On Thursday, August 13th, I became a victim of gross negligence by two Microsoft technicians which ended up causing major damage to my computer. What followed has been an unbelievably exhausting, aggravating, time consuming, and frustrating attempt to get the problem, that was never my fault, properly resolved.
After the first technician gave me incorrect information and as a result caused my computer to begin to malfunction, the second technician, who seemed at a loss for the correct procedure to fix the computer, led me on a "wild goose chase" for nearly 4 hours having me constantly turning off and on the computer, which I knew was probably not good for it, and had me doing things which ultimately only made the situation worse, finally unable to correctly resolve the issue ended up referring me to Level 2 tech support that I was going to have to wait 2 days for a phone call from. I explained to her that I run a business off my computer and that seemed to make no difference to her. The next day when I turned on the laptop it crashed with the screen saying I had to get immediate repair, the boot drive was missing and files had been corrupted. Horrified, I contacted Microsoft again and the technician, who seemed to be much more knowledgeable, suggested I go to the Microsoft store near me and let them try to fix it. So I called, made an appointment and took the damaged computer in the next day.
The technician looked at the computer and, after I told him about the actions of the first two technicians, he just shook his head. He wasn't able to get the computer working so I had to leave it with him and explained I used this for business. He told me it would take about 3-4 days to get it back to me. Later that evening, I got a call from a Level 2 technician supervisor who profusely apologized for what had happened and told me they would take care of me. She also told me that her manager was going to call me back within the hour and talk to me due to the severity of the damage. I never heard another word from Microsoft that weekend !!!
On Monday, I started what would be an agonizing 3 week effort to contact someone in Level 2 tech support to find out what was going on and why I never got a return call from the manager who was supposed to call me back on that Saturday evening. I was calling nearly every day, sometimes 3-4 times a day, and was subjected to multiple employees being abrupt and rude, as several people hung up on me, being constantly transferred to other numbers which proved to be of no help, being told someone would call me back in 2 hours and never receiving a return call, lying to me, telling me to just file a complaint and basically giving me the runaround !!!
While all of this was happening, I had gotten the computer back on Friday, August 21st, nearly a week later rather than 3-4 days quoted but was told it was due to difficulties they had trying to get the operating system re-installed and running correctly. I was horrified when I found out that the majority of the programs had been destroyed and they were only able to recover some files, downloads, pictures and folders. Among the programs destroyed were 15 programs I use for business for which I had paid over $2000 and found out later it was going to cost around $600 to get them back. To add insult to injury, I had to take the computer back to the Microsoft store 6 times over the following week and a half as I was constantly running into issues. I was finally told the last time if they couldn't get it up and running properly, they would just have to put the original operating system on meaning it would be right back to where it was when it was working fine on August 13th before the two technicians negligence caused the damage to occur minus all the programs which had been destroyed !!! I then mentioned that I wanted reimbursement from Microsoft in order to at least replace the 15 programs I used for business. The assistant store manager asked me to supply him a list of the program, what I had paid, and what it would it would cost to replace them saying he would send an e-mail to someone in the company to get that underway. The following week he had not heard back from anyone and, despite having sent him 4 more e-mails, he refused to reply to them and ultimately quit trying to be of any assistance. He just walked away from the issue with no explanation as to why. And that left me wondering if he ever sent an e-mail in the first place to someone higher up to help resolve the issue. The only e-mail I got from him was that there was no response from the message he supposedly sent and that if he had not heard from them when he returns to work in two days he might have another idea. After that, I never heard from him again.
The weekend of September 4th - 6th, I placed over another half dozen calls to Microsoft and was told on Saturday night that the case had been closed the night before by a supervisor in Level 2 tech support with no resolution. He was the third one I had spoken with during that week that told me a manager would call within 2 hours and none of them ever did. I was livid. I got a few more abrupt employees on the phone trying to get someone to return my call and finally, on Sunday afternoon, a very nice lady from Level 2 tech support who was a supervisor said she was so sorry for the way I had been treated and that steps should be taken to correct what had happened. She asked me to send an e-mail to the "wehelp" e-mail address in order to get the attention from the corporate office. I explained to her that I had called the corporate office in Redmond at least 3 times during August and got nowhere as I spoke with people who were very dismissive and kept transferring me around. She apologized for that as well. I sent an e-mail to that address Sunday evening and in less than 24 hours I had gotten a response from Global Escalation Level 3 informing me that someone would call me on Tuesday morning to discuss what had happened and that I would be taken care of this time. I also had left a message on Sunday evening for the manager of the Microsoft store which he would not even extend me the courtesy of returning my call.
