Given the enormous amount of time an enormous number of people are spending these days installing critical Windows security updates, you'd think Microsoft support would need to be operating as efficiently as possible. One reader's recent experience helping a friend with a security patch problem left him thinking that quite the opposite is true.
"My friend, a 70-plus-year-old psychiatrist who still practices in emergency rooms, recently purchased a top-of-the-line Dell with Windows-XP Media Edition computer," the reader wrote. "When he showed me his new PC, he complained that one of the Windows updates kept failing and he was concerned. I checked his PC, and it was configured properly. I scanned the hard disk for any malware, and the PC was declared clean. Yet, the KB886903 security update for Microsoft .NET Framework, Version 1.1 Service Pack 1 kept failing to install with an error message saying 'Application has generated an exception process ID ...' I started following the links from the Microsoft update site trying to find out what I could do to help my friend."
The reader noted in a Microsoft security bulletin the statement that there would be no charge for support calls associated with security updates if he called Microsoft Product Support Services at 1-866-PCSAFETY. "It was late Friday night, so I called," the reader wrote. "The first person who answered the phone said that it would cost me $35 charged to my credit card. When I read the statement about there being no charge, she said OK, but she could not generate a case ID because her PC was in the process of being patched. She said she would transfer me to some other place. Here I was waiting, with no click, no music, nothing to hear. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, I called the number again. Again I went through the explanation, and got a case number. This support person took the shotgun approach, had me change any and all Internet settings, redownload the patch, check the automatic update, reboot, reapply, reboot, safe mode, not-so safe mode -- I mean everything."
While the second tech was putting him on several long holds, the reader was searching the Microsoft site. "I found an article on how to troubleshoot, but it looked scary and involved many manual steps with Regedit. Anyway, after spending over two hours with the second tech, he said that this was not a security issue and I should call Windows support. At this point, I wished my friend purchased a Mac! I asked to speak with a supervisor and raised the question with him why they were not using Remote Assistance and how come I had start calling other support numbers. The supervisor did some research and obviously found the same knowledge base article that I had seen. Finally, he told me that I should call Windows support at 1-800-936-5700. When I did, the line was already closed. Total time I spent on the phone that Friday night was over three hours, and we still had the same problem."
Bright and early Saturday morning, the reader called the Windows support number. "I was glad that at least my case ID was still there, but I still had to confirm every detail one more time," the reader wrote. "The Windows support tech I talked with sent me an e-mail with three links -- one to download an installer cleanup utility, and others to install .NET framework and upgrade it. He was very good and we were done in ten minutes. Then I asked him two questions. How come this procedure is not in the knowledge base articles? He developed it himself, he said. Since I had problems copying and pasting URLs from multiple lines in his email message, why does he not use Remote Assistance? Because Microsoft does not let them."
For those who lament the off-shoring of technical support, the reader would like to note that the Windows tech who had the answers was the only one he spoke with who obviously was in an overseas call center. But while he's grateful he finally hooked up with a tech who knew their stuff, the inefficiency of the whole process of dealing with security update issues disturbs him. "The thing that amazes me is that Microsoft itself won't let their staff use the Remote Assistance feature," he wrote. "Could you imagine my 70-plus-year--old friend trying to deal with the technicians, exchange e-mail, copying and pasting paste URLs, downloads, Regedit, etc.?"
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