Attorney trapped in email purgatory sues Microsoft for $1.75 million after customer support...

[midian182]

Facepalm: Many people have endured the frustration that is awful customer service support. It can often seem like a never-ending nightmare filled with prolonged waiting times on calls, unfulfilled commitments, and dead-end responses. This is epitomized by the case of a New Jersey attorney who's embroiled in a heated dispute over an unresolved email issue that has jeopardized his work and possibly even his legal license. The situation has led to him to suing Microsoft, seeking damages amounting to $1.75 million.

David M Schlachter says in his complaint (via The Reg) that he lost access to his Microsoft business email account, which he pays for via a monthly subscription, in May, yet Microsoft hasn't addressed the verification loop locking him out.

Schlachter says the problem began on May 10 when the system asked him to provide 2-step verification when he tried to log in. He was then caught in an "error code 500121" loop.

The complaint describes an all too familiar customer service experience. Schlachter says he has no ability to email tech support, so he had to wait on hold with the customer service line for three hours, only to be told by the CS, after talking to them for 30 minutes, that he would have to contact the business technical service team as he was using a business account.

Schlachter then says he received the business technical support line number via text that evening and received a case number on May 12, but he was unable to reach anyone on customer support for four days. "He would wait on hold for 3 to 5 hours at a time (this is not an exaggeration) and the line would then go dead," reads the complaint. He received a second case number on May 15 and a promise that someone would call him back at noon, but nobody called.

Schlachter made multiple calls over the next five days only to be told either the issue was being addressed or he couldn't be transferred to a supervisor or engineer. He was also texted verification codes but they didn't solve the problem. As of last week, Schlachter still couldn't access his email account.

The attorney says he has not been able to access NJ eCourts due to a lack of email verification, pay loans, or receive communication from Federal Bankruptcy Courts. He also has open cases and cannot communicate with clients, judges, colleagues, etc.

Schlachter says the situation is costing him work and is putting him at risk of having his ethical and professional licenses withdrawn. He is asking for $750,000 in damages and $1 million in punitive damages from Microsoft.

Thanks, The Reg

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/99218-lawyer-trapped-email-purgatory-sues-microsoft-175-million.html

 

[VitalyT]

I don't think he's alone in this. The reparations should be larger.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I hope it goes through and he wins. Other suits will follow and maybe, just maybe, these giant corporations might change how their customer service functions....

But I wouldn't hold my breathe waiting because it probably wouldn't happen.

 

[TheBigT42]

We have an A1 business license for Office 365. I hardly ever have to wait more that an hour for a call back. Granted I can sign in and open a ticket via the Admin page. I guess I need to fine out how to open a ticket if none of our Admin accounts can sign in. My support experience with Office 365 support has been mostly positive. I would rate it with at least a B+

 

[ET3D]

I feel a bit strange rooting for a lawyer, but I hope he wins.

 

[p51d007]

ANYONE that has tried to reach pretty much any tech support wants to reach through the phone and strangle the person on the other end. Most, only know what is written on their screen. They aren't "techs" for the most part.
You really can't "teach" someone how to trouble shoot something. You have to have the analytical ability to think outside the box which is something that really cannot be "taught".

 

[Wye43]

That says a lot about how dependent we are on technology, and more particular to email.

 

[Underdog]

Agreed. After wasting time waiting to speak to a live body at tech support you then have to repeat your problem in detail many times to negotiate through any number of script readers before you "may" strike lucky and be transferred to someone that actually knows what they are doing.

 

[CrisisDog]

I myself work for a larger company that has decided it was in our best interest to put all our eggs in the Microsoft basket. And I can tell you, their support SUCKS. I have had ticket data wiped clean as issues get transferred internally from department to department. It's like they delay responding until the customer decides not to call back any more. Out of the six previous tickets I submitted, they were only able to resolve a macOS Outlook issue AFTER six months. The other five tickets our team ended up fixing ourselves, and then MS support has the audacity to ask us what the solution was. If my job didn't pay so well, I'd be out the door in a heartbeat. I do NOT have any faith in Microsoft...

 

[sdms96825]

Been there. Done that. Over and over again.

 

[Vanderlinde]

All these company's do not prioritize support or any of that matter.

I mean lets say if you get defamated on social media in front of 20k followers. Try to put a request for Insta, FB to "take it down" due to defamation. Takes at least 2 business days when they finally get off their asses.

