Mr. Lin:
I went to the website and read some of the information
there. Even when something did not apply completely to
my situation, I still looked at the recommended
solutions. None of the solutions applied, as my settings
seemed to all be set as stated. Following the advice
posted there, I clicked the email button and provided a
VERY detailed description of the problem. I received an
automated reply telling me that you are unable to provide
support via email. That raises a question of why the
option to ask via email even exists. In the same auto-
response, there was a solicitation for me to pay $50 to
$100 for your "consulting service." There was also a
solicitation for a donation for the web support on your
site. I have a problem with someone using their position
or titles with Microsoft to offer advice in the
newsgroups that directs them to a website where that same
person expects to be paid for the answer to the question
posted in the newsgroups. In my view, this is a conflict
of interest. If a lawyer or doctor did the same thing,
they would lose their professional licenses. I suggest
that you not post responses if you do not wish to provide
the "neighbor-helping-neighbor" support that these
newsgroups are designed to provide. Most of us already
feel like Microsoft duped us as it is. This is because
their idea of customer support is to charge the customer
to fix the bugs in the software that Microsoft wrote and
sold. The payments should be the other way around:
Microsoft should be paying the customer that encounters
the problem, as most of us spend at least some time
analyzing and attempting to fix a problem before we look
elsewhere for help. That type of analysis is something
that we expect from the entity that sold the software,
not the person who purchased it. Think about it for a
minute: if you bought a new car and every time you
pressed the lock-door button all of the seats reclined,
you would not expect to have to diagnose the problem, you
would take it to the service department to have it fixed.
So, in short, if you are not willing to help your fellow
man in the spirit in which Microsoft hosts these
newsgroups, do not post responses in an attempt to make a
financial gain from the problems posted here.
Kind regards,
William Drummond
