As a beta-tester I got it for €19.95 for a 3-pc licence. That is ok value given its problems. Then I saw it for over €70 in Tesco the other day! I’d be steaming if I’d handed over that sort of money for something which just loves the term “100% CPU usage”.

Given your readership Tom, the lack of other similar stories in the comments would indicate that the support problem is an unfortunate glitch and not exactly a Dell Hell.

I still think, Paul, that if this issue is left to resolve itself (rather than having someone interfere now to get it resolved) those offering help now will still be aware of the issue and can go back to Support to try and figure out what went wrong.

Waiting to see how it pans out first, surely is not mutually exclusive with having someone with influence raise it as an issue later?

I think most here agree that the issue is not the ticket that is open, it’s the issues with processing that ticket.

Microsoft Support has a management structure one presumes. If not, it may explain why this call is outstanding so long!

Microsoft Support either:
1. doesn’t have processes which highlight exceptions (not good) or
2. don’t consider a call being open for 5 weeks as being exceptional (also not good)

What I meant is that it’s unfair to measure a company’s performance on 1 person’s ability to follow a process and do their job properly

Sorry Paul but that is just bull and you know it. The people who work in call centre’s have everything they do measured and analysed - the number of calls per day, call length, time to close calls, etc.
This call has been open now for almost five weeks. It is not the guy I was dealing with who is to blame for that. Why aren’t the managers monitoring the length of time to close calls in MS Support?

I didn’t refuse help from it’s marketing director (Ed). I embraced it. However, ‘the company’ continued to be a disaster so I’ve decided to take my custom elsewhere.

You’ve made your point and in the process, managed to get the attention of some very well connected Microsoftians. If you’re more interested in clock watching than helping a company to make change, then continue with the conversation. If however, you want to demonstrate your expertise in this field, then move on

Can’t argue with that. But it’s not what I said What I meant is that it’s unfair to measure a company’s performance on 1 person’s ability to follow a process and do their job properly. It would be different if you wanted to test the process and made say, 10 calls to work out an average.

Of course a sample size of 1 tells us lots and lots.

Absolutely Conor. That’s why I posted this on the blog - to get a larger sample size. In the same way I posted about Hotmail and Western Digital - the posts themselves were just my opinion but the discussion generated by the post showed there were lots of other people with similar issues.

@Paul - Way to “agree to disagree”
Why do you keep bringing it back to one individual Paul? I have said numerous times in the comments that this post is aimed at Microsoft Support not any one individual. The title of the post contains the term Microsoft Support, the post is tagged Microsoft Support.

I will say it again - this post is aimed at Microsoft Support not any one individual - unless there is only one person working in Microsoft Support(!). That would certainly explain the delay!

Waiting for a response from *1* individual who works for a company with more than 70,000 employees is *not* necessarily going to achieve a “normal” response!

Er… when it’s that *1* persons job to get back to you, I would consider it normal to expect the call…

I am absolutely amazed. How the hell can we expect to gain respect within the blogshere from large corporations when we hold out one hand of support and then slap them with the other when they accept?!

On one hand ‘we’ give presentations, give talks, chair conferences and provide advice with the goal of encouraging companies to take note of what bloggers say and to react accordingly. Then, when a large corporation responds in a positive way (as we advise!), thereby demonstrating their appreciation for ‘taking part in the conversation’, you go to town on them.

Either you want to encourage large corporations to get involved in the conversation or you don’t.

Waiting for a response from *1* individual who works for a company with more than 70,000 employees is *not* necessarily going to achieve a “normal” response! If I had been on Steve/Ben’s side whilst at AOL and was involved in this conversation, I think I would have given up a long time ago.

We should never make assumptions about how/why people end up reading our blogs. For all you know, I could have emailed Steve Clayton about this thread - i.e. he wasn’t following the blog and therefore reacted in a way that we encourage when giving presentations.

The bigger problem I agree once again with Tom, how can MSFT justify charging for OneCare and sell the OS? The problem is MSFT support don’t care given their huge profits and if Tom was not so well known he would have proved it … because the clock would have still been ticking.