Contributed by Haresh Karamchandani
Flashback:
August 2013 – A mining company client calls NATC tech support, knowing our
reputation that we offer only Genuine software, to check if we could offer them
MS Office software for 5 laptops.
We immediately put
forth the following proposal:
MS Office 2013:
The latest version from Microsoft consisting of Word, Excel, Powerpoint,
OneNote, Outlook, Publisher, Access. Perpetual licensing. Price US$350.00 each.
MS Office 365:
Exactly the same as MS Office 2013. One year license. Price US$20.00 each.
(US$99.99 for 5 users per annum).
We advised that
the MS Office 365 would be a much better bet as MS would keep upgrading the
software from time to time, and when it is time for renewal the next year we
would just have to pay US$99.99 and get the latest version. Whereas the MS
Office 2013 would get outdated in a few years’ time. (I know of some clients
that are stuck with MS Office 2007 till today!) The client took our advice, and
we delivered.
License was
bought in the USA, by our US Office and the product key was emailed to us for
activation and installation on the client computers right here in Liberia.
Everything worked smoothly.
Current day:
August 2014 – The client is roaming in India and calls and says that the license is expiring and
needs to be renewed. We assured them that it would be done promptly as usual.
We got down to the job immediately and called up MS Sales to purchase a renewal
armed with our US credit card details.
To our utter
shock and dismay, the MS Sales declined to renew the license saying that it is
being used in a different region other than the US and therefore we would have
to use a payment method from Liberia in order to get the license renewed! We
called the client and advised that they get the license renewed from India
using their company card. They call back the next day to say that it was
declined as well. Then we try using another UK VISA card. Declined again!
Finally, after being
on the telephone for 4 grueling hours (the line would get disconnected after
about an hour on the phone and MS would not call back, and we would have to
call back and start the troubleshooting from the beginning), finally MS Tech
support “understood” our problem that we do not have any payment method (Credit
Card system) in Liberia and agreed to accept our US card as payment. A new
order number was generated and a new product key was emailed to our email
account.
We “thought”,
phew, that should be it. We emailed the client the new product key and
instructions on how to get their software activated and went to sleep late in
the night. We were awakened early the next morning with a call from India. The
client complained that the software was not getting activated. They were
getting a “Region” error! As long as the software was not renewed/activated
they would not be able to produce new work as the license had expired.
We assured the
client that we will do whatever it takes to resolve the problem.
We again called
MS Tech support for Office 365 products, I now know the number by heart, and
explained to them our predicament. Again the same rigmarole. We kept getting
disconnected and they would not call back! After another 4 grueling hours of
troubleshooting the best MS could offer was that we should create a brand new email
account on a computer in the USA and use the product key to activate the
license on that computer! We had to do a conference call to our US office along
with MS Tech Support and finally the problem was resolved. We cannot use the
original email account though, but we have a new account with US details and
the client can use this new account to have their respective software
activated.
What did we
learn from this? MS Tech Support sucks!
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