R1E3 Rant 1 - The Microsoft Support Saga; Episode 3 - Kind of Final Thoughts

Rant 1 – The Microsoft Support Saga

Episode 3 – Kind of Final Thoughts

Now we arrive at the present. This whole ordeal, just the pixel thing, started over three weeks ago. In some capacity, I have been attempting to extract something from MS Support for nearly a month and have resolved nothing. Thank the good lord almighty that I do not use this computer for anything critical. Not only has their support interface been bewildering to the extent it seems intentionally poor to deter support requests, the people I have interacted with have been nigh useless. Florita was the best of the bunch but even she was quickly rotated out for the “escalation team” who were slower than the original personnel to respond.

The importance of service and tech support is touted by every company in the retail sphere. In today’s technology age of ever increasing complexity with simultaneous decreasing in what I would call “total feature reliability” (as in all advertised features work as intended, every time), service is not just a marketing talking point, but a pillar on which a successful company rests to survive in a vicious tech driven marketplace. I am frankly astounded by the number of “wtf” moments I encountered throughout this trek leading me to believe whomever is at the top of the MS Support food chain has never in fact used their own service. I mentioned Verizon in the beginning who, at least in personal experience, is the shining star of easy to use, comprehensive support. Microsoft has provided such a vast departure from that experience I have been driven to document my ordeal.

It should be mentioned that this is my first real Microsoft product outside of Windows/ Office and an Xbox, and I am now considerably less likely to purchase anything else produced by MS because the service has been abysmal. The greatest shame here is that the product isn’t bad. The Surface Book is great. At the bottom spec, it offers huge functionality and a pleasant form factor for little money (the options dramatically diminish this value assessment however). Up until this month, I was thoroughly pleased with the product, and I am admittedly a tough nut to please. Unfortunately, the carousel style support, poor response rate, and confusing/ infuriating support interfaces shape up to a less than stellar experience that will weigh heavily into future electronic purchase decisions. If you have made it this far through this rant, it should factor for you as well. I will certainly update this post based on the outcome of my support marathon, but it would seem the damage has been done.

Look for a final post on the subject after resolution and additional thoughts on the Microsoft Surface Book.