Microsoft support timeline for my HD-DVD drive: F -

[Image: 360 HD DVD]Recently I had an awesome experience with customer support. I had a problem with my projector, called in to Sharp, and they told me where to send the projector, and then e-mailed me a printable shipping label for a pre-paid overnight service.

I sent it in on Tuesday and got the working thing back on Friday of the same week. That was AWESOME. I love Sharp support, and will recommend Sharp to everyone.

My experience with Microsoft support, trying to fix my non-working HD-DVD drive, has been much different. Here’s my timeline:

Approx April 14th: I call MS Support. After going through the pre-scripted process of determining that yes, my drive really is broken, I’m told that MS will send me a box to put the drive in to and mail to their center. It’ll come with shipping labels and instructions in about three days or less. I’m told that the max turnaround time is two weeks from today.

April 19th: No box yet. I call MS back with the case number and ask if there’s been some delay. I’m told that there’s actually no repair order out on my drive and that no box has been sent, nor are there plans to send a box. I ask if I can go ahead and set that repair order—but I’m told that in order to do that I’ll have to “call back,” which means another 45-minute wait. However, I can pack the drive myself and send it to their repair center. I get the address.

April 19th: I FedEx the drive to their repair center. I figure two weeks from today is fair.

April 27th: I haven’t received any e-mail updates on the drive, which many repair centers provide, so I call in to find out how the process is going. MS claims they never received the drive. I use the tracking number to prove they signed for it, at which point they admit “we’re not really in contact with the repair center.” Call back in a few days to find out the status of your drive repair.

Ok, that’s weird, but such is life.

May 1st: I call back, and I’m told that they do have the drive (good) and that it’s being repaired (still?) and that I can expect it, at the very latest, next Thursday, but that probably it will get to me by Friday or Monday.

Good news!

May 4th: No drive, but I figure I’ll call in to see if there’s any way I can check on the status of the shipment - maybe a tracking number. By now I’ve memorized the menu. I’ve also figured out that when they put me on hold to “check with their manager about my order” what they’re doing is sending out a form e-mail request to the repair center, which is why they tell me to call back in a few days. I’d bet $50 they don’t speak to their manager.

I asked to speak to the support woman’s manager. She put me on hold and then said “I have discussed with my manager about your product and you should call back in a few days to find out the status of your repair.”

I asked to speak to her manager. She connected me. The manager gave me same spiel, except offered to have MS call ME instead of me having to call MS back. She said I’d get a call on Monday with a tracking number. Again, she seemed unaware or unimpressed by the fact that I’d already been told it would be here by Thursday at the latest.

May 7th: MS doesn’t call.

May 10th: Today the drive did not arrive. But I did finally get a call back from MS, providing me with a tracking number. The drive has been “billed” to ship, according to UPS, and will probably make it onto their trucks by tomorrow, which means I’ll get it sometime next week. Over a month after my first support call.

I’m upset because there’s nothing I can do about it. Either I let them fix the damn thing at their own leisurely pace while they jerk me around, or I shell out $200 for a new, working drive.