Thread by @old_literature

@YahooCare Hi, Yahoo customer care. I have a funny story to tell you. It's a story that I just told to Yahoo and Verizon

https://twitter.com/old_literature/status/1170498161426731009

because what you guys did to somebody I know was just so amazing.

@YahooCare The guy (along with his family) had to move out of the old family home in a hurry, because rich people (and real investors) had moved into their neighborhood and property taxes skyrocketed.

The family was poor and they were forced to sell in a hurry.

@YahooCare Everything the guy had in the world ended up in a collection of hastily packed boxes that first found their way into storage, and then were sent to his apartment.

Some showed up, others never did.

@YahooCare One of the boxes that never showed up was one that held a notebook in which this gentleman had all of his passwords written down.

@YahooCare This was bad, but it shouldn't have been a problem that he couldn't work his way past, because he knew his Yahoo password by heart. He couldn't remember the Google one, but the Yahoo one, that he knew.

@YahooCare Once settled in his apartment, he entered that password, to begin the process of regaining access, first to his Yahoo account, and then to his other accounts, which he had registered using his Yahoo email.

That's when he ran into a surprise.

@YahooCare One of your employees had one of those "bright ideas" that leaves other people scratching their heads in bewilderment.

@YahooCare When the user question moved to a new residence (quickly, because he had no choice), your system detected his login attempt from a new location as "unusual activity."

@YahooCare Apparently, Yahoo users aren't supposed to move if they want to stay members in good standing?

So, that was 2015. Four years ago.

@YahooCare The user in question is still trying to regain access to his Yahoo email and Flickr accounts, and manage groups that have been neglected since the start of the second Obama administration, because for FOUR YEARS, all that this guy has seen from you is obstructionism.

@YahooCare If entering the password for one's account correctly, on the first try, is not evidence enough that somebody is the legitimate owner of an account, then how is he supposed to regain access after he moves?

@YahooCare Did the thought really never occur to Yahoo that in real life, people move?

@YahooCare Four years, guys. He's been locked out for four years, because somebody at Yahoo had a half-baked idea.

@YahooCare Just look at your own logs, and you should be able to see it. For over a decade, the guy logs into his account at the same location in Naperville, Illinois and then all of a sudden BOOM! no more logins from that location.

@YahooCare Same password entered from an apartment in Chicago, a few days later. Repeated attempts from exactly that same location for four years. No anon servers used, the IP is in clear view, always the same AT & T IP address.

@YahooCare During all of that time, there are no successful login attempts for that email address, because on being given the correct password, your system has been refusing it. Because the guy moved.

@YahooCare So, what is Yahoo's idea of what a reasonable solution to this problem that it was created would be?

@YahooCare Should this user you've absolutely scr.ewed over break into his old family home, use the Internet and hope for the best?

The new owners (and the Naperville police) probably wouldn't think too highly of that plan, and it probably wouldn't work anyway.

@YahooCare What is the guy supposed to do, and how was he supposed to know that Yahoo would do something this crazy?

Treating somebody like he's a hacker because he moved, even when the evidence is clear that he isn't?

@YahooCare System intrusion is a federal offense with a lengthy sentence. If the guy really were a computer criminal, why would he make himself so easy to find? Also, why would he keep entering the same password, and how would he have gotten the right one on the first try?

@YahooCare It makes no sense. I'm left wondering if you guys set out to deliberately mess with your own users, just to entertain yourselves. If so, not cool.

@YahooCare This guy spent years of work building online communities that are now falling apart, because Yahoo chose to do something crazy. How do you manage to feel comfortable with the idea of treating your own users, that way, and what is the takeaway the rest of us should get from this?

@YahooCare That we're fools if we put any real effort into anything we do on one of your services, because Yahoo could sabotage it at any moment, just for giggles?

Is that what you want us to think?

@YahooCare unroll @threadreaderapp