14 DAY TRIAL // So you’re using a Microsoft product and you experience some kind of error that prevents it from running correctly. The first thing that many people do is contact Microsoft support and ask for assistance, as they believe that getting professional help is the best option when it comes to fixing bugs.
Microsoft haters say that, if this is your case too, you’ve basically made two mistakes. First, you used a Microsoft product (and yes, that’s just rude), and second, you tried to contact Microsoft Support (which, let’s be honest, isn’t quite the best idea, and you’ll find out why in just a few seconds).
As we’ve reported to you several times in the last few days, Microsoft’s support service sometimes creates more confusion, and not only that it treats users disrespectfully but it also wastes their time and offers only vague workarounds for critical issues.
Case in point is a Windows 10 adopter who decided to contact Microsoft support because of a critical error impacting Cortana and the Start menu.
5 hours waiting on the phone
As you can see in the message included in the box after the job, the Microsoft customer had to wait 5 hours on the phone to talk to a company engineer called Mark (another version of Jay P., it seems).
“This evening, I left work early and called Microsoft Technical Support. After holding for FIVE HOURS I was finally answered by a person named Mark. I immediately gave Mark my home telephone number in case we were disconnected. Very prophetic of me, as it turned out...” he wrote on Microsoft’s support forums.
In most of the cases, Microsoft’s support engineers do try to help customers, but very often, they don’t. And this is exactly what happened this time.
“After describing my issue, Mark indicated that he knew how to fix the issue but that it was quite technical. He said he needed to refer to his resource material for a possible fix. He said he was going to put me on hold, and did so despite my protestations. Of course, you can guess what happened - he disconnected me,” the disappointed Microsoft customer continued.
So in the end, there’s another outraged Microsoft customer, one more complaint aimed at Microsoft’s support service, and more people who understand that contacting the support service is often a waste of time.
And it appears that our blacklist keeps growing. We now have two names: Jay P. and Mark.