It's not often that I praise Microsoft (well, never actually) but their
support team at Reading, UK deserves a pat on the back.
A problem that looked like it would take 3 days to fix has been sorted
within 12 hours. Well done Rajesh and the rest of his team.

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children

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Doctor John <j.g### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> It's not often that I praise Microsoft (well, never actually) but their
> support team at Reading, UK deserves a pat on the back.
> A problem that looked like it would take 3 days to fix has been sorted
> within 12 hours. Well done Rajesh and the rest of his team.

Some time ago I had a problem with my Xbox Live account having been
hacked. The Finnish Microsoft phone support was almost amazingly
competent, clear and non-patronizing: She understood and believed
perfectly everything I said, she gave only relevant answers and did
relevant actions, did not ask any stupid or unnecessary questions,
and the problem was solved swiftly and without a hitch.

I was honestly not expecting that.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 13/12/13 15:42, Warp wrote:
> Doctor John <j.g### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> It's not often that I praise Microsoft (well, never actually) but their
>> support team at Reading, UK deserves a pat on the back.
>> A problem that looked like it would take 3 days to fix has been sorted
>> within 12 hours. Well done Rajesh and the rest of his team.
> 
> Some time ago I had a problem with my Xbox Live account having been
> hacked. The Finnish Microsoft phone support was almost amazingly
> competent, clear and non-patronizing: She understood and believed
> perfectly everything I said, she gave only relevant answers and did
> relevant actions, did not ask any stupid or unnecessary questions,
> and the problem was solved swiftly and without a hitch.
> 
> I was honestly not expecting that.
> 

Is it possible that M$ is getting a human face?

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children

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Doctor John <j.g### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> Is it possible that M$ is getting a human face?

Microsoft is traditionally known for software of questionable quality
(especially on the operating system side, even though they have improved
in this section since the integrated their NT line into their desktop line)
and their dubious competitive tactics, especially in the past (eg.
basically extorting PC vendors to include their OS in all sold machines).

However, has Microsoft ever got a fame of poor-quality constumer support?
I have not got this impression. (Sure, there are quite many individual
examples of this, there always are, but has it been a common trend?)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 14/12/2013 20:33, Warp wrote:
> However, has Microsoft ever got a fame of poor-quality constumer support?
> I have not got this impression. (Sure, there are quite many individual
> examples of this, there always are, but has it been a common trend?)
>

You're probably right. Good support (or at least empathetic support) but 
seriously sh*t software

John

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Am 14.12.2013 21:33, schrieb Warp:
> Doctor John <j.g### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
>> Is it possible that M$ is getting a human face?
>
> Microsoft is traditionally known for software of questionable quality
> (especially on the operating system side, even though they have improved
> in this section since the integrated their NT line into their desktop line)
> and their dubious competitive tactics, especially in the past (eg.
> basically extorting PC vendors to include their OS in all sold machines).

I won't fully agree with this statement; their primary software 
development product has been demonstrating exceptionally high quality 
(at least by MS standards) for a decade or more (except for the 
documentation).

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On 15/12/13 01:06, clipka wrote:
> I won't fully agree with this statement; their primary software
> development product has been demonstrating exceptionally high quality
> (at least by MS standards) for a decade or more (except for the
> documentation).
> 

May I point out your words "at least by MS standards" and "except for
the documentation?

John
-- 
Protect the Earth
It was not given to you by your parents
You hold it in trust for your children

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Am 15.12.2013 02:22, schrieb Doctor John:
> On 15/12/13 01:06, clipka wrote:
>> I won't fully agree with this statement; their primary software
>> development product has been demonstrating exceptionally high quality
>> (at least by MS standards) for a decade or more (except for the
>> documentation).
>>
>
> May I point out your words "at least by MS standards"

Sure, if you let me not only point out but also emphasize the words 
"/exceptionally/" and "/at least/". The only reason I added "(at least 
by MS standards)" is that I really can't say how it compares to, say, 
IBM's Rational line of products. But extrapolating from my experience 
with a small subset of the Rational tools - and other mind-bogglingly 
expensive development tools, for that matter - I'd expect MS Visual 
Studio to win by lengths.

> and "except for the documentation?

Yeah, because the docs really don't do the product /per se/ any justice. 
But I've yet to see a software development product where that is /not/ 
the case.

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On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 02:57:36 +0100, clipka wrote:

> Yeah, because the docs really don't do the product /per se/ any justice.
> But I've yet to see a software development product where that is /not/
> the case.

The trend in documentation (speaking as someone who's spent the last 
couple years working as a contractor doing documentation and other 
technical writing) has been to move away from rather useless descriptive 
documentation (I know what the File menu does, so you don't need to tell 
me) and moving towards task-based or "targeted" documentation.

The success of targeted documentation depends heavily, though, on 
collaboration with UX engineers and UI designers - the UI should be 
completely intuitive and not require /any/ documentation to use it, 
ideally.  Then documentation can focus on procedures around how to 
accomplish goals and perform tasks.

More advanced topics - like troubleshooting and advanced configuration 
(large scale, heavy use, etc) are either advanced documentation or 
training topics.

Jim

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On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 00:13:54 +0000, Doctor John wrote:

> On 14/12/2013 20:33, Warp wrote:
>> However, has Microsoft ever got a fame of poor-quality constumer
>> support?
>> I have not got this impression. (Sure, there are quite many individual
>> examples of this, there always are, but has it been a common trend?)
>>
>>
> You're probably right. Good support (or at least empathetic support) but
> seriously sh*t software

One thing I've observed over the years of Microsoft products is that they 
tend to aim for "good enough" rather than "perfect".  Sadly, that's the 
way of things in software creation - the companies that make technically 
excellent software - and groundbreaking software - tend not to do as well 
because they spend too much on development and not enough on marketing.

Jim

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