Microsoft support for Windows Mobile

[73blazer]

Do they even have it?

I tried desperately Friday to get some insight into an issue that is clearly a bug, to no avail.
Basically, the issue is the new version of the mail app that came out earlier this week, won't launch in continuum mode. Elite x3 had it. I pull out my 950xl which hadn't updated in a while mail launches there in continuum mode, update the mail app, mail won't launch in continuum mode. I called a buddy of mine that also uses continuum...yep, he has same issue.
So...
First I tried chat from 'get help' in the app page in the store that takes you to a generic page, where when you say 'get help' you can chat.
They routed me to MS office people , who had broken english, and mostly all they could say are things like 'surely we can get your issue solved to your satisfaction today'.
That became the 'oh boy' moment, every time I saw that or heard that, it meant, they're not listneing, they're gonna do something generic like ask you to hard reset or route you to someone else or blow you off.
Eventually the office person said 'we can't help you you have to go to b2x website for mobile help'
b2x seems to be for hardware issues to me, but, whatever, I go there.
First thing it asks is imei number. I put it in from my HP Elite X3, all the site says is sorry, we can't help you.
Ok, I see they "service lumia phones", so I put my 950xl imei in, since the problem existed there as well.
I get to chat, same stuff, soft reset, hardreset. "Surely this will solve your issue"
No, it won't. This is a clear bug! When multiple devices from different users have the problem, a hard reset isn't gonna help! Then in a classic moment, after hard reseting and screwing with that for an hour....he says, ok, lets try microsoft device recovery tool...WTH no, that's just gonna do another hard reset. Besides, I tell him I don't have a windows 10 PC to start with that tool anyway. His response....seriously... "can you go to cyber cafe and borrow a W10 machine from someone there?" ..
What...really...your suggesting to go to a cyber cafe (if those even exist anymore?) and ask a stanger to use his laptop for a while to re-load windows on my machine? Really....WOW!

When I said, ok enough..., you need to open a ticket through whatever means possible you have with mobile developers internally and see what they say about it...he says.. 'we'll get back to you, surely this is satisfying your case where we can close it today' ...?huh?... whatever...get back to me...
A few hours later, I decide to try again, this time I find a support for mobile online somewhere. I get a a chat window. They route me to office. The office help person says they only do PC's not mobile, he routes me to another link. That person says they only support PC apps (I think it was a windows store or general windows help person)..they route me to ... b2x. Of course this is all while they all say the same general stuff "do not worry, surely we will fix your issue. We will have satisfying closure today". ...
Yeah...awesome
Basically, there is no support, is what I gather.

I had a much better experience with HP. Since MS kept wanting to route me to b2x, I thought, well, perhaps the support model is through the device manufactuer...HP at least didn't try to do soft reset hard reset BS, as soon as I said this has occure on multiple devices now....he understood and said they'd take it up with MS and left me with a case number.

Today, I get an automated email from b2x.

This e-mail is in reference to the concern with your Mobile device. We value the importance of issue raised by you and I am happy to assist you. Please let us know whether the issue for which you contacted us, is it been resolved? And if yes, then do we have the permission to go ahead and get your case closed keeping you to be as a happy and satisfied customer for B2X Support.



For any further assistance, please contact us again anytime by visiting https://support.b2x.com/ along with reference case no. 343158 and we will be more than happy to assist you.

What, can we close the ticket? Really. This is "getting back to me?"

Wow, really, that's all I can say. I'm really about at my wits ends with MS mobile. Contiuum with HP"S lapdock and deskdock accessories are really a game changer for me, but if major issues like, email stops working in continuum after an app update, and MS's support model here which is nothing short of pathetic....continue to persist, I don't see much f a choice.
I kinda think that's MS's plan, to slowly get us all off windows mobile by these types of things. Clearly, they're not supporting it, don't care much about it, and are not investing in it's future, even if just to sustain. They just didn't want to **** us all off at once by declaring it dead.
I'm really at my ropes end with it. Sad. :unhappy:

 

[xandros9]

Unfortunately the runaround issue here is that MS has outsourced all mobile support to B2X so you were referred there. But B2X only handles Lumia's and went with standard troubleshooting that assumed there wasn't an inherent bug with the app as there is now.

So anyways, the only plan you have is to send Feedback from inside the Mail app and wait and hope that Microsoft pushes out an update to fix it in the future. Not the first time an update has broken something, probably not the last.

Hopefully this won't be an issue that persists for a long time.

 

[techiez]

MS doesnt care abt W10mobile. It was clear a long time ago. Just a few delusional ppl believed and still believe everything MS did was a move towards the ultra mobilepc.

Sorry for the rant. I would suggest to chase MS over twitter.

