do that. The money would still be mine.

I confess, I did not read Yahoo's Terms & Conditions thoroughly. My personal omission. But if I read all the terms and conditions of every website I have signed up to, and every business I have done business with, and every service I used, I would never have had time to use any of them, or indeed, sign up. Almost all T&Cs are turgid documents or impenetrable dreary legal nonsense designed to make you expire before the end. I could count the ones I have read on one hand, and those I haven't, including my bank, credit card, mortgage, bank loan, internet provider, shoe manufacturer, egg supplier, butter maker, pharmacy,....too many to list.

But at the end of it all, you expect reasonable business practise.

I class Yahoo's practise as THEFT. Yahoo took £57 from me and claim legal right to do it! It's not a huge amount of money but it is still NOT acceptable.

I will not use Yahoo again. I will never encourage anyone to use Yahoo and will do everything to discourage anyone from using Yahoo. Avoid them! Of course, the choice is yours but I hope you will not be as stupid as me. I admit I was stupid. I didn't expect them to practise such sleight of hand. I expected them to be better than that.

I will be taking a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading.
I won't use Yahoo again unless they reimburse me and change their T&C wording for a pracise which is more honest and honorable, and won't encourage anyone else to use Yahoo either.

My advice - Read their crooked T&Cs and be warned.