I got a call Tuesday morning from Global Escalation and thought at last this will get resolved and I can move on and get my business back up and running completely after nearly a month of being shut down by the original two technicians negligence. But that was not to be the case. Once again I was subjected to being given the runaround, stall tactics, not being told the truth for yet another two and a half weeks. I kept being told they were waiting on responses from the "other" departments investigating where the infractions had occurred and determining what to do. This was insane as they had the case number in front of them and could access it at any time. I repeatedly asked where were these other departments and what were their phone numbers to which I got a response of "we don't know where they are physically located and they have no phones". That was the most absurd thing I had ever heard. By September 21st I had not heard back from the person originally handling this issue since they had told me a week earlier that this could not keep dragging out and it was taking too long to get responses. I was asked to send an e-mail detailing the programs I had lost, what I paid for them, when I paid for them, and the cost to replace which I did that very day. During the next week while I was dealing with corporate again, I was finally contacted again by Global Escalation by at least 4 different people all who wanted to argue with me about the list I submitted regarding the programs yet no one ever addressed the e-mail I was told to send outlining what I expected as compensation and reimbursement. This had become a nightmare !!!
I once again called the corporate office at that point and was told they were taking my information and I was now being referred to Executive Escalation who never even extended me the professional courtesy of e-mailing me or calling me to discuss the matter even though I was told to call back on October 2nd if I had not gotten things settled through Global Escalation. When I called corporate back on the 2nd, the lady informed me that Global was handling the matter and they couldn't escalate my case any further. I asked her why they told me Executive Escalation was going to be handling this and contacting me and how they could just ignore this when I had received no reimbursement and compensation for what had happened. Once again I had been given the runaround, and she ended up transferring my call to some reimbursement department who couldn't do anything so they contacted Global Escalation and told me the manager would call me when he came in to work in about 2 hours. As it turned out the person who called me back was the same person I had been dealing with since September 8th and when I questioned why he told me in a previous phone call there was no manager in this department, I got a runaround answer. He clearly was not the manager.
After several more phone calls from Global Escalation, on the 8th of October I was told they would be glad to offer me $150 in compensation and would be writing it off for "unpleasant support experience". SERIOUSLY - what are they thinking after all the crap I have been drug through the last 2 months and being subjected to aggravation, lost time, lost income, harassment, abuse and being left with a computer that is unstable as I have had multiple issues occurring since I got the computer back at the end of August? This was an absolute insult to my intelligence and a proverbial slap in my face from Microsoft indicating to me they would do what they want and get away with it - UNACCEPTABLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL !!!
Monday night, October 12th, I got yet another call from Global Escalation and I was told at this point that the $150 is all that had been approved by the"technical leads" and that they would continue to give me tech support until the machine was working perfectly again. I was also told they were not closing out the case and would just keep checking for updates while an investigation was still ongoing.I have never heard such a load of crap in my life. I cannot believe Microsoft would allow their employees to drag someone through hell like this then turn their backs and expect to get off with only paying out $150. Even the technician Monday night admitted that he had not experienced a case that had taken so long to settle.
So now, after over 3 months of great mental, emotional and physical stress in the effort to get this situation fixed, I am currently left with a computer that is unstable, 15 programs I use for business still not replaced, constantly finding other programs that were wiped out due to the original two technicians negligence, and losing a lot of potential income as a result !!! The really pathetic and unbelievable thing about this entire incident is that it involved an issue that Microsoft had been completely aware of since they began releasing Windows 10 in July, so certainly the technicians on August 13th had no excuse not to know what was going on. To make matters worse, I had been told by the assistant manager at the Microsoft store #56 where I took the computer that I probably didn't want to hear it, but had the phone technicians simply referred me to them to bring the computer to, the issue could have been resolved in about 15 - 20 minutes !!!
MICROSOFT - just because you are a multi-billion dollar corporation does not mean you can treat people like trash and not take responsibility for the damaged caused by negligent actions of your employees. Furthermore, the fact that you would allow your employees to act so unprofessionally with such disregard to a customer requesting urgent help for an issue that was NEVER their fault is unconscionable !!! I would be willing to bet there are others out there that have received similar treatment from your employees and you probably did nothing just waiting for the customer to give up and go away. How many of you have allowed Microsoft to bully you and stall you to the point where you just gave up ???
This will NOT be the case with me. I will continue to post this anywhere and everywhere I can think of that there might be the chance it will get back to someone in the corporate office who actually cares and takes their job seriously enough to call me and help get this matter fairly settled once and for all !!! I am well aware there are people out there who like to scam companies and get as much as they can for free, but I am NOT one of those people and I have a very valid reason along with proof of why I was asking for what I did.
The weekend of September 4th - 6th, I placed over another half dozen calls to Microsoft and was told on Saturday night that the case had been closed the night before by a supervisor in Level 2 tech support with no resolution. He was the third one I had spoken with during that week that told me a manager would call within 2 hours and none of them ever did. I was livid. I got a few more abrupt employees on the phone trying to get someone to return my call and finally, on Sunday afternoon, a very nice lady from Level 2 tech support who was a supervisor said she was so sorry for the way I had been treated and that steps should be taken to correct what had happened. She asked me to send an e-mail to the "wehelp" e-mail address in order to get the attention from the corporate office. I explained to her that I had called the corporate office in Redmond at least 3 times during August and got nowhere as I spoke with people who were very dismissive and kept transferring me around. She apologized for that as well. I sent an e-mail to that address Sunday evening and in less than 24 hours I had gotten a response from Global Escalation Level 3 informing me that someone would call me on Tuesday morning to discuss what had happened and that I would be taken care of this time. I also had left a message on Sunday evening for the manager of the Microsoft store which he would not even extend me the courtesy of returning my call.
