Yahoo! Customer Care rep Eric is a schmuck

I know you might be tired of hearing about the Yahoo! tiebreaker controversy, but I think you all will be left speechless after the latest update.

As you've read already, both myself and Joe have separately e-mailed Yahoo! for clarification on the tiebreaker. We told you their response to my first e-mail.

Check out their second response as well as a response to Joe.


COMMISH RESPONDS TO YAHOO'S ORIGINAL ANSWER:

I'm sorry but I can't accept this as an answer. First of all, this is NOT what your help screen says on playoff tiebreakers. In fact, it's very, very different. Second of all, I asked for a comment as to why you worded it so confusingly and poorly. You never gave me a comment, which I'd like to use for a league post I am doing on this crucial mistake.

This is what your Help page says: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/sports/fantasysports/baseball/scoring/baseball-83.html;_ylt=AlcH.cqOMn.MjNGTHHBoBexF1HhG

It is completely different from the answer your just gave me.

Please respond

YAHOO REP ERIC AGAIN RESPONDS TO COMMISH:

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

I understand that you'd like to see a different playoff tiebreaker format for your Head-to-Head One Win league. The link you are specifying is for Head-to-Head leagues and not Head-to-Head One Win leagues.

We're glad that you took the time to send us your feedback. I will make sure that your feedback is heard.

For future reference, as a way to provide feedback directly to the
Product Team, please feel free to submit your feedback at the URL below: http://feedback.help.yahoo.com/feedback.php?.src=YFSPORTS&.done=

I appreciate your interest in Yahoo! Fantasy Sports. If you have further suggestions, comments, or questions, please feel free to reply to this email, and we will gladly assist you.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Regards,
Eric
Yahoo! Fantasy Sports Customer Care

OK, so let's review. They think I'm sending them feedback about requesting new tiebreaker. Eric doesn't answer my question or provide comment for me. Eric says the link I gave him was for regular head-to-head leagues, when in fact the link I gave him is to the exact thing that showed up on our League Overview, with absolutely zero clarification as to what type of league it is.

Now, the fun part.

Joe also e-mailed Yahoo asking what the actual tiebreaker is.

YAHOO REP ERIC RESPONDS TO JOE:

Hello Joe,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

I apologize for my prior response, which was for a Head-to-Head league.

In your Head-to-Head One Win league the playoff tiebreakers are:

I appreciate your inquiry in regard to playoff tiebreakers.

In the event that a playoff game ends in a tie, the deadlock is broken
using the following system:

1. Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season. Note: In Head-to-Head Standard scoring leagues, the winning percentage is based on individual stat category wins and losses, and not matchup wins and losses.
2. Win in Week 3.
3. Win in Week 2.
4. Win in Week 1.
5. Random "coin flip."

We value your interest in Yahoo! Fantasy Sports. If you have further comments or questions, please feel free to reply to this email, and we will gladly assist you.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Regards,
Eric
Yahoo! Fantasy Sports Customer Care

UM, WHAT???

OK, let's review this now. First of all, Eric changed the wording.

Originally: "Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season. The winning percentage is based on individual stat category wins and losses, not match up wins and losses."

Now: "Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season. Note: In Head-to-Head Standard scoring leagues, the winning percentage is based on individual stat category wins and losses, and not matchup wins and losses."

Second of all, Eric clearly copy and pasted his response from something else, hence the flub with a double introduction.

Third, he gave Joe a completely different tiebreaker than he did to me. This is the third different set of tiebreaker rules I have seen now for our league.

I'm literally speechless from this whole thing. It is quite bizarre, and to be quite honest, I still do not know what the tiebreaker is.

It matters because if it is head-to-head and then Week 25, 24, 23, 22... Bob has the tiebreaker over Shea because he played in Week 23 and Shea did not.

If it is head-to-head and then playoff seed, Shea has the tiebreaker.

Unreal.

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Yahoo! responds to my e-mail

Well, this is pretty incredible.

Yahoo! responded more than 24 hours after I contacted them. For full context, I'll just let you see what I asked and the response I get. Pretty unreal.


Commish to Yahoo!:

Hello -
Your tiebreaker explanation is incredibly confusing and may have even cost one of our league members his playoff matchup. Your rule states that "Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season. The winning percentage is based on individual stat category wins and losses, not match up wins and losses."

Well, our league is a 1-win matchup league, leading us to believe that the tiebreaker would be combined stat category wins and losses. In our playoff matchup, which ended in a tie, the manager who thought he had the tiebreaker based on your explanation may have managed differently Sunday night. And then he woke up Monday morning to see the tiebreaker was not his.

The wording is extremely confusing for 1-win matchup leagues. Can you please clarify your rules and comment on why the wording does not better explain the rules?

