One of the good things about using Microsoft (MSFT) products in my experience is that they do not need much in terms of support services. One of the bad things about Microsoft as an investment is the fact that it has such a bad support-services group.
As bad as the situation is if you are thinking about becoming a Microsoft services user (Don’t! Especially don’t become a beta user of a Microsoft service), it is even worse if you are thinking about buying Microsoft shares. That’s because Microsoft’s only profitable future is in moving from developing technology-based products to delivering technology-enabled services. That’s the case for two reasons: Microsoft is not a very good technology company and technology is now a commodity.
That fact is especially an issue from an investment perspective given the now four-year-old Microsoft executive management mantra of “software plus services.” According to Microsoft, you should invest in Microsoft because it is going to make money in the future distributing software-enabled services as opposed to the way it has made money for the last 30 years, channeling its software to market via original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and highly skilled solutions providers. During its first 30 years, it has been those OEMs and solutions providers that delivered Microsoft support services, not anyone in Redmond.
I think the above is well reasoned impartial investment advice and I have given it in multiple ways over the last four years. But I admit my analysis this week is colored by the fact that Microsoft’s support-services operation has put me out of business for the last two weeks. I have been dealing without success with Rajendra, Sangya, Aishwarya.S, Gaurav and others to fix what I would have thought was a pretty simple problem. As of September 1, I cannot synchronize my PC-based Outlook application folder structure with my web-based Microsoft Office Live Small Business email account folder structure, something I have been able to do for over three years. (Office Live is similar to Google (GOOG) Apps, particularly gmail. Office Live Small Business adds some ERP and CRM capabilities for small businesses like mine.)
I have lost the synchronization features because on September 1 Microsoft stopped using an old email protocol called DAV for its Office Live Small Business email accounts (which are basically Hotmail accounts). The solution is simple if you are a vanilla Hotmail user apparently. Download and install a Microsoft application called Outlook Connector. But Outlook Connector on my PC says it can’t synchronize the two email-address folder structures. I suspect that’s because I am not a vanilla Hotmail user but a Microsoft Office Live Small Business email user.
But that’s just my guess. The error message says it’s because I am not a Windows Live Hotmail user. Actually it says
“User is not in Kahuna”
Apparently Rajendra, Sangya, Aishwarya.S, Gaurav and the others are neither surfers nor into Hawaiian culture and have no idea what that means.
And in fact Outlook Connector is wrong. I have been a proud Windows Live Hotmail user since the service was introduced. I have the congratulatory Microsoft email to prove it.
Naturally this has turned out to be only the beginning of my problems (otherwise why would I be ranting). The Windows Live Hotmail guys say this is a Windows Live ID problem. The Live ID guys say “No it isn’t.” Then they say it is an Office Live Small Business problem (my bet too). But the issue with Office Live Small Business (which was called Office Live Basic when I signed up as a beta user in 2006—my first mistake) is that I signed up in 2006 with a personal email account that I no longer use. Microsoft had no way at the time—and perhaps still—to change a Live Small Business user name (which is what your email address is on many such sites—see comment above about Microsoft not being a very good technology company) when I later changed my personal email address.
So in order to remind my Office Live Small Business account that I am a proud Windows Live Hotmail user, I have to sign in as a administrator with an old defunct email address. Actually Office Live Small Business has allowed me to do this for three years but stopped allowing it sometime this year (perhaps related to the DAV thing, perhaps coincidentially). Whichever, Rajendra, Sangya, Aishwarya.S, Gaurav and the others are not saying. All they can tell me is that
“your Microsoft Office Live account has broken its link with the account.”
You might think the solution would be to re-link it, or to link it to my current user name (the fact that they don’t do that is why I guess that Microsoft still has no way to change an administrator name on an Office Live Small Business account after it is set up—see comment above about Microsoft not being a very good technology company).
But no, the solution is—with no explanation—is
“you need to cancel your Microsoft Office Live account.”
From the old “we need to kill it to save it” school of support services I guess. After a few more emails and requests to give them a good review when I get the feedback survey, Rajendra, Sangya, Aishwarya.S, Gaurav and the others explain that I’m just screwed and I need to start over. Now that’s classic software maintenance I can understand.
In fact, they even admonish me to back up my web site—good advice—so that when after about 30 more steps I am again an Office Live Small Business account holder I can upload my web site without losing any thing currently on my web site. However the links to the Office Live Small Business application that backs up web sites does not work for me. I’m guessing—vicious circle guess--that it’s because I am not signed in as the administrator.
But Microsoft support services can’t hazard a guess. They consider this a new problem. Rajendra, Sangya, Aishwarya.S, Gaurav and the others have left the building.
So taking my situation out of the picture, Microsoft will never make "software plus services" work because
- Microsoft’s support web sites are full of jargon, inconsistent terminology and intra-Microsoft-group fingerpointing (“That’s not an Office Live problem; that’s a Windows Live problem.”)
- Every support-services email from Microsoft tells me to make sure to reply by using the same “Service Request” number so that Microsoft can be consistent in answering me but every subsequent reply from Microsoft comes from a different person proudly telling me that they have created a new Service Request number to track my concern.
- Every support-services email is full of ridiculous apologies--and a request to give the author a good review when the feedback survey comes--but no useful information, or information completely contradictory to the previous email.
- Every email asks me to repeat all the information about my problem that I put in the previous email before the new support services person can help me.
I’d actually be willing to pay Microsoft to get my problem fixed but that does not seem to be possible dealing directly with Microsoft. (“We don’t have Microsoft personnel working on this support site; it’s a community site with just people with no lives that will take a guess at what you want but they do not speak your native language.”)
However some of the other good things about using Microsoft products and services in my experience is that there is always a work around that costs me no money and that the whole combination of blogging engine, email support, website design tools, domain name charge, word processor, spreadsheet processor, presentation application, contact database and search engine costs less than $100 a year.
But that’s another good reason not to invest in Microsoft. How can they make any money when the stuff is so cheap, rarely needs support, the support is so poor, and you can’t buy it even if you want to.
-- Dennis Byron
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