 

[Later]

The good old licenses were the best, you buy it you own it for ever and ever. Now Microsoft suckers people in to buying s**tty online cloud licenses and when you need it, it does't work and the people from support are trained to see how much a person anger and nerves can take untill they can reach the service person that handles the issue u are having.......this is bull**it, and they know it.

 

[hwertz]

Don't get me wrong, Microsoft HAS to have enough people to be able to answer the phones and provide support. It's pretty ridiculous to be on hold for 4+ hours.

But I think the big issue is, Exchange Server is a... to be kind... difficult piece of software. Just a basic install to handle E-Mail seemed WAY more difficult than the conventional (for a UNIX system) sendmail setup, harder to get performance to stay up, and needed far more care and feeding. Anything above adding or removing a user seemed far more difficult than it should be, partly because of the real kitchen sink of options Exchange accumulated over the last several decades. Which rather than just being able to ignore the obsolete ones, instead they can still pop up now and then and cause problems. (Don't get me wrong, some of the sendmail config files are a real horror show, but unless you were running pre-internet-e-mail you don't have to touch those files, as opposed to Exchange where you'll find some 20 year old setting decide to flip and cause problems.)

So Microsoft is now, essentially, running giant instances of Exchange "in the cloud", and adding 2FA and other features onto it, while I'm sure (to be able to migrate peoples on-premises Exchange instances) retaining heaps of old options in there.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I know that at my work they changed from whatever version of Outlook for email to 365 about 2 years back. It's not the end of the world, but there are things that really irritate me.

Every once in a while I log into my email and MS decided to revamp the UI. Things look different visually and they tend to move some settings around just so your pissed off because you can't find the option you need in the same place it was just the other day.

I also hate the integrated crap they add (Zoom option or some crap) and they have stupid pop-ups like you used to get with good 'ol Clippy in Word from years back. I don't give a crap about your pop-up so I click Okay. Next time I open my mail up I'm greeted with the same damnstupid pop-up from yesterday. I click cancel/okay or whatever other option they may have on the pop-up....only to get the same damnstupid pop-up the next day when I open my mail. For F's sake! Come the F on, MS! Get your crap together!

Then about a year ago MS had some automatic daily email they'd send from their servers - I can't remember what it was called, but I think it started with the letter "V". It had stupid crap in it about things you should try or could integrate with 365 mail and so on. There is no way to opt-out or disable this email unless you have access to the main server account to disable it. I requested the IT guy to disable them on the mail server account, but he's too lazy to do so. So for 3 weeks I kept marking these emails as "junk/spam" emails until they finally stopped showing up in my inbox.

I'd hate to have to contact their customer support to get them to fix an actual issue if they can't seem to manage things they push out to function in a non-evasive manner.

 

[hwertz]

Every once in a while I log into my email and MS decided to revamp the UI. Things look different visually and they tend to move some settings around just so your pissed off because you can't find the option you need in the same place it was just the other day.

Yeah and the one time I went to fix an issue for someone... I found there were no version numbers in the app, and the support pages have no dates on them to tell you when they were last updated. So I'd find some info, see the GUI doesn't even vaguely look right, that must be WAY out of date... this one looks closer but not right... OK, this third page at least has a similar looking GUI... nope, the options have all been moved around since that one too. (It turned out, there was nothing wrong, I finally found a page documenting that when E-Mail forwards are changed it can take over 6 hours for the changes to actually percolate through.)

 

[Ben Myers]

Welcome to the world of customer service to talk to real people in these United States. It is at an all-time piss-poor low. Microsoft is very much in the lead on this debacle, but other companies are not far behind.

Today, I installed a cable modem for a client. Why? Because the box with cable modem arrived with no instructions, only a "product safety" sheet printed in 4 or 5 point font telling the reader to follow the instructions. So I called the offending company, Spectrum, knowing that when I reached a person on the other end, he/she would need to Mac address of the modem to put in the cable modem database at the Spectrum borg ship. I have dealt with hundreds of cable modems in this century, so I know the drill.

Later today, I installed a Netgear router for another client by simply connecting my laptop to it with an Ethernet cable and running through the setup menus. Easy. Five minutes. But Netgear advises using your mobile phone to set it up and to install the Netgear app to do so. Dumb and dumber. Client could not do it, and a mobile phone is not what you use to set up a router. There are many tasks for which a mobile phone is completely unsuitable. Period. Yes, I've set up a few Netgear wifi6 routers lately, but even so, setup from a computer is simple.

Customer service? Whuzzat? And the devices we use are sold on the principle that they are as simple to operate as a toaster or microwave. Whether cell phone or computer, this premise could not be farther from the truth.