 

[xandros9]

MS doesnt care abt W10mobile. It was clear a long time ago. Just a few delusional ppl believed and still believe everything MS did was a move towards the ultra mobilepc.

Sorry for the rant. I would suggest to chase MS over twitter.

There's a minor problem with that!



(well, this was several months ago at least and Belfiore's Twitter no longer mentions WP support, but still telling.)

 

[73blazer]

B2X support is nothing short of useless. I went back there this morning and the guy made a new case number (after I already referenced my old case number), he asked ALL the same qurestions as the old case, "When did this problem start" ....when I asked to reference to other case and I wanted status update on that, he said he couldn't
(basically, those numbers are just to make one feel good, they're apparently not tracked and useless to them)
Just absolute pointless support. When you say you have two different phone models in your hand that have the problem, and another guys phone that you can fully trust has the problem, , and all you get is "what is your os build, try soft reset, lets do a hard reset..."
I asked him to try it with any W10 phone he had. Surely w10 mobile support people have w10 phones around to test things with. Apparently, they don't.
GRRRRRRRR so frustrating. And the same language and text from them all "Surely we can fix your issue to satisfaction today for happy b2x customer."
Happy B2X Customer. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Holy cow, hands down, the absolute worst support I've ever experienced.

 

[ads13]

I agree with you. B2X support is worse but MS reseller(Service centre) is the worst.
They had not fixed my phone even after declared date. Instead of returning, they kept my phone 2-3 days more for experimenting.

Now my dual sim Lumia lost its SIM card signal strength. So, I'm using it for reading mails, chats, forum posts and all except sim calling.

 

[Elky64]

My one and only dealings w/B2X support was a complete and utter fail. Everything was a one-way street in that, they would ask YOU for info yet they could not be bothered to address my questions, not once did any of my emails get responded to and I sent several.

 

[Drael646464]

report the issue on feedback, and get your mates to upvote it. Windows builds have been recently primarily working on bugfixes, so if you get the upvotes, they'll look at it.

Besides, whats a support team going to do for an app problem? Its a developer problem. The developers are MSFT. all you can do is report the bug to them.

 

[73blazer]

I would fully expect support to have channels with the developers for real issues, like any other software companies support model does. Sure the vast majority of their stuff might be simple how to things,but they have to run into real issues every now and again and have a method to deal with those issues.
App feedback I woudl not think appropriate to post details of problems, you have limited space there anyway. I did post there that there's a problem, but there needs to be a real trackable way to take details and deal with real problems with the software.

 

[DrChucky]

Sorry to hear about your troubles with the Outlook email app. Are you running an Insiders Build by chance?

If not, perhaps you could join and try the Release Preview or Slow Ring. They quite often roll out new app builds ahead of the current build, which might fix your problem. Just a thought.

 

[TennisGuy45]

There is no tech support.

 

[YeahRrright]

I had dealings with b2x - the only solution they offer in ALL cases is reset the phone, they do not even try to do any other TS at all. MSFT gave up on all their mobile phones and wrote them off until the day the warranty runs out on them - then you can just throw them away cause no point in getting any assistance with them.

On the other hand, my SP4 just broke and MSFT will exchange it for me for free (including shipping) - it's nice. Good thing there was still a couple of moths of warranty left. I will get a refurbished one, but as long as they will extend the warranty I'm fine with that.

 

[MARTY1774]

Do they even have it?

I tried desperately Friday to get some insight into an issue that is clearly a bug, to no avail.
Basically, the issue is the new version of the mail app that came out earlier this week, won't launch in continuum mode. Elite x3 had it. I pull out my 950xl which hadn't updated in a while mail launches there in continuum mode, update the mail app, mail won't launch in continuum mode. I called a buddy of mine that also uses continuum...yep, he has same issue.
So...
First I tried chat from 'get help' in the app page in the store that takes you to a generic page, where when you say 'get help' you can chat.
They routed me to MS office people , who had broken english, and mostly all they could say are things like 'surely we can get your issue solved to your satisfaction today'.
That became the 'oh boy' moment, every time I saw that or heard that, it meant, they're not listneing, they're gonna do something generic like ask you to hard reset or route you to someone else or blow you off.
Eventually the office person said 'we can't help you you have to go to b2x website for mobile help'
b2x seems to be for hardware issues to me, but, whatever, I go there.
First thing it asks is imei number. I put it in from my HP Elite X3, all the site says is sorry, we can't help you.
Ok, I see they "service lumia phones", so I put my 950xl imei in, since the problem existed there as well.
I get to chat, same stuff, soft reset, hardreset. "Surely this will solve your issue"
No, it won't. This is a clear bug! When multiple devices from different users have the problem, a hard reset isn't gonna help! Then in a classic moment, after hard reseting and screwing with that for an hour....he says, ok, lets try microsoft device recovery tool...WTH no, that's just gonna do another hard reset. Besides, I tell him I don't have a windows 10 PC to start with that tool anyway. His response....seriously... "can you go to cyber cafe and borrow a W10 machine from someone there?" ..
What...really...your suggesting to go to a cyber cafe (if those even exist anymore?) and ask a stanger to use his laptop for a while to re-load windows on my machine? Really....WOW!

