Recently Microsoft started offering a reasonably priced ‘standard’ Technet subscription for $199. That price point was just right to fit my very tight budget so I jumped at it. Here is the breakdown of my absolutely abysmal and as of yet unresolved nightmare attempt to subscribe to Technet.

Back on July 26th  (11 days ago as I post this) I went to the Technet site and attempted to order the Standard subscription. I tried twice and both times was told my credit card had been declined. Odd, because its a Visa check card and there was enough money in the account.

I called my bank the next day and was told that there was a query made by Microsoft for available funds and the transaction was approved but the transaction was never completed. So, that night I made one more attempt and saw the same results.

The next day, I went looking for a number to call Technet. Of course they do their best to hide phone numbers to keep call volume down. I ended up calling 1-800-Microsoft and was routed ‘eventually’ to Technet where I subscribed over the phone. Wonderful. I received a Welcome email on Friday evening with my subscriber ID.

I went to the site to activate my account and was denied. Apparently I have “Unrecognized Subscription Data” . OK, maybe they sent the email out before they added it to the database, who knows. I’ll try again later. Tried activating Saturday, no. Sunday, no.

On Sunday evening I logged onto my online banking account to check on some things and noticed there were TWO charges of $210 posted to my account from Microsoft. So, they have $420 of my money and I have nothing to show for it. This is going well.

I called Technet Monday morning to find out what is going on with the double charge and was told “well, we only see one transaction in our system”. I was told I’d have to send proof that there were two transactions on my account. They gave me an email address to send the screen shot to and I did within minutes. I was then told it’ll take up to 48 hours for them to receive the email. Huh? 48 HOURS?! To get an email?!  I asked if she had a direct email address. For some reason they do not allow customer service to have email accounts. After they receive the email, they will send it to the accounting office and they will investigate. The person I spoke with said this would would take 7-10 business days for them to process this and make the correction. By now I’m already getting a little steamed. Meanwhile, the new subscription ID I was given still does not work at this time.

Mind you, This transaction was on my checking account to which I had made bill payments using a good chunk of that $210 Microsoft has. I urged them to expedite the matter and didn’t get much of a committed response.

I called my bank and made them aware of the situation. They assured me that once the amount is credited to my account, any overdraft penalty fees will be revoked. As I write this, over $200 in overdraft fees have accumulated so far and has left my account about $300 in the red leaving me broke.

I called Technet on Tuesday. They still hadn’t received my email with the proof of double charge. After making a bit of a stink, she found my email and said I should have my credit in 7 to 10 business days. I emphatically told her this was not acceptable! Again, I received a non-committal response. “We’ll see what we can do, but I can’t guarantee anything.” Meanwhile my subscriber ID still doesn’t work.

On Thursday (8/5) I called Technet to find out what the progress was. “Our accounting office is still investigating. Once they find the problem, you’ll get your credit in 7 to 10 business days.” I Tried to escalate this to a manager and was told he’d call me back when he had more information. Before I hung up I asked why I couldn’t activate my subscription. She told me that they were having problems with the website and have frozen a bunch of subscriptions until they can fix the problem. She said I should be able to activate my subscription in a few days. Why haven’t they notified me of this? Will they notify me when it is available? “No, just try activating it in a few days”, she says.

I heard back from the manager around 7PM (EDT). He said my bank account should be credited in the next 24 – 48 hours. Well, As I post this today (8/7) my account has not been credited. Oh, and I still cannot activate my subscription.

That’s where I stand at the moment. I hope this blog post along with a some strategic twitter posts will put some fire under their feet. This is completely unacceptable. A search on twitter showed two others having trouble activating their subscriptions. If you are having trouble, I’d like to know. Please email me at jim (at) jimbednarz.com or send me a tweet @jimbednarz

I feel so disappointed. I work in IT. I influence many folks decisions about what computers they buy. I stood by them and recommended Vista (once it was stable) and overwhelmingly recommend 7. I push Microsoft options at work when they fit the need. Then I try to purchase a simple subscription to learn more about their products and get treated like this. It’s very disconcerting and extremely frustrating.

C’mon Microsoft. Please fix this fiasco!

Update: As of Monday 8/9 I now have access to my subscription. About time! Also, I spoke with customer support again today (8/9) and was told the credit has been processed on their end last Thursday as the manager said , yet I have not seen the credit in my account.

Update 2: FINALLY! Microsoft finally credited my account. The money is back and after speaking with my bank, they have reversed the overdraft fees. What an unnecessary frustrating ordeal.

I’m mad. Yes. But in my anger I thrive on hope. Hope that my fellow Americans are growing impatient with the utter incompetence of President Barack Obama and the people he surrounds himself with. Hope that people understand that Socialism DOES NOT WORK. Hope that enough people have wakened to this insanity and will show up in November to bring sane change to our government. Hope that the criminals that have stolen the dreams of future generations will get their just rewards.

So, yea. I’m mad. But I’m also DAMN proud to be an American! So I changed the name of my blog to suit. I intend to spend more time here. Stay tuned.

-Jim

Now we are paying the price. Obama’s radical intentions backed by the evil minds of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and their gang of liberal criminals are aiming to take away our freedom and liberty. Desirous to wield evermore power, they are poised to ruin healthcare in America, destroy capitolism, redistribute wealth, imprison us with heavy handed environmental laws and taxes that will cripple us, and bind us to international laws that will handcuff this country.

On Tuesday, November 3rd, American voters have their first opportunity to show our leaders in Washington that they have gone off the deep end. We must show them by voting in our local and state elections for folks that are willing to fight for this country and what our founding fathers designed so brilliantly. We must vote against any candidate that supports or accepts the intentions of our leaders in Washington.We must make an example of our local and state officials and send them a signal to watch out in 2010.

I know that local and state elections revolve typically around local and state governance and it is important that we vote also based on those important matters that we face. However, we must also send a message to Washington  through these local and state elections that what they are pushing through is not what Americans want. They need to listen to the American people, represent their constituencies and not self and special interests.

Please get out there and vote! VOTE!

Of course Twitter got hot. I jumped on that bandwagon. (www.twitter.com/jimbednarz) I also got into Facebook and Friendfeed (www.friendfeed.com/jimbednarz). I like Friendfeed a lot. It’s a cool way to gather all of the feeds and social media from all of the people you find interesting. I decided to sort of isolate Facebook for friends and family only.  I found that Twitter suits me well because most often I can sum up my opinion briefly. I’ve also found many interesting conservative minds on Twitter that share my opinion. The stream of commentary and links that come from these folks keep me in the loop on the truth that is woefully lacking in todays mainstream media.

Check out the About me link at the top of the page to read a brief paragraph or two I wrote to explain who I am and what I believe in. It will help give you an idea of the values of which my posts will be coming from for the most part. I’ll say right now for sure that my opinions are mine and mine alone. If you don’t like em. Don’t read em, or challenge my views through the comment system on this site.

Anyhow, for the one or two of you that read this, Thanks. As I type this, I still dont know what form this blog will take over time. Y’all come back now!