THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS DIVA

All I can say is "Wow". Total denial of responsibility. How do I, in good faith, go to my customers and explain to them that the product I service is what caused the mess and the solution to get them working is going to cost them at minimum $100 per machine? So I eat the time and support the customer or I bill the customer and make them angry. What a complete at total failure on Microsoft's part.

"Total denial of responsibility"

Well, lets look at what happened here. People ran into a problem. They jumped on Google and implemented the first "solution" that came up. They didn't bother to actually call Microsoft and see what they may have to say about it. So now they are running with thier "solution" and later discover that it really wasn't a solution after all. This is Microsoft's fault ? Mmmmm not really. If they were told on the phone with Microsoft tech support to edit the pending.xml file then I would have to say that Microsoft gave them bad information and is totally to blame but to say that it's Microsofts fault that many people used bad judgment and got themselves into trouble is not at all fare. People have to take personal responsibilty for thier decisions.

Let the flaming begin.

If you look at KB975484 the first step in the resolution is

1. Locate a second computer with access to the internet

Uh, OK why ? None of the rest of the steps have anything to do with the Internet. So is it like "Ha ! now that we made you do that we will get on with the real solution" ?

Googled solution or not... It shouldn't have happened in the first place. And that's Microsoft's fault... period.

"And if someone in support also picked up on the pending hack and recommended it?"

That link does not work. I get "You are not authorized to perform this action."

But to answer your question. Personally I don't know if tech support via the web is the best thing. Maybe I'm old fashioned but for me if you are dealing with a NEW problem, and let me make that clear, I'm talking about a problem that does not have an official documented solution that you can Google, I think it is far better to get your answers over the phone. You will be dealing with someone who is focused ONLY on your problem and not multitasking doing this and that and only half thinking about what they are suggesting. Plus the person on phone support, as has been done many times for me in the past, can collaborate with other depts within Microsoft in real time to get a solution to the problem. Bottom line. You want a good answer to your problem ? Pick up the phone.

"And I will show you person after person say that the call back process now where you have to wait for a call back doesn't work."

You mean they really don't call you back ? If so that is really really bad and THAT is where the pressure on Microsoft should be. If they are thinking of ditching phone support in favor of web support to "save costs" people need to get on them NOW to nip that in the bud fast.

You will NEVER have the same quality of support on the Web as you would get on a phone call. Ever.

I have gotten fed up with MS tech support.   I feel like it's people just like me searching the knowledge base articles.  I can do that.  When I have a problem I want someone savier than me but normally it's someone just as knowledgable or less and it's irritating.  I wish I could get Mark Russonivich on the phone everytime I called, that guy would be able to solve my issue right away every time.

rant rant rant

It is a total denial of responsibility. Placed a support call for MS and did not get a call back in a decent amount of time. Systems were down. Followed the knowledge base article and did not edit the pending.xml file. Did the recommended registry edit listed in the KB article. Systems are now in an unsupported state. I say that is a denial of responsibility as I followed the KB article and am now told in order to be in a supported state I need to do a total reinstall.