James Whitt's Mind Notes

So, here’s the background of what I’m doing before I really get into my rant.  I have my Inspiron 6000 laptop that I’m giving to my wife since I’ve gotten a new laptop for work.  I’ve decided to reinstall windows, just so that she has a clean system without all the development stuff and other nonsense.  About 4 – 5 years ago, I bought a Windows XP Professional disk from my school at the time (University of Cincinnati).  I’ve used this disc to install Windows XP on this laptop a couple times.

This time around, I went to activate it and was informed it has been activated too many times and that I would have to call the phone hotline (888-571-2048).  No problem, called the number and a automatic voice asked me for my installation ID.  I then was connected to a representative that also asked me for the installation ID.  I guess Microsoft has outsourced this department to India.  I have no issues with India, but I do have issues with very thick accents that I can’t understand.  Take someone from deep Kentucky with a thick accent, I would have an issue there also.  So we went through the entire thing, and the woman informed me that this is a technical issue and told me to call the technical department).

So I hung up and called the technical department (888-346-5229).  After waiting for 13 minutes, I was connected to another thick accent representative.  Luckily, his accent was as thick and I was able to understand him a little longer.  He asked what my issue was, and I informed him about the account activation.  He immediately told me I had the wrong department and he was transferring me to …. the activation department.  Luckily I caught him and explained they had just sent me to him.  We went through the issues.  One thing that bothered me was all the questions they asked.  Phone number, email, full name, etc. He then gave me a SR number and said he would transfer me to the support department. 

Another 7 minutes of waiting and someone picked up.   The asked for my name and SR#.  The second I told them this, they immediately said they’re transferring me to technical support put me on hold before I could say anything.  After waiting for another 23 minutes on the phone, I hung up.  Luckily, I have another copy of Windows XP Professional, so I changed the activation key to that one and it activated fine.

This kind of treatment is amazing.  First the require you to activate the product, then they limit the times you can activate it before making you call in and wait possibly HOURS, then the product ends up needing to be reinstalled every 6 months to a year.  I can only guess that since the corner the market, they are just trying to frustrate customers into just buying another copy instead of waiting on the phone for hours.  I know why I switched to Linux and this just adds another reason.  If anybody knows a good place I complain about this to, let me know.