Welcome to Hotmail Hell!
- TAGS:e-mail, funny, hotmail, humor, Microsoft, small busines server, technical support
- IT TOPICS:Careers, Desktop Apps, Internet, Management, Windows
For those who prefer not to taint their view of Microsoft's technical support as bureaucratic and incompetent with evidence that it may merely be helpful, albeit in a late-by-ten-years sorta way, here's a good story.
Susan Bradley is an accountant and techie from Fresno, Calif. She is also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in Small Business Server who blogs as the "SBS Diva."
The writing is as lively and funny as I've ever seen at a technical blog. Some of the popular tags include "evil things," "rants" and "Stupid Blonde moments."
Being an MVP has not neutered Bradley, who is well-known in Microsoft circles for not pulling her punches with Redmond.
Earlier this month, the Diva had a problem with her Hotmail account. Through a Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article, she found that if she e-mailed support@hotmail.com she should expect an answer within 24 business hours. But when she did so, she got back an automated reply with the money phrase "This is not a monitored address."
Trying to click on Help through Hotmail directly led to the same automated response.
"Welcome to Hotmail Hell," wrote another Microsoft MVP, Robear Dyer, in reply. His advice, if you need technical support, is to go to this page: http://support.live.com/eform.aspx
Got any tales of Hotmail Hell or other Microsoft support incompetence to share?
Free Insider Guide