14 DAY TRIAL // I know we have all had our issues with Microsoft Support, but sometimes it simply gets ridiculous. One customer revealed that Microsoft Support called him back 10 years after reporting the initial issue to the company to check if the problem had been resolved. And no, as odd as it might sound this is not getting a special treatment from Microsoft. Nor is it some obscure right tucked away in the End User License Agreement. It's not a privilege and it's not a mocking attempt. But Brian did receive a call from Microsoft Support no less than a decade after he looked for help.
"On January 8th [2008], my parents received a phone call which they dodged because the call was coming through at 11:00 p.m. at night. The next day they retrieved the voicemail message which was from Microsoft technical support calling *me* back to see if my problem has been resolved. I told my folks that the caller was obviously phishing for information for some kind of identity theft and that neither they or I should return a call to the toll free number. I hadn't lived with my parents for many years and it didn't make sense for Microsoft to have called me at their home number," Brian wrote on his blog.
But the toll free number did indeed belong to Microsoft as Brian discovered, and in this case, the legitimate contact information excluded the possibility of a phishing attempt. And the fact of the matter is that he did contact Microsoft Support on several occasion. After guiding the user through the process of resolving a problem, Microsoft Support generally checks in the following day to see if the issue has been dealt with. And as Brian was no longer living with his parents for quite some time, he made the connection with a support call he had made all the way back in 1998.
"Microsoft hadn't done this (call me back that is) the first time I called ... and I called many years ago.... but that must have been when I was living at home with my parents..... which is why they called me at my parents phone number. Look at the top of your keyboard... On January 7, 1998 a Tech Support person typed into their database to call me back the next day... but instead of typing 1/8/98 they typed 1/8/08. Instead of typing the "9" right next to it they typed "0". Microsoft had called me back 10 years later!" Brian added.