Microsoft should fire their sucky customers

[gwh34t]

As a Microsoft ******, I embrace people calling me an Apple/Android hater to an extent. It's not that I hate Apple/Android, I just like to pick on them and point out bugs/issues just as they do with Microsoft Products - namely Windows. On the other hand, I am completely engrossed in the Microsoft Ecosystem: Alienware 17" Laptop, Surface Pro 3 (work machine), Xbox 360, Xbox One, Dell Venue 8 Pro, Surface RT (wife's), 2 - Lumia 920s (mine was replaced by Lumia 925 when cracked screen), Lumia 520 as a backup, Microsoft Band, a custom desktop, not to mention Xbox Live, Office 365, and I'm sure there's something missing. I am the poster boy for Microsoft, especially to anyone that knows me.

It really grinds my gears when Microsoft 'fans' talk very negative to new ways of trying things. I'm not talking about just in Windows 10 like Richards post a while back (see here) - I mean anything MSFT related. I just read some things about the new Band update - an update for crying out loud, and people are crazy mad about some of the steps they take. Mobile first and Windows best doesn't mean Microsoft will have a new flagship phone before they release [insert product and/or service here]. It just means that's the new way the company is moving. Eventually, yes, hopefully every service will be best, work best, or have more features on Windows than anything else, but that's not a guarantee and certainly not happening tomorrow.

I watched a video (work related) that made me think about Microsoft and why I think Microsoft should fire their sucky customers. If they 'get rid' of the leaches sucking all of the fun and change coming doesn't mean things won't happen, it means it will happen better. That's a relatively loose term and I say it by meaning - if they (Gabe, Joe, MSFT) didn't have to spend their time putting up with the junk and trying to put out 'fires' created by someone else, they would be happ(ier) - because we know they are happy and love their jobs.

If you have literally 1 minute more, watch this video from 2:00 ~ 2:55

</rant>

 

[someone2639]

Phew. At least I'm not one of them

 

[rhapdog]

Loved the video. Thanks for sharing. I hate to admit it, but I have to agree. I actually did that with my customers when I was a freelance programmer for 5 years. It made me much more productive. If a customer was constantly changing the features and scope of what he wanted a program to do after I had already started development, that is, after an agreement had already been reached about what the customer wanted, then I politely told them that "since you are wanting to change the terms of our agreement, that makes our agreement null and void." Which, by the way, was in the contract they had to sign, if they bothered to read it. They were no longer my customer after that point, and I suddenly had vastly more time to dedicate to the customers that could make up their mind on what they wanted, and were thus much more profitable for me.

If I had allowed the customers to constantly change the program while I was writing it, I never would have finished and never would have been paid. Sorry, but had a family to feed. By firing my customers, I was able to retire relatively young at 45, which was a few years ago.

I'm not exactly sure how Microsoft could "fire" their customers, though. Would not be feasible to have a "don't sell to list" distributed to all the retail outlets that sell their products. Not to mention the legal entanglements for a company that size.

However, I can just see Microsoft telling Verizon or any other carrier, "If you don't promote our products better, we won't allow you to use any of our software." It's in all their corporate systems to the point they could not function if they were forced to remove it.

If Microsoft told Chase Bank, Bank of America, etc. "You can no longer use Windows to power your ATM machines if you don't start providing WP apps for our customers." All their ATMs would be rendered useless, because all ATM machines in the US are powered by Windows XP for the most part.

The license agreement Microsoft has put into all of the Windows product would allow them to actually do that if they chose to "not allow the relationship to continue."

If Microsoft did this to just one corporation, the news would be all over the place, and everyone would be so scared of losing the ability to use MS Office and Windows in the corporate environment many would be putting out WP apps right and left, and making sure they were quality. However, it would also poison MS in the eyes of the public, and they would be labeled as the only corporation more evil than Google for using these hostage tactics to gain an unfair advantage.

Could they do it? That's a big maybe. Should they? No. Unfortunately the spin in the media would make them out to be such bandits that it would make the Lenovo fiasco seem like child's play.

 

[fatclue_98]

Could they do it? That's a big maybe. Should they? No.

Could they? Yes. Should they? Absolutely. Will they? Not in this lifetime. The stigma of Microsoft as the monopolistic bully is still too fresh in people's minds and they couldn't afford a PR nightmare right now. Corporate America knows that Microsoft is everybody's favorite punching bag because they know there won't be any retaliation by them. The question is, when will MS finally grow a set and say "enough"?

 

[gwh34t]

A lot of what you were saying (rhapdog) I think falls under the saying "You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours." I do computer work and web design on the side. I don't do it for the money, as it's not my full time job and the money is only used to splurge with, not to pay bills. But I got to the point there were customers I wouldn't work with because they would nickel and dime me and try to get hours of labor for free. I started a price list and have a minimum charge of $60 for computer work or $500 for a website. If it's not worth that much to them to do whatever job they want me to do, I found it wasn't worth my time.