When I said, ok enough..., you need to open a ticket through whatever means possible you have with mobile developers internally and see what they say about it...he says.. 'we'll get back to you, surely this is satisfying your case where we can close it today' ...?huh?... whatever...get back to me...
A few hours later, I decide to try again, this time I find a support for mobile online somewhere. I get a a chat window. They route me to office. The office help person says they only do PC's not mobile, he routes me to another link. That person says they only support PC apps (I think it was a windows store or general windows help person)..they route me to ... b2x. Of course this is all while they all say the same general stuff "do not worry, surely we will fix your issue. We will have satisfying closure today". ...
Yeah...awesome
Basically, there is no support, is what I gather.

I had a much better experience with HP. Since MS kept wanting to route me to b2x, I thought, well, perhaps the support model is through the device manufactuer...HP at least didn't try to do soft reset hard reset BS, as soon as I said this has occure on multiple devices now....he understood and said they'd take it up with MS and left me with a case number.

Today, I get an automated email from b2x.

What, can we close the ticket? Really. This is "getting back to me?"

Wow, really, that's all I can say. I'm really about at my wits ends with MS mobile. Contiuum with HP"S lapdock and deskdock accessories are really a game changer for me, but if major issues like, email stops working in continuum after an app update, and MS's support model here which is nothing short of pathetic....continue to persist, I don't see much f a choice.
I kinda think that's MS's plan, to slowly get us all off windows mobile by these types of things. Clearly, they're not supporting it, don't care much about it, and are not investing in it's future, even if just to sustain. They just didn't want to **** us all off at once by declaring it dead.
I'm really at my ropes end with it. Sad. :unhappy:

 

[pjhenry1216]

HP does seem to have much better support than MS. Unfortunately, sometimes its out of HP's hands (such as this case). Similar issue with me (and plenty of other Elite X3 users) in that HP was super helpful, but the problem lies with MS. A whole lot of X3s randomly decide to "eject" the SD card and the only way to get the phone to recognize it again is by rebooting. HP even replaced my phone once and they're on their third (at least) revision of the tray that holds the SD card, but it clearly appears to be a software issue. They said they're working with MS on it, but that's pretty much the last I've heard about it and that was a week or two ago.

 

[wizbit]

I've had a problem with my Lumia 950 ever since the creators update, where the store won't find updates to apps automatically. I have to go and find the store listing before they will update.

Spoke to B2X and they suggested rolling back to the anniversary update and never applying any more updates to it!

What kind of an answer is that!

 

[Wevenhuis]

Do they even have it?

I tried desperately Friday to get some insight into an issue that is clearly a bug, to no avail.
Basically, the issue is the new version of the mail app that came out earlier this week, won't launch in continuum mode. Elite x3 had it. I pull out my 950xl which hadn't updated in a while mail launches there in continuum mode, update the mail app, mail won't launch in continuum mode. I called a buddy of mine that also uses continuum...yep, he has same issue.
So...
First I tried chat from 'get help' in the app page in the store that takes you to a generic page, where when you say 'get help' you can chat.
They routed me to MS office people , who had broken english, and mostly all they could say are things like 'surely we can get your issue solved to your satisfaction today'.
That became the 'oh boy' moment, every time I saw that or heard that, it meant, they're not listneing, they're gonna do something generic like ask you to hard reset or route you to someone else or blow you off.
Eventually the office person said 'we can't help you you have to go to b2x website for mobile help'
b2x seems to be for hardware issues to me, but, whatever, I go there.
First thing it asks is imei number. I put it in from my HP Elite X3, all the site says is sorry, we can't help you.
Ok, I see they "service lumia phones", so I put my 950xl imei in, since the problem existed there as well.
I get to chat, same stuff, soft reset, hardreset. "Surely this will solve your issue"
No, it won't. This is a clear bug! When multiple devices from different users have the problem, a hard reset isn't gonna help! Then in a classic moment, after hard reseting and screwing with that for an hour....he says, ok, lets try microsoft device recovery tool...WTH no, that's just gonna do another hard reset. Besides, I tell him I don't have a windows 10 PC to start with that tool anyway. His response....seriously... "can you go to cyber cafe and borrow a W10 machine from someone there?" ..
What...really...your suggesting to go to a cyber cafe (if those even exist anymore?) and ask a stanger to use his laptop for a while to re-load windows on my machine? Really....WOW!