I got a call Tuesday morning from Global Escalation and thought at last this will get resolved and I can move on and get my business back up and running completely after nearly a month of being shut down by the original two technicians negligence. But that was not to be the case. Once again I was subjected to being given the runaround, stall tactics, not being told the truth for yet another two and a half weeks. I kept being told they were waiting on responses from the "other" departments investigating where the infractions had occurred and determining what to do. This was insane as they had the case number in front of them and could access it at any time. I repeatedly asked where were these other departments and what were their phone numbers to which I got a response of "we don't know where they are physically located and they have no phones". That was the most absurd thing I had ever heard. By September 21st I had not heard back from the person originally handling this issue since they had told me a week earlier that this could not keep dragging out and it was taking too long to get responses. I was asked to send an e-mail detailing the programs I had lost, what I paid for them, when I paid for them, and the cost to replace which I did that very day. During the next week while I was dealing with corporate again, I was finally contacted again by Global Escalation by at least 4 different people all who wanted to argue with me about the list I submitted regarding the programs yet no one ever addressed the e-mail I was told to send outlining what I expected as compensation and reimbursement. This had become a nightmare !!!
I once again called the corporate office at that point and was told they were taking my information and I was now being referred to Executive Escalation who never even extended me the professional courtesy of e-mailing me or calling me to discuss the matter even though I was told to call back on October 2nd if I had not gotten things settled through Global Escalation. When I called corporate back on the 2nd, the lady informed me that Global was handling the matter and they couldn't escalate my case any further. I asked her why they told me Executive Escalation was going to be handling this and contacting me and how they could just ignore this when I had received no reimbursement and compensation for what had happened. Once again I had been given the runaround, and she ended up transferring my call to some reimbursement department who couldn't do anything so they contacted Global Escalation and told me the manager would call me when he came in to work in about 2 hours. As it turned out the person who called me back was the same person I had been dealing with since September 8th and when I questioned why he told me in a previous phone call there was no manager in this department, I got a runaround answer. He clearly was not the manager.
After several more phone calls from Global Escalation, on the 8th of October I was told they would be glad to offer me $150 in compensation and would be writing it off for "unpleasant support experience". SERIOUSLY - what are they thinking after all the crap I have been drug through the last 2 months and being subjected to aggravation, lost time, lost income, harassment, abuse and being left with a computer that is unstable as I have had multiple issues occurring since I got the computer back at the end of August? This was an absolute insult to my intelligence and a proverbial slap in my face from Microsoft indicating to me they would do what they want and get away with it - UNACCEPTABLE AND UNPROFESSIONAL !!!
Monday night, October 12th, I got yet another call from Global Escalation and I was told at this point that the $150 is all that had been approved by the"technical leads" and that they would continue to give me tech support until the machine was working perfectly again. I was also told they were not closing out the case and would just keep checking for updates while an investigation was still ongoing.I have never heard such a load of crap in my life. I cannot believe Microsoft would allow their employees to drag someone through hell like this then turn their backs and expect to get off with only paying out $150. Even the technician Monday night admitted that he had not experienced a case that had taken so long to settle.
So now, after over 3 months of great mental, emotional and physical stress in the effort to get this situation fixed, I am currently left with a computer that is unstable, 15 programs I use for business still not replaced, constantly finding other programs that were wiped out due to the original two technicians negligence, and losing a lot of potential income as a result !!! The really pathetic and unbelievable thing about this entire incident is that it involved an issue that Microsoft had been completely aware of since they began releasing Windows 10 in July, so certainly the technicians on August 13th had no excuse not to know what was going on. To make matters worse, I had been told by the assistant manager at the Microsoft store #56 where I took the computer that I probably didn't want to hear it, but had the phone technicians simply referred me to them to bring the computer to, the issue could have been resolved in about 15 - 20 minutes !!!
MICROSOFT - just because you are a multi-billion dollar corporation does not mean you can treat people like trash and not take responsibility for the damaged caused by negligent actions of your employees. Furthermore, the fact that you would allow your employees to act so unprofessionally with such disregard to a customer requesting urgent help for an issue that was NEVER their fault is unconscionable !!! I would be willing to bet there are others out there that have received similar treatment from your employees and you probably did nothing just waiting for the customer to give up and go away. How many of you have allowed Microsoft to bully you and stall you to the point where you just gave up ???
This will NOT be the case with me. I will continue to post this anywhere and everywhere I can think of that there might be the chance it will get back to someone in the corporate office who actually cares and takes their job seriously enough to call me and help get this matter fairly settled once and for all !!! I am well aware there are people out there who like to scam companies and get as much as they can for free, but I am NOT one of those people and I have a very valid reason along with proof of why I was asking for what I did.
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