Saying Microsoft can/should get rid of "business" customers is one thing. What I was more or less ranting about is the small subset of a small subset of their public customers. Numbers don't lie. And when they have over 90% of the PC market, mostly desktop PCs - the measly 3% of the cell phone market or 10,000 or so Band customers become very small in scale. And to grow that - you make your happy customers happier, not deal with the ones blabbering and complaining about non sense. Legitimate bugs (along with complaints) will obviously happen, and as we've seen - they are quick to fix those.

I think PR may also be construed a little differently to a company that size in comparison with paying the bills. What I mean is - as a small IT company, you may have over half of your bills paid by one business, with multiple businesses and private consumers taking up the latter. You can't afford to not meet the needs of the larger company... to an extent. MSFT is way past that and I doubt they can afford to drop every business who doesn't support Windows/WP Apps. Like you guys said, it would be nice - but not probable.

 

[Alain_A]

(see here)

read that....it is BS that some of the people would write stuff like that to MS...not very professional.....

 

[ajst222]

Sorry that some people aren't blind Microsoft fanboys who wet their pants at anything Microsoft throws at them.

Why become the very people that you (used to describe the general fan base) dislike because they're too caught up in their brand to try your brand. So you call them blind while you go on living your own hypocritical fan boy life.

Why don't we actually just take things for face value for what they actually are? Call out the good and they bad. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Microsoft fans criticizing Microsoft

And isn't it good for Microsoft's own fans to criticize them? If they sit there blindly praising them just because they're Microsoft regardless of what they do, what purpose does that serve? How will Microsoft improve? It's important to listen to genuine opinions instead just the "true" fans, as you would call them, because their feedback does nothing, especially since it's obviously blind and one sided. Microsoft already has them locked down. They want to actually appeal to regular consumers.

Give me a break
Sent from Tapatalk on my Lumia Icon

 

[gwh34t]

Sorry that some people aren't blind Microsoft fanboys who wet their pants at anything Microsoft throws at them.

Why become the very people that you (used to describe the general fan base) dislike because they're too caught up in their brand to try your brand. So you call them blind while you go on living your own hypocritical fan boy life.

Why don't we actually just take things for face value for what they actually are? Call out the good and they bad. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Microsoft fans criticizing Microsoft

And isn't it good for Microsoft's own fans to criticize them? If they sit there blindly praising them just because they're Microsoft regardless of what they do, what purpose does that serve? How will Microsoft improve? It's important to listen to genuine opinions instead just the "true" fans, as you would call them, because their feedback does nothing, especially since it's obviously blind and one sided. Microsoft already has them locked down. They want to actually appeal to regular consumers.

Give me a break
Sent from Tapatalk on my Lumia Icon

Wow... thanks for reading the first sentence and going off. There's a big difference between constructive criticism and negative criticism. See here for a great example. Seeing you're using an Icon, I'll assume your just letting out steam being that you don't have Windows 10 yet. If you feel the need to continue, see here.

 

[ajst222]

Wow... thanks for reading the first sentence and going off. There's a big difference between constructive criticism and negative criticism. See here for a great example. Seeing you're using an Icon, I'll assume your just letting out steam being that you don't have Windows 10 yet. If you feel the need to continue, see here.

Nope, I read the whole thing. And of course I realize that. So why is talking negatively about the way Microsoft is going bad? Some people do it in the wrong way, but in your original post, you don't mention that. You just say "negatively".

And nope, I've got Windows 10 on a 635 I bought just for testing. I wouldn't put it on my main phone anyway. Thanks for judging!

I'm a techie. I criticize (and praise) Microsoft, Apple, BlackBerry, Google, etc as it is. Has nothing to do with who I like better. And I wasn't doing any of that in my post.

So about those who do criticize the wrong way, would you be angry if the praise and brag about Microsoft the wrong way too? That hypocrisy is of my point as well.

 

[fatclue_98]

Wow... thanks for reading the first sentence and going off. There's a big difference between constructive criticism and negative criticism. See here for a great example. Seeing you're using an Icon, I'll assume your just letting out steam being that you don't have Windows 10 yet. If you feel the need to continue, see here.

What difference does the choice of phone have to do with whether Microsoft is heading in a good or bad direction? Windows 10 is only available for a few low-end models anyway. I have a 1520 and I wouldn't put it on either. I too have it on a spare 635 for testing purposes.

For what it's worth, none of us is on Microsoft's board so none of us knows exactly what they have in store for the future. Why get all worked up over nothing?

 

[Alain_A]

I don't think saying to Microsoft that "they are lazy at testing" (example here) is a good way of talking to them..