My frustrations with Microsoft today.
I just wanted to vent….
This is a particularly annoying incident given that they’ve just hiked their prices for Office 365 by 40%.
Anyway, for the last couple of days I have been unable to search any emails in my mailbox.
If I search for an email using the Outlook client on any of the 3 PCs in my house which I use, the search fails to connect to the server.
This started a couple of days ago.
Furthermore, if I search for an email using the web access version at outlook.com it also fails - I just get this after a minute or so:
Searching for emails is one of those things you do all the time but don’t realise it until you can’t do it - it’s actually incredibly disabling not to be able to find what you want quickly and efficiently.
So, I was forced to contact Microsoft support, as it seems to me that this is a slam dunk for some sort of issue with my account on their systems.
I eventually connected via web chat.
There then followed about 30 mins where the helpdesk representative took over my computer and decided that I needed all manner of patches to my Windows.
I asked “how can this just be on my computer when the issue hit 3 PCs AND outlook.com at the same time?
No answer - just do as they say.
Take a copy of the link to the helpdesk chat, she asks, so I can rejoin after the installs are done.
I do so, and she starts the updates.
Installing the updates takes an hour or so.
Irritatingly, when I do click on the link to get back to the chat I just get this:
And they also sent me an email saying:
The link took me to the above “service request is closed” notification.
So they closed an ongoing service request because it timed out while the PC running their software was installing updates they’d initiated, which weren’t even relevant to the issue at hand!
Anyway, I went back to the help, and eventually got someone else on the web chat.
They think it might be my internet connection. Really? I have a 250 Meg connection, the problem started simultaneously with 3 PCs AND outlook web access via any browser, and is absent for my wife’s account……but you think it’s my internet?!
After about an hour of their fiddling - including me switching my internet access to hotspot via my mobile phone - they agreed that maybe this was at their end after all and they should escalate this to an engineering team at last.
They are calling me back tomorrow to carry on.
I am beyond frustrated.
I currently work in 1st level support for an ISP, but I'll send my resignation letter this month because the job is total crap. Anyway, I have a technical background and at least I know what I'm doing, and so do some of my co-workers who have been there for years. But some don't have any clue about anything. Heck, some don't even know the difference between a wired connection and a Wi-Fi connection, but they're considered qualified enough to help customers with their connectivity issues. So here is how it works: Anyone who can type two words on a keyboard is hired, gets 2 to 4 weeks of training and voilà, now we have new tech "experts" on our team. Doing tech support basically means search the database for a manual that loosely has something to do with the customer's question and then just read instructions from the checklist "do this, do that, is it working now?".
So yeah, your experience is completely in line with the standard operating procedures at many tech companies. By the way, did they try to sell you something? We're supposed to ask this at every customer contact no matter what: Thank you for contacting support, I hope I was able to resolve your issue, may I offer you an upgrade for your existing contract?
I got the email from MS about the price increase and was furious. Here was my reply to their email - Absolutely ridiculous. I have seen no value added in the past ten years. Originally I had 365 that came with my computer and somehow it switched to having to pay for it yearly. My email is the worst it's ever been since. I get over 20 junk emails daily using Hotmail/ Office. I report them and they still keep coming. Now you want to raise the price 42%. If I didn't to need have Word . I would tell you exactly where to stick this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!