I totally accept that part of this problem is my responsibility. I’ve been on the web for a long time, and I should know enough by now to make sure I don’t lose user names and passwords. But when I’m stupid enough to make a mistake, do I have to be punished by losing a number of services – and deal with the clunky Yahoo Customer Support process?

So basically I seem to have confused by Yahoo password. No big deal. But, of course, thanks to Yahoo buying and aggregating MyBlogLog and Flickr, the same password controls those services. And at some point I cleared all my cache and saved bookmarks!

So I try to get an id and password reminder, but bearing in mind I set up the account years ago, I have about 4 options for the postcode I set, for example, and the same number of alternate emails. And that’s assuming I accurately filled in my information in the first place.

Having torn my hair out, I email Customer Services. And I get a reply asking me to call the Account Verification team between 6am and 6pm Pacific Time. Bearing in mind I’m in the UK, I’ve now got to work out the time difference. And when I do get through to them, they’re going to ask me for my verification information again – which I obviously don’t have, or the automated service would have worked!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.

Bearing in mind the drive towards single identities etc online, I can only pray someone is working on a better mechanism to ensure users don’t lose all their services in one mistake.

Edit: I eventually managed to get back in after guessing the right username and password combo. Everything is now updated to prevent future problems – except for my email address. Every time I try and update by clicking on the validation link for an email account I actually use, it tells me it’s timed out after five days, despite the fact the request and email were sent within the last hour!