Microsoft: Take a Lesson From Apple

So, when Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 was released, I purchased the Home and Student version which comes with 3 product keys from Amazon.  Only one problem:  there is no Outlook.  If you wanted Outlook, you had to buy the Business version.   When you load the home and student software, they suggest you try the Trial version of Outlook, which I did.  It expired, so I decided to upgrade.  Sounds simple enough, right?

Well you can upgrade for $99 and get only 1 product key.  I was upset that I couldn’t do the upgrade on the 3 products keys, but it took me 45 minutes on the phone with several Microsoft employees and supervisors to decide that I would finally upgrade with 1 key.  I then tried to purchase online for 4 hours.  In between, I called Microsoft and asked for help since their website would just spin and spin and could not complete the transaction.  I got put on hold after being shuffled to 4 people.  Each took my phone number “in case we get disconnected” and I had to reiterate my story each time.  The last person put me on permanent hold, and disconnected me completely, but never called me back.

You may wonder at this point why I wanted Outlook.  I had already imported and customized my email(several issues, but all ultimately resolved).  I finally decided that perhaps the browser was the probelm, so tried Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.  Finally got connected and purchased, but this experience has made me even more of a hater.

After talking to 9 different Microsoft customer service people, I finally had to resolve the problem myself.  In all my years of using Apple customer service, I have never had any issues even remotely resembling this.  So Microsoft, perhaps you need to take a lesson from a company that provides excellent customer service and keeps their customers coming back to buy more.