Comments on: Microsoft’s Poor Authentication Drove me to Thunderbird http://thomashawk.com/2005/10/microsofts-poor-authentication-drove.html Sat, 26 May 2012 02:31:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Anonymous http://thomashawk.com/2005/10/microsofts-poor-authentication-drove.html/comment-page-1#comment-18844 Anonymous Sun, 30 Oct 2005 02:30:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=3081#comment-18844 I am a registered member of the Microsoft partner program and an Action Pack Subcriber. The package I purchase from Microsoft is supposed to give me 10 product activations on each of the provided software (depending on the title). <br /><br />I had to call and speak to a human (they seem to be in India). I am on the 3rd activation on one product because a combination of spyware and media center rollup 2 not working properly made me reformat and reinstall to get things to work properly.<br /><br />Anyway, the guy on the phone tells me that I do not have the right to activate the product again. I argue with him for about 20 mins repeating like 3x that I am an action pack subscriber and I should have at least 6 or more open activations on the product. He finally realizes that he is wrong telling me I don't have any further activations and gives me the codes to enter the proper ID key. <br /><br />It was annoying and a hassle and a waste of time. Microsoft should realize that due to things like spyware and just problems with various software that you may have to reinstall the software and re-activate a NUMBER of times. Their system isn't bullet-proof where everything just totally works problem free all of the time. Activation support should be crafted around that fact.<br /><br />The customer representative made me feel like a little kid being slapped on the hand for having to call in to reactivate. Their response was not friendly in the least. I also test betas (on separate machines and sometimes on a second partition) and bother to send them bug reports, that most of the folks that buy their products and services do it legally.<br /><br />We shouldn't have to waste the time with activation and there should be some sort of secondary key (post first activation), so if you have the same hardware you can always reinstall without calling them. What I am talking about is the idea of having an "activation backup".<br /><br />The folks you call in activation don't treat folks with respect and decency that they should have when you call them. <br /><br />They should be much more polite to folks that call in and respect the fact they are taking time away to call in and do this. If you bought the rights to use the software, they should treat you like you own it, not like you are doing something wrong by asking to re-activate your product.<br /><br />The claim that they are never to "question" you definitely is false to fact from my own experiences. I am a registered member of the Microsoft partner program and an Action Pack Subcriber. The package I purchase from Microsoft is supposed to give me 10 product activations on each of the provided software (depending on the title).

I had to call and speak to a human (they seem to be in India). I am on the 3rd activation on one product because a combination of spyware and media center rollup 2 not working properly made me reformat and reinstall to get things to work properly.

Anyway, the guy on the phone tells me that I do not have the right to activate the product again. I argue with him for about 20 mins repeating like 3x that I am an action pack subscriber and I should have at least 6 or more open activations on the product. He finally realizes that he is wrong telling me I don’t have any further activations and gives me the codes to enter the proper ID key.

It was annoying and a hassle and a waste of time. Microsoft should realize that due to things like spyware and just problems with various software that you may have to reinstall the software and re-activate a NUMBER of times. Their system isn’t bullet-proof where everything just totally works problem free all of the time. Activation support should be crafted around that fact.

The customer representative made me feel like a little kid being slapped on the hand for having to call in to reactivate. Their response was not friendly in the least. I also test betas (on separate machines and sometimes on a second partition) and bother to send them bug reports, that most of the folks that buy their products and services do it legally.

We shouldn’t have to waste the time with activation and there should be some sort of secondary key (post first activation), so if you have the same hardware you can always reinstall without calling them. What I am talking about is the idea of having an “activation backup”.

The folks you call in activation don’t treat folks with respect and decency that they should have when you call them.

They should be much more polite to folks that call in and respect the fact they are taking time away to call in and do this. If you bought the rights to use the software, they should treat you like you own it, not like you are doing something wrong by asking to re-activate your product.

The claim that they are never to “question” you definitely is false to fact from my own experiences.

]]> By: Anonymous http://thomashawk.com/2005/10/microsofts-poor-authentication-drove.html/comment-page-1#comment-18845 Anonymous Wed, 26 Oct 2005 16:35:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=3081#comment-18845 Microsoft claims that their telephone operators are NEVER supposed to "question" you on why you need to re-authenticate. I recommend that you call back, get a manager and file a complaint. The system keeps tracks of the number of reinstalls you perform and will block you eventually, but you are never supposed to be grilled like some prisoner of war in a Vietcong torture prison. Microsoft claims that their telephone operators are NEVER supposed to “question” you on why you need to re-authenticate. I recommend that you call back, get a manager and file a complaint. The system keeps tracks of the number of reinstalls you perform and will block you eventually, but you are never supposed to be grilled like some prisoner of war in a Vietcong torture prison.

]]> By: Jonathan http://thomashawk.com/2005/10/microsofts-poor-authentication-drove.html/comment-page-1#comment-18846 Jonathan Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:52:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=3081#comment-18846 Thunderbird IMAP is really nice... as is the Threading view on messages which is not available in Outlook... Thunderbird IMAP is really nice… as is the Threading view on messages which is not available in Outlook…

]]> By: Anonymous http://thomashawk.com/2005/10/microsofts-poor-authentication-drove.html/comment-page-1#comment-18847 Anonymous Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:36:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/thomashawk/?p=3081#comment-18847 The $99 for Outlook is what drove me to Thunderbird. The $99 for Outlook is what drove me to Thunderbird.

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