Asked by:
OneCare is "helpless"

General discussion
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I have spent two days trying to talk to someone about an offer to purchase OneCare when my beta expires. I finally received a message back.
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Hello Fred,
Thank you for writing to Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support. My name is Matthew and I read that you have questions concerning the services offered by Windows Live OneCare. I understand the importance of having your issue addressed immediately.
It is our goal to provide support quickly and accurately to our members; thus, we would like to point you to the right direction. The best department to assist you with your concern would be the technical support team of Windows Live OneCare. You can contact them by visiting:
https://support.live.com/default.aspx
Once in that page, please click on the "Windows Live OneCare" link. In the page that follows, please click the "Get more help" link on the lower-right portion of the page.
Please accept my apologies for not being able to assist you fully. We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for writing to us.
Sincerely,
xxxxxxxxxxx ( name withheld to protect the innocent )
Windows Live Hotmail Technical Support
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When I did all this , I got to some artificial intelligence program that was totally useless.
Since rich Microsoft cannot afford a real (AMERICAN ) person to talk to me, I will go back to AVG for my protection.
Congratulations to some million dollar executive...you've run off another customer.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:13 PM
All replies
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What do you want to know about the beta offer? Did you get the email with the offer for testers?
Support for OneCare -
How to reach support - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2421771&SiteID=2
-steve
Friday, November 30, 2007 2:40 AMModerator -
Stephen-
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my rant.
I did what you said and can't even get to the location you provided...
I get to the page that asks if it is a billing or tech issue. I say billing and new issue.
Then it asks for my email and password.
It thinks for a while and then I get a message that it can't find the webpage or a message that it cant find my e-mail/password.
I tried changing my password and that didn't help.
Finally I get this message:
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Contact Billing Support
Validate your OneCare subscription
To access support, choose from the options below.Trial subscription versions of the productPaid subscription versions of the productWe could not find your OneCare subscription.
Please sign in with the Live ID you used to activate your subscription.(This can be found in the Help -> About menu of the OneCare client)Enter your 20 digit product identification number.- - -The number is located in Help -> About menu of the OneCare client.**********************************************************When I try to enter or accept this, it goes back to asking for my password.( BTW I have destroyed most of my id number in the above )THIS IS INFURIATING. I AM TRYING TO GIVE MICROSOFT MONEY FOR A SERVICE AND I GET TREATED THIS WAY BY A DUMB COMPUTER!!!!!I have had validation problems with Vista when I upgraded my hard drive. I finally go to talk to someone . He did resolve my problem.Why can't MS just break down and give me someone to talk to?Then I find this thread which you have responded to...*********************************************************************So is there any human support anymore?
Thread Starter: Willie Trombone2 Started: 30 Nov 2007 7:04 AM UTC Replies: 5**************************************************************************
THIS PATHETIC CUSTOMER SERVICE IS TOTALLY NUTS!!!
Here is the question that I asked on Nov 19.
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Fred
Saturday, December 1, 2007 4:28 AM -
Fred, if you have a beta subscription to OneCare, having been sent a key during the 2.0 testing, that subscription will not last thrugh August 2008, it will expire in January or sooner, probably.
If you do not have a paid subscription, then taking advantage of the beta offer is a decent deal unless you can find a better deal at retail. I've seen OneCare for as little as 19.95 at some retailers on occasion, sometimes less after rebate.
-steve
Monday, December 3, 2007 3:51 AMModerator -
Stephen-
Maybe you are correct, however I did get a communication from MS that supposedly extended my beta subscription to August of 2008. That date even shows up on my OneCare page as the expiration and I keep getting messages that I have 9 months left on my subscription. ( If you want, I can paste that into a message here so you can see it ).
This is the essence of my question.....if I buy the reduced price subscription when does it start?
If it does start at the end of this year, I'm better off just riding out my beta until Aug of next year and see what the offers are then. Unless I being mislead as to when my beta subscription expires......
I appreciate your trying to help me with this , but I sense that there is some MAJOR miscommunication within MS about this program.
Fred
Monday, December 3, 2007 6:54 PM -
The 2.0 beta will expire before August - more like January. It communicates with a beta back end which will be shut down.
If you choose to take the 19.95 offer, it starts immediately at purchase.
I have the beta code running on 2 machines and they show expiration in 9 months. That subscription will expire or cease functioning much earlier. See this FAQ about the beta - http://forums.microsoft.com/WindowsOneCare/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1848280&SiteID=2
-steve
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 2:01 AMModerator -
Thank you Steve.
Fred
Tuesday, December 4, 2007 2:08 AM