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IP: credit card information extortion by Microsoft support & .NET
From: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 14:44:25 -0500
------ Forwarded Message From: Mark Laubach <laubach () inconvenient net> Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 11:34:19 -0800 To: farber () cis upenn edu Subject: credit card information extortion by Microsoft support & .NET Dave, IP'ers might like this. This past week, I finally decided to stop my hesitation of using Max OS X and decided to take the full time plunge. Part of the new marriage involved installing Microsoft Office v.X. At first blush, the applications worked beautifully. Now, the honeymoon is over. When I try to start up Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, the programs all just abort on startup. OS X, give me a little information that the abort was "unexpected". Big help. Microsoft also doesn't drop any log files around that I can easily find. So I have no clue what is going on. Ok, there's their support website. FAQs and such don't detail this problem, so I start the process of filing a technical support problem. First problem: you can't file a report unless you have a Microsoft Passport. Ok, well I do have a hotmail account, so I enter that information. Turns our for some reason, my password isn't working anymore. So I follow the the links for forgotten password. There is this form that asks me my secret question, new passwords, *and* a question that asks me to "Type the last five digits of any credit card stored in your .NET Passport wallet.". Second problem: I don't have a .NET Passport Wallet and don't expect to set up one in my lifetime. Third problem: There's no way around this. Even the .NET help doesn't mention this requirement. So here you are. A fat bald ass offensive intimidation for me to have to register personal credit card information just to obtain support on a product that ain't working. Mark ------ End of Forwarded Message
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- IP: credit card information extortion by Microsoft support & .NET Dave Farber (Feb 27)