When I said, ok enough..., you need to open a ticket through whatever means possible you have with mobile developers internally and see what they say about it...he says.. 'we'll get back to you, surely this is satisfying your case where we can close it today' ...?huh?... whatever...get back to me...
A few hours later, I decide to try again, this time I find a support for mobile online somewhere. I get a a chat window. They route me to office. The office help person says they only do PC's not mobile, he routes me to another link. That person says they only support PC apps (I think it was a windows store or general windows help person)..they route me to ... b2x. Of course this is all while they all say the same general stuff "do not worry, surely we will fix your issue. We will have satisfying closure today". ...
Yeah...awesome
Basically, there is no support, is what I gather.

I had a much better experience with HP. Since MS kept wanting to route me to b2x, I thought, well, perhaps the support model is through the device manufactuer...HP at least didn't try to do soft reset hard reset BS, as soon as I said this has occure on multiple devices now....he understood and said they'd take it up with MS and left me with a case number.

Today, I get an automated email from b2x.

What, can we close the ticket? Really. This is "getting back to me?"

Wow, really, that's all I can say. I'm really about at my wits ends with MS mobile. Contiuum with HP"S lapdock and deskdock accessories are really a game changer for me, but if major issues like, email stops working in continuum after an app update, and MS's support model here which is nothing short of pathetic....continue to persist, I don't see much f a choice.
I kinda think that's MS's plan, to slowly get us all off windows mobile by these types of things. Clearly, they're not supporting it, don't care much about it, and are not investing in it's future, even if just to sustain. They just didn't want to **** us all off at once by declaring it dead.
I'm really at my ropes end with it. Sad. :unhappy:

"knock on wood" I haven't needed their help to date.

 

[sihaz]

I also found b2x useless. Had a problem with my live account not being able to sync properly on my 950xl so the battery drained really quickly as it constantly tried to grab emails. B2x's answer, hard reset, which I'd already done. Luckily after creators the problem just went away...

 

[nikhilsatpute]

I had horrible experiences with Lumia730 and Lumia 535 devices, basically i never cared about app gaps, but what a mess these phones were hanging a lot and frequently i pulled out batteries out of them. I even did force shutdowns. None of your supporting staff by that time could help me.

 

[Wosi]

Microsoft broke our phones - and they don't care

I'm currently having a lot of trouble since I've installed the Creators Update. I guess everyone else running the current version of Windows 10 Mobile is experiencing the same: It's unstable, it tends to freeze a couple of times a day and battery life has become very short when GPS and Cortana are active.

In the beginning I was annoyed by these bugs, so I decided to report them using the Feedback Hub. Many people voted for my feedback so it's not only me who has got the same bugs. But there was no reaction from Microsoft.

After about two weeks I found a question on answers.microsoft.com. A moderator suggested to perform a hard reset. People tried but it didn't solve the problem. The moderator doesn't care. He provided a have-you-tried-turning-it-off-and-on-again-answer and left.

A couple of days later I started a chat at Microsoft's helpdesk site. The man at the other side said they weren't responsbile for Windows 10 Mobile. I should go to B2X instead.

The B2X agent was available in chat after wating for over thirty minutes! The chat ended after less than two minutes. The agent wrote two chat messages: "Hello, how can I help you?" and "Please wait a couple of days". He ended the conversation immediately after his second message. I've never seen a support agent that rude! He showed absolutely no interest in my problem. If Microsoft pays a single Dollar for B2X support then it's way too much. Microsoft hurts itself with B2X.

After a while I contacted @windowssupport on Twitter:

Two days later: No response. I was getting really angry. So I tweeted:

A couple of hours later I received a private message from @windowssupport asking me for my email address and phone number. They told me Microsoft's tier III support will contact me within a week. I also received a case number. Wow, that took less than four weeks to get one, awesome!

But nine days later there was still no call from Microsoft. I asked via private message for the call but I didn't receive a response.
So I asked at helpdesk if they forgot about me. They said someone tried to call me four days earlier. That is definitely not true! The agent rescheduled a call and asked again for my phone number. And now I'm still waiting for support.

It's almost a month now that my Lumia950 is working like a four year old $80 Android phone.
Whoever is responsible for this kind of (non-)support should be fired as soon as possible.

 

[Narr]

Similar to others here I had issues with B2X, firstly the IMEI wasn't recognised, and you can't get passed the first screen without that so I used a different phone's IMEI just to talk to them. As soon as they realised it was a different phone they said they couldn't help due to the IMEI being unknown (the B2X app on the other hand states the phone is ok and is still in warranty). I bought the phone from Ebay, but they insisted on seeing the original receipt with the IMEI number printed on it.
Unhappily I had to let it go, I don't have the time or inclination to play these games.