This has been the last 5 days of my life with Microsoft.
HARDWARE:
I hard reset my Surface.....twice....because the latest update screwed up the keyboard and touchscreen inputs.
My fourth (yip, I've had 4 replacements) Surface charger has stopped working
My Lumia went nutty. To be fair this happens all the time so I'm used to it. The 950 is an awful phone. One hard reset later and the thing still doesn't work properly.
My Band 2 died. As in, properly just died. It won't even switch on.
SOFTWARE:
I'm finding out in the worst possible way that a large chunk of emails I sent last week never reached the recipient.
Cortana won't work. Just flat out refuses to accept voice commands and won't relearn my voice
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
So maybe I'm just having a bad run. But seriously, Microsoft seem to have no problem shipping crappy hardware or pushing out crappy software without giving any consideration to the impact it has on customers.
The email problem has had a real financial impact. I use Microsoft services for business and have so far had two client meetings cancelled and a very irate accountant on the phone saying I've missed my tax return quarter all because they never received emails last week that are sitting in my sent items folder!!
So now I've got a buggy surface that I cannot charge, that's connected to a Microsoft email account that doesn't always send messages.
I've got a Lumia phone that is incredibly unreliable.
I've got a Band that's dead.
I've come to the conclusion that this is my fault. I've been too lazy to check out competitor platforms. I've been too loyal to Microsoft. I've wanted them to succeed, even if their success costs me money and causes me to fail.
This week has taught me that loyalty to a brand is stupid. When it comes to technology we shouldn't make our purchasing decisions on a company name or logo. We should make our decisions based on what will work best for us.
For years now I've felt like a Microsoft guinea pig. They keep churning out terrible handsets, fitness bands that break every few months, surface devices filled with bugs and operating systems that cause terrible harm to the end user. They do all this in the name of progress but give virtually no thought to how their lack of strategy or direction affects millions upon millions of users.
Nothing about Microsoft hardware or software feels polished. Nothing feels complete. In engineering terms, it's like they've built a temporary bridge over a river while they work away to complete the main, grand, totally awe inspiring bridge.
The problem is that the main bridge will never be completely finished because they keep changing the plans. How many times has the mobile plan changed? How many times has the skype plan changed? How many times do we hear about grand plans for hardware, software and services that just end up scrapped? It's simply not good enough.
Microsoft, you're being unfair and unkind to your customers.
HARDWARE:
I hard reset my Surface.....twice....because the latest update screwed up the keyboard and touchscreen inputs.
My fourth (yip, I've had 4 replacements) Surface charger has stopped working
My Lumia went nutty. To be fair this happens all the time so I'm used to it. The 950 is an awful phone. One hard reset later and the thing still doesn't work properly.
My Band 2 died. As in, properly just died. It won't even switch on.
SOFTWARE:
I'm finding out in the worst possible way that a large chunk of emails I sent last week never reached the recipient.
Cortana won't work. Just flat out refuses to accept voice commands and won't relearn my voice
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
So maybe I'm just having a bad run. But seriously, Microsoft seem to have no problem shipping crappy hardware or pushing out crappy software without giving any consideration to the impact it has on customers.
The email problem has had a real financial impact. I use Microsoft services for business and have so far had two client meetings cancelled and a very irate accountant on the phone saying I've missed my tax return quarter all because they never received emails last week that are sitting in my sent items folder!!
So now I've got a buggy surface that I cannot charge, that's connected to a Microsoft email account that doesn't always send messages.
I've got a Lumia phone that is incredibly unreliable.
I've got a Band that's dead.
I've come to the conclusion that this is my fault. I've been too lazy to check out competitor platforms. I've been too loyal to Microsoft. I've wanted them to succeed, even if their success costs me money and causes me to fail.
This week has taught me that loyalty to a brand is stupid. When it comes to technology we shouldn't make our purchasing decisions on a company name or logo. We should make our decisions based on what will work best for us.
For years now I've felt like a Microsoft guinea pig. They keep churning out terrible handsets, fitness bands that break every few months, surface devices filled with bugs and operating systems that cause terrible harm to the end user. They do all this in the name of progress but give virtually no thought to how their lack of strategy or direction affects millions upon millions of users.
Nothing about Microsoft hardware or software feels polished. Nothing feels complete. In engineering terms, it's like they've built a temporary bridge over a river while they work away to complete the main, grand, totally awe inspiring bridge.
The problem is that the main bridge will never be completely finished because they keep changing the plans. How many times has the mobile plan changed? How many times has the skype plan changed? How many times do we hear about grand plans for hardware, software and services that just end up scrapped? It's simply not good enough.
Microsoft, you're being unfair and unkind to your customers.
Last edited:
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