Replying to Yahoo! Installers Behaving Badly

dogpile search is cool and goowy mail

I thought the whole point of the web was to never actually “talk” to another person again. That said I may try the phone next time I have a problem. I have free long distance now so I can wait on hold as long as I like.

right!

They do have a toll free number, it's just difficult to find (I usually go through the small business page since I have a small business account). Here is their Customer Care number, along with what they state about it:

Need help with other Yahoo! services, such as Mail Plus, Music, or Personals?
Call Yahoo! Customer Care Central at (866) 562-7219.

I have a feeling that this is the right place to call, since Messenger is one of their services. But even if it isn't the right place, in my experience, they will connect you to the right place. Just don't assume that they are a stupid tech support person from the start. Treat them courteously, and they will return the favor. (Yay tech support in the US, instead of outsourced!)

~Viz

If you really want to get through, I would try calling them. I've had reason to call Yahoo! a couple times before, and they have the best phone tech support of anyone I've ever dealt with (Sony VAIO department is a close second, though). But they are very good at getting you connected to the right person and to listening to what you say.

That might be the case. Being the most popular website on the planet, they have to have excellent phone tech support. However, I believe that E-Mail is the best way to express myself and let my thoughts be known; especially when there is no toll free tech support line.

Also, all major chat protocols (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) store the friends list on their server. Otherwise, it would be impossible to practically notify you when your friends come online, or to let you use the messenger program on more than one computer.

My apologies for not being sarcastic enough! What I meant was, anyone with fair bit of intelligence would have figured that one out and that information was really not necessary.

If you really want to get through, I would try calling them. I've had reason to call Yahoo! a couple times before, and they have the best phone tech support of anyone I've ever dealt with (Sony VAIO department is a close second, though). But they are very good at getting you connected to the right person and to listening to what you say.

Also, all major chat protocols (AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, etc.) store the friends list on their server. Otherwise, it would be impossible to practically notify you when your friends come online, or to let you use the messenger program on more than one computer.

~Viz

You won't lose your friend list,
as that is stored on our servers.

I didn't know that. Now I can finally format my system without the fear of my long time friends being wiped out.

It seems like they use pre-defined messages for similar issues. I wonder what good are the so-called tech support personnel. Powerful atomated scripts would do better job than this. That whole feedback reminds me of our mobile service provider's customer care representatives who say "We are undergoing server updation. Please try again later." for every issue you bring in to their notice.

I am a developer so I am thankful when someone points out a flaw in one of my programs. Many times a user will simply quit using your program because of the flaw and the developer is none the wiser. I figured I would be nice and tell Yahoo! about the problem with DEP. I was very descriptive about the problem. I explained that DEP was triggering the failure and that I suspected the problem was with allocating the memory pages as data and not setting the executable bit. I then explained how I solved the problem and I was just letting them know that there was a problem. Below is the response that I received.

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Messenger.

We understand that you are unable to install Yahoo! Messenger 8.1. We
are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused to you and we empathize
with your present situation.

Do you happen to have any ad removal, firewall or virus protection
programs installed on your system? These can act as roadblocks on the
way to a fabulous Messenger experience.

If you have any applications of this type installed, it's time to bid
them adieu. Please disable them on your computer and then reinstall
Yahoo! Messenger.

It appears that another program that is running on your computer is
getting in the way of the Yahoo! Messenger installation. To fix this
problem, you'll need to turn off all of the other programs and then try
installing the Yahoo! Messenger again. You won't lose your friend list,
as that is stored on our servers.

Not exectally what I was hoping for but at least I tried.

Considering how few people know about, or use, DEP (I didn't until you posted this) I would not be surprised if Yahoo! is unaware of that issue. Did you notify Yahoo!? Or just disable DEP temporarily? Because I have a feeling most advanced users who use DEP just get annoyed and complain, but don't notify Yahoo!. Then I would not be surprised if even if they know about it, it is not worth their time to fix it right now, since they can fix it for the next release or so, and the people complaining will most likely be able to find a workaround.

~Viz

hmmm.. interesting I never had that come when I bought my new computer last year, but most likely it due to the fact I didn't have it enabled. But if you just reinstalled your OS why would that now pop up since it is never enabled in the first place?