Thank you.
Andrew

And here is Yahoo!'s reply:

Hello Andrew,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Before I go into addressing your concern, I'd like to apologize for the delay in my responding to your inquiry. We are committed to answering your questions as quickly and accurately as possible. However, we are currently receiving unusually high volumes which caused the delayed response.

I apologize for the confusion with the playoff tiebreakers.

In the event that a playoff game ends in a tie, the deadlock is broken using the following system:

1. Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season.
2. Highest winning percentage in Week 25
3. Highest winning percentage in Week 24
4. Highest winning percentage in Week 23
5. Highest winning percentage in Week 22
6. Highest winning percentage in Week 21
7. Highest winning percentage in Week 20
8. Highest winning percentage in Week 19
9. Highest winning percentage in Week 18
...(and so on.)
27. Random "coin flip"

We value your interest in Yahoo! Fantasy Sports. If you have further comments or questions, please feel free to reply to this email, and we will gladly assist you.

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

Regards,
Eric

This is obviously incredibly different than what they have listed now and what we have seen. I have replied asking for more clarification and for comment.

We'll see how they reply this time.
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Joe 'furious and completely livid' at Yahoo!

In case you missed it Sunday night/Monday morning, allow me to set the scene for you: Joe and Bob are tied 9-9 late in the day with runs all squared. Joe has a couple guys left in the final innings, Bob has none.

Bob thinks if it ends tied 9-9 he will win because of his tiebreaker interpretation. Joe thinks if it ends tied 9-9 he will win because of his interpretation. Yahoo's rules state the first tiebreaker as being: "Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season. The winning percentage is based on individual stat category wins and losses, not match up wins and losses."


Based on this wording, I (and others) believe this to mean that you add up the scores of the matchups in the regular season. In this case, Joe won 14-5 and Bob won 11-9, so clearly Joe has a higher margin.

I did not like this, as we are a one-win league and at no point should margin of victory come into play. This is not college football. Remember, in the regular-season tiebreakers, "Winning percentage of Week 22" counts as 1-0 and not, say, 14-5. However, Yahoo! makes that clear, whereas here it did not. In fact, Yahoo! goes out of its way to say match up wins and losses don't count.

Joe clearly felt as I did, and he went to bed excited over a big first-round upset. He woke up Monday morning to see Bob advanced via the tiebreaker.

"Obviously I am furious and completely livid," Joe said in an exclusive interview with the MTL blog tonight, his first public comments. "At the same time, I am simply in shock. I couldn't believe my eyes. The rules blatantly state I have the tie breaker, beating Bob 14-5 and losing 9-11. Giving us the combined head to head stats of 23-16 me."

Joe says he has filed an official protest with Yahoo! but has yet to hear back. Yahoo! has yet to return an e-mail asking for comment.

"We will probably get a response from someone with an accent in New Dehli that knows more about cricket than baseball," Joe said. "They claim they have an abnormally large amount if messages at this time and it may take longer than 24 hours to get a response."

Bob, on the other hand, was clearly pumped up. After thinking he had won, he was informed that he had lost - via the tiebreaker rules - by the commish. Then he woke up Monday to see a victory.

"I do think that Joe has a right to be angry, but at the same time I think the rules were interpreted correctly," Bob said. "It sounds like stats would play a factor in the tiebreaker, but what I got out of it was Yahoo interpreted one week as 1-0 or 0-1 and not 14-5 or 5-14 for example.

"I see both sides of it and I would not be upset if it were overturned, so to speak, since I really think it could be interpreted either way."

Joe says he is considering petitioning the league to move to ESPN or CBS Sports next season.

"Yahoo has been terrible this year, including whole days of site maintenance and a ton of wrong scores and stat corrections," Joe said. "CBS Sportsline and ESPN have proven to be better. Yahoo! recently fired their CEO. The company's stock remains in the toilet and they are struggling to find someone to buy the company piece by piece."

I happen to agree that Yahoo! has had a rough year. I even got screwed by a stat correction. But this idea is preposterous. I am nixing it in the butt before it even gains legs. ESPN and CBS have not proven to be better.

Joe even went as far to say he is considering appealing the result to the league itself if his protest is denied.

"I may call in legal counsel, AKA my roommate Chris, in order to legally define these rules and my rights as a manager in this league," Joe said. "I may seek an arbitration hearing. However, I do think our commissioner cares more about blog hits and drama than actually doing what is right and determining how the rules should have been interpreted."

Right, Joe, because we all know the commissioner is the one who determines that. Seems like Joe has some major sour grapes.

We'll update this if and when we hear back from Yahoo! Until then, feel free to leave your condolences for Joe or thoughts in the comments section.
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