First off, know that I love all things Microsoft.   I believe they are a great company and are often put under a microscope and blamed for things because they are successful and many people out there just don't want that for various reasons.

But what I wanted to write about today is where they are truly dropping the ball and my hope is that someone here in American Microsoft will see this and route it through the proper channels so that not only is the problem addressed, but that whoever is in charge of overseas support gets the message that 'I am unable to help you' is an unacceptable answer here in America, its the equivalent of saying 'I am unwilling to help you' in my mind.   An acceptable answer may be 'We can't help you at this time unless your willing to pay $X/hr or you can wait until 2nd quarter', but 'too bad' doesn't fly.

So if you haven't used it, Microsoft Office Live is great!  Definitely check it out!   It's a great way to get 'Share Point' like features for free along with a free web site that even my 7 year old daughter could design.   I really mean that, and these just are not the cheesy 'front-page' web-sites you may be thinking about, these are professional looking sites that are extensible by developers such as ourselves but simple enough for the less than knowledgeable!  Plus there are many other great tools/features in Office Live.

So here's the problem.   The web site I made for our church turned out great and I had been selling the church staff on using the 'Workspace' feature to upload and share their documents with for collaboration; a hard sell because like most companies, Outlook is the CMS.   Regardless, still got them going on it, but one of the pastors was unable to be added as an editor (or viewer) to any workspace.   I started a trouble ticket and after several emails back and forth their answer was 'we can't fix it, sorry'.

Now besides the fact that the 'wording' of these emails is horrible, which I can get past because I know these are just Indian work farms of folks who can barely speak English and work off of a script, I can't get past that they don't seem to understand American work-ethic or the American way.    There is no such thing as 'can not fix' for something that is obviously a data issue (since several other users don't have an issue).   The last thing the owner of a company (or the equivalent in this case) want to hear is 'nope, sorry, can't fix, oh well, make another user name and password you'll need to track so you can do what you want to do'.   America got to where she is by the 'can-do' people that have made it this great place; we don't accept anything less.

It's this type of 'I repro'd the problem, and you're right, it doesn't work, too bad' is what drives people to use Google equivalents.   Not that their support is any better, but in many cases, all it takes is a single issue like this for people to feed into the herd mentality.

The other thing that bothered me was them resetting the passwords on two accounts without first giving us a heads up.   Pastor will probably come in today unable to access their email or update the web site and not know why (since the alternate email is an email account they might not check until later today).

And let me be clear, I know this isn't the fault of Ranju, he's just doing his job and what he's told, the problem is with the policies and practices of the support team.

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Hello Brian,  

 

Thank you for writing back to Microsoft Office Live Workspace Support. My name is Ranju XXXXXX and I am working on the Service Request # 1121112775, which was created to track your concern related to sharing workspace with the email ID 'xyz@xyz.net'.

 

I have accessed your Microsoft Office Live Workspace account associated with 'xyz@xyz.net' (user having problem) as well as the account associated with 'xyz@xyz.net' (Office Live admin/owner account). I have checked all the features of these accounts. I found that there is a problem with the Microsoft Office Live Workspace account of the email ID 'xyz@xyz.net' which is the reason why you are unable to share it with the email ID 'xyz@xyz.net'.

 

We have investigated this problem along with our Next level team. Based on the information provided by our Next level team, I am sorry to inform you that, you will not be able to share your Workspace with this particular email ID  'xyz@xyz.net'. I would request you to use another email ID to share Workspace with the user.

 

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you are facing because of this issue. We appreciate your cooperation and patience as we moved ahead investigating the issue.

 

I am sending two reset password links of the sign in Windows Live IDs 'xyz@xyz.net' (user with problem) and  'xyz@xyz.net' (Office Live owner/administrator) to your alternate email address 'xyz@xyz.net'. Check the inbox and junk folder of the email account of 'xyz@xyz.net' and reset the password within 24 hours. The reset password link will expire after 24 hours.

 

Please note that the first reset email that you receive is for the Windows Live ID 'xyz@xyz.net'. Use the first reset password email for resetting the password of ' 'xyz@xyz.net'. The second reset password is for Windows Live ID  'xyz@xyz.net'. In addition, you can also reset the password of 'xyz@xyz.net' from your Microsoft Office Live Small Business account as well.

 

 

We appreciate your input and involvement in Microsoft Office Live Workspace service. Microsoft Office Live Workspace service is in its initial developing state (i.e. in Beta period) and there are lot of enhancements and applications/features yet to be introduced.

 

I would suggest you to submit a request as a feedback by visiting Feedback for Office Live Workspace Beta, so that it is considered when Microsoft Office Live Workspace upgrade takes place.

 

Please accept my apologies for not being able to assist you fully. Thank you for patience and understanding on this matter.

 

For your convenience, our support staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you have additional questions, concerns or need further assistance, please be sure not to change the subject line so that we can urgently address any remaining concerns. 

 

You may be selected to receive a survey. Your feedback is valuable to us as we are very interested in hearing about your support experience. Should you receive a survey, we appreciate you taking the time to respond.

 

Best Regards,

 

Ranju XXXX

Microsoft Office Live Workspace Support