Windows Live Support - Microsoft Hits New Low
reuven
to install Windows Live Mail Beta for my 70 year old mother (who took
forever to learn Outlook) so she could access her paid hotmail account
with a somewhat familiar interface.
The irony that my mother can use Outlook with GMAIL for free and can't
use it with her paid Hotmail account is already an old story. I won't
talk about Microsoft's monumentally stupid and stubborn position not
to properly support its own email service from within Outlook.
The beta turned out to be buggy (For some reason, contact addresses on
the To: line were appearing as white on white so they looked
invisible.) and so I submitted a bug report to Microsoft on their web-
site (support.live.com) which promises 24 hour response.
After a few days, I got this interesting response:
"Dear Customer,
"Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support. We
appreciate the time you took to send us your concern and we know how
important it is to have this addressed immediately.
"We are experiencing technical difficulties that are affecting the
delivery of inquiries submitted through our e-form. We appreciate your
patience as we handle every customer request as quickly as possible.
"Please remain confident that Windows Live Hotmail is on top of the
situation and we assure that you that we are taking actions to address
this issue.
"If your issue is not yet resolved at this time, please reply to this
e-mail so we can investigate further. Thank you for using Windows
Live Hotmail.
I replied that my problem was still unresolved and I still needed a
fix.
After a few days, I got another response. Exactly the same response I
got the first time about problems with their e-form. The fact that I
wasn't using their e-form, but responding to their e-mail didn't seem
to make a difference.
After this happened a third time, I thought perhaps some capital
letters might actually get seen so I wrote back:
> YOU KEEP SENDING ME THE SAME REPLY !!!
> YES! ONCE AGAIN! I STILL HAVE A PROBLEM !!!
Finally, almost a month after my initial query, I got this response.
"Your e-mail message was forwarded to us at MSN Hotmail Technical
Support. My name is <name deleted to protect this poors slobs job> and
I am glad to assist you with your issue. I have noted that you are
unable to insert e-mail addresses in the To: field of your account. I
realize that this may have caused an inconvenience and I truly
apologize for the delay in response time.
"We appreciate the time you took in bringing this to our attention.
Every time that you log in to the Internet, cookies are stored in your
computer's temporary Internet files or cache. Sometimes, instead of
accessing the website directly from the server, your browser detects
the website content from the cache. This will cause you to have
difficulty in viewing some pages. Other probable reasons include
incorrect browser settings and Internet filtering browser functions
interfering with the operation of MSN Hotmail. To resolve the issue,
please see the Help files for that program, or contact the
manufacturer for steps to optimize your Internet browser.
> more nonsense removed
"We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with
the highest quality service available. Thank you for using MSN
Hotmail.
Wow. First of all she completely misunderstood what my problem was and
what Microsoft product I was using. What a load of total nonsense. I
especially liked the part about "contact the manufacturer for steps to
optimize your Internet browser." Microsoft passing the buck to the
hardware manufaturer for what is clearly a software problem.
Shame on Microsoft.
William Hayes
r> Shame on Microsoft.
In the eyes of Microsoft technicians who do not do the programming but
follow a mindless flow chart developed by a documentation specialist in a
cubby hole on the fourth floor in Redman, Washington; hardware is the
problem since Microsoft programming is perfect.
In the eyes of hardware technicians who repair the stuff Hardware Engineers
designed and built; Microsoft programming is the problem, stuck in an 80s
mentality that what works, works, don't fix it, just add more bloatware to
it, give it more features and call it another operating system. (Ignore the
underlying command.com is heavily based on the "new technology" of DOS 5.0
and a better way to implement file management using different manufacturer's
CPU's addressability. Just makes ya proud to own a copy.
Just wonder what kind of Duck Fowl the Software Engineers are smoking to
'dream up' the bloatware.
jayjwa
> The beta turned out to be buggy (For some reason, contact addresses on
> the To: line were appearing as white on white so they looked
> invisible.) and so I submitted a bug report to Microsoft on their web-
> site (support.live.com) which promises 24 hour response.
>
> After a few days, I got this interesting response:
>
> "Dear Customer,
>
> "Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support. We
> appreciate the time you took to send us your concern and we know how
> important it is to have this addressed immediately.
Looks like stock Microsoft PR filler. I get the same stuff whenever I mail
them about something. Once I contacted MS about IE not working, possibly
due to a bad online upgrade, and not being able to access the Internet at
all. The guy's response was "go online and re-download IE". I'm assuming
that was with my broken IE... Microsoft "help" is worse than useless. One
arguement I hear against free OS's like Linux is, "there's no support". At
least in a Linux forum, a real person might actually read and answer my
question (usually do).
--
[** America, the police state **]
Whoooose! What's that noise? Why, it's US citizen's
rights, going down the toilet with Bush flushing.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2007/08/wiretap
http://www.hermes-press.com/police_state.htm