MS Small Business Directory
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We come to work everyday with the task of helping our clients. We sign a contract and gain an understanding. They are trusting us with their company, with their website, and with their money.
Recently, while I was checking up on some directory submissions that were submitted, I realized that the MS Small Business Directory was down. I figured that it was a fluke and made a note to check it later.
The next time I checked the directory, there was a message saying that, “As of November 15, 2006 Microsoft will no longer accept new sign-ups for select Microsoft Online Small Business Services.” (Which in fine print includes the directory)
Now, this is fine, but what about the clients that had already been submitted? Where had they gone? I spent the good part of the next two hours looking for the directory and calling to try to get a hold of anyone that might be able to help me out. And how clever, the only phone number that would appear on their entire website was completely automated and would not allow me to connect to a real human being. And when I made my selection it hung up on me!
By this point I was frustrated and needed to get other work done, so I took a rain check on my “Microsoft Mission”.
Today I decided would be as good a day as any to get this all resolved. So I took another shot, and what do you know, I was able to get a hold of a real person that worked for Microsoft; however, all I wanted to do was ask a question. But as the man picked up the phone I could barely understand him!
I am going to make a disclaimer here that I am in no way racist and I am not one of those people that think that just because people live in America they should speak perfect English, but this mans words were too quiet, they were jumbled together, and I guess he had said the same sentence so many times that he was able to understand what he was saying, but I was completely lost.
When he repeated himself he did not ask what I was calling for or wish me any sort of kind greeting, he simply demanded that I give him “my full name, last name first.” I asked him why thinking that this was ridiculous since I only had (what I thought was) a simple question. When I finally decided to go along with him and he had all of my contact info…which they will never need again, he asked me which software I needed help with.
When I told him that my problem was with the website and not with any software he was irritated and gave me a new phone number to call. This isn’t a big deal, but why couldn’t he just transfer me? I wrote down the new number and gave them a call. Again I was given a list of commands that had nothing to do with the issue that I was having…so I made my selection and the process started over. The man didn’t know anything about it but was happy to transfer me to someone else who also didn’t know anything.
This man was very nice, but still was uninformed. He gave me a new phone number that I had not knowingly dialed before, so I called that number, only to find myself back at the first recording!!!
Our clients paid $49 for these services, trusting us, knowing that we wouldn’t steer them wrong, and now where is that money? Why doesn’t anyone that works for their company know? Why didn’t they inform us of this before they changed it?
They need to refund the money that they took from us – That they took from our clients! At this point the only way that Microsoft is allowing people to be a part of their services is if they change over to the new “Microsoft Office Live Basic” and allow them to be the web host. This is not okay!
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Tags: Search & Marketing
Posted in Search & Marketing
