I just renewed our pro Flickr account and the process was less than delightful. Oh, I am SO glad that I've finally bought us a copy of Lightroom and am preparing to host our own images on our own domains because I am SO not cool with hosting all our images on Flickr by this time next year.
A while back Flickr switched it over so that to have a pro Flickr account you HAD to have a linked Yahoo account, them being the same company now and all. And because, ya know, people who are serious about images obviously will be wanting to do their email through Yahoo.
Fine. I knew that it was bullshit but I went through the mickey mouse then, created a dedicated Yahoo email account for Streetcar Press, and then was able to renew our pro Flickr account. I then tried to use the Streetcar Press Yahoo email account for little things but, ya know having my own FOUR FREAKING DOMAINS AND A BLOG, each of which I pay for, that was kinda stupid, so eventually I stopped.
So I go to renew today and find that since my Yahoo account is "inactive", they've deleted all of my email there (not to mention contacts and other information, of which there was some) and I needed to reactivate the account. Which they will shut down and delete the contents of again unless I start using it all the time.
Unless I start paying for premium service for this account that I never wanted in the first place.
Okay, let's think about this. Our Flickr account that we've put the better part of a thousand images on and use dozens of times a month is "linked" to an email account that is considered "inactive" by the company that runs them both. A company that keeps insisting that they're providing one holistic set of services.
Kinda trying to have it both ways, aren't they?
When it comes to billing me and requiring me to use several of their services to get the single service that I actually want, oh, yeah, all these things are "linked."
But when it comes to measuring if the email account is active or if they're going to shut it down and delete all the contents, THEN suddenly the standards change and each service stands on its own.
Slime.
Okay, fine. For now they've got me. I paid my twenty bucks in protection money to keep the Yahoo account active. And then went back and paid another twenty-five to keep the Flickr account going.
And we can safely assume that by this time next year they'll have come up with some new "extra services" that I don't want but have to pay for anyway. And when that time comes I intend to tell them to piss up a rope and host our images on our own damn domains.
Now keep in mind, if they were facing some kind of financial issues and needed to raise the Pro account fees as such I'd be bummed but, hey, I'll pay for something that I use and clearly get value from. Flickr is amazing. It's got a fantastic set of tools and an umatched userbase is and a hell of a bargain, by and large, though there are ertainly other things about them that I've long found kinda hinky. But really, it's the sleazy way that they're adding "extras" that are actually mandatory that I'm opposed to. It's like all those banks with "free" accounts which then, after the number of accounts gets big, start adding more and more minimum balance fees and ATM fees and you-walked-past-our-branch-wearing-a-shirt-we-don't-like fees and so on.
I don't like liars. And I certainly don't want to do business with them.
And, of course, with Yahoo mail having been caught censoring emails about the Occupy Wall Street protests, and their oh, so superlative managment team, it's not like I was exactly enamored of them anyway.
Time to go.
Good thing we were planning to leave already, huh?
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