Please help me, What should I do to get answer from "a real person" (from Yahoo! Side)?
When I post any question, I am not able to post link to any existing Yahoo questions.It gives me "Error: 999". How weird that I can use tiny-url web service to post the same link!
I tried reporting this to Yahoo! team.
Following is the complete correspondence (which happened via e-mail)
======================================
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
We’re sorry you’ve had difficulty accessing Yahoo!. The error you received is typically caused by unusual activity from either your computer or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to Yahoo!. While this type of problem is usually temporary, if you continue to experience this error, we recommend that you try the following suggestions:
1) Contact your ISP and let them know you are experiencing connectivity problems with Yahoo!. You may have difficulty accessing Yahoo! if we detect unusual network traffic coming from your ISP. Only your ISP will be able to address and resolve this abnormal activity.
2) Check that you are not using any third party software program or application to access Yahoo! services. Please keep in mind that these types of programs are not supported by Yahoo! and may violate our Terms of Service, and therefore may contribute to your receiving this error.
3) If you have not scanned your computer for spyware and viruses, please do so now. Some spyware programs and computer viruses will run separate programs on your computer for a variety of purposes, sometimes slowing your computer down in the process, and even preventing you from accessing certain Internet sites such as Yahoo!.
For detailed information on virus protection, please visit:
security.yahoo.com/malware.html
For detailed information on spyware, please visit:
security.yahoo.com/spyware.html
4) You may want to try accessing Yahoo! through a different computer or through a different Internet connection.
We hope this is resolved for you soon so that you may continue to use Yahoo!.
Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care
56628480
Hi,
I never get an error when I post question without any link to the Yahoo!
Questions (All other links work), I have used Yahoo from many computers and everywhere I am facing the same problem, this cannot be because of any of the reasons given by you. Please help resolve this problem.
—–Original Message—–
From: Yahoo! Customer Care [mailto:yerror-feedback@cc.yahoo-inc.com...
To: Vikram P
Subject: RE: [answers] – Error 999 (KMM83716695V17578L0KM)
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Customer Care.
We’re sorry you’ve had difficulty accessing Yahoo!. The error you received is typically caused by unusual activity from either your computer or your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to Yahoo!. While this type of problem is usually temporary, if you continue to experience this error, we recommend that you try the following suggestions:
1) Contact your ISP and let them know you are experiencing connectivity problems with Yahoo!. You may have difficulty accessing Yahoo! if we detect unusual network traffic coming from your ISP. Only your ISP will be able to address and resolve this abnormal activity.
2) Check that you are not using any third party software program or application to access Yahoo! services. Please keep in mind that these types of programs are not supported by Yahoo! and may violate our Terms of Service, and therefore may contribute to your receiving this error.
3) If you have not scanned your computer for spyware and viruses, please do so now. Some spyware programs and computer viruses will run separate programs on your computer for a variety of purposes, sometimes slowing your computer down in the process, and even preventing you from accessing certain Internet sites such as Yahoo!.
For detailed information on virus protection, please visit:
security.yahoo.com/malware.html
For detailed information on spyware, please visit:
security.yahoo.com/spyware.html
4) You may want to try accessing Yahoo! through a different computer or through a different Internet connection.
We hope this is resolved for you soon so that you may continue to use Yahoo!.
Regards,
Yahoo! Customer Care
56628480
For assistance with all Yahoo! services please visit:
help.yahoo.com/
Original Message Follows:
————————
For future correspondence with Yahoo!, you can refer to this incident using the following incident ID: 057tdc141s0ip
======================================…
Obviously this is system generated & irrespective of how many times I contact them send this same old message.
Any clue how to get a reply from "a real person"???
@Maggie:
Thanks, but I mean "real person" over mail. Any other means of communication is far too costly & does not guarantee that the problem will get resolved.
@ JB:
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Good to know this will go away. I will also ignore this, it is good that tinyurl works.
@ Oatts Shoals:
I was not posting links to my questions, I was trying to refer someone else’s question.
BTW: It got worse, today I got this error even when I tried posting Wikipedia Link in one of my answers (that too in sources section) 
I have contacted Yahoo several times and never gotten anything other than form-letter replies. In most cases this was totally unsatisfactory, but I finally said, "Oh Well", and quit trying to contact them. I consider it unlikely you will get a "real person".
I have gotten the same error as you, under exactly the same circumstances, namely when there are links, especially when the links are to other Y!A questions, which do tend to be longer links.
This behavior was consistent, every time I hit SUBMIT I got error 999, until I removed the link and then SUBMIT would work. Sometimes when I moved the link from the message body to the "Source Links" area it would take it, so that might be a workaround. I didn’t try tinyurl. Interesting that short links worked.
This behavior lasted for about a week and then went away, as mysteriously as it had started. My connection to the internet is via satellite, which sometimes causes other problems e.g. with downloads, etc. I don’t think satellite connection is as consistent.
Sorry, can’t be of any further help, but did have same experience.
March 10th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I have contacted Yahoo several times and never gotten anything other than form-letter replies. In most cases this was totally unsatisfactory, but I finally said, "Oh Well", and quit trying to contact them. I consider it unlikely you will get a "real person".
I have gotten the same error as you, under exactly the same circumstances, namely when there are links, especially when the links are to other Y!A questions, which do tend to be longer links.
This behavior was consistent, every time I hit SUBMIT I got error 999, until I removed the link and then SUBMIT would work. Sometimes when I moved the link from the message body to the "Source Links" area it would take it, so that might be a workaround. I didn’t try tinyurl. Interesting that short links worked.
This behavior lasted for about a week and then went away, as mysteriously as it had started. My connection to the internet is via satellite, which sometimes causes other problems e.g. with downloads, etc. I don’t think satellite connection is as consistent.
Sorry, can’t be of any further help, but did have same experience.
References :
March 10th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
There may be several things going on. First, just posting links to your other questions and answers on YA is a violation of the rules if you are just trying to get people to see them. If you want or need to refer to them, cut and paste, don’t link. That is to prevent dead links if the original is removed.
Second, with the malware attacks on the site of the last few months, they have cracked down on links in questions and in answers, you must put them in the "source" block. To get around this if absolutely required, post the QorA without the link and then go back and add it in the Q (added details) or A (edit).
Bottom line, this is happening in an effort to make the site safer or to keep people within the rules.
References :