better than never at all i suppose.

Now what would have happened if he typed in a 8 instead of a 9 or 0?

Or leaving off an entire suffix!

Sadly, I've seen stuff like this happen. I'm sure MS has automated tools that won't even show the case until the time specified, but if someone did look at it, wouldn't you think common sense would rear its ugly head? Right...MS...nevermind...

So had they fixed his problem? LOL I wonder if he even remembers what the problem was. Interesting that they have the same system in place 10 years later, as evidenced by the prompt for a follow-up call. Maybe they should upgrade!

When Apple replaced my Powerbook a couple years ago, they screwed up one digit in the serial number when they transferred it over to the new computer. It wasn't quite as fun to figure out and resolve as this seems to be.

@homerjay: I still have, somewhere, a burned CD with their SN transfer utility on it that they left in the drive when I got a G5 back from service. I considered calling the store and giving it back but considering it was a burned disk I figured they had half a dozen more copies, and tossed it into my "random junk CDs that I may someday have a use for... someday" pile.

Probably would have been useful to you! I never did anything with it in the end, though I'm sure mischief could have abounded.

@Sherryness: It's probably running on Windows 95.

This is, in a perverse way, a testament to the integrity of Microsoft's problem tracking system.

But hey... at least they made a follow-up call that was initially 'promised' to the customer. It's not often that happens...

I just used the Microsoft Executive information that the Consumerist provided...IT WORKS! I recieved a very prompt reply and am currently being walked through a solution. Consumerist rules!

At least there wasn't a problem related to Y2K.

Or was there?

@Sherryness: It wouldn't have to be the same system. There IS such a concept of transferring ones data to a new system when upgrading.

If the customer service rep was typing on a standard keyboard using the number pad the "0" and "9" are on very far away from each other. Since most experienced typists use the num pad to input digits, I'm going to say that either the rep was a complete newbie or this story is BS.

@GITEMSTEVEDAVE
"Now what would have happened if he typed in a 8 instead of a 9 or 0?"

That would have created a rift in time.

Why does everyone assume it's the same system, I am betting it's a new system with the same data.

WOW imagine people actually keep historic data for reference!

Truely a testament to good record-keeping, although this may mean they have a file on everyone with everything you have ever done on a Microsoft product, now that would be awesome (scary?).

Actually, I'm impressed, like others here, that MS did place the followup call. Yes, it's bad they didn't do it when they should have, but it makes for a wicked neat story.

@jibbly: I'm an experienced typist. I type (roughly) 85wpm. I use the non-numpad numbers for things like dates and numbers (5 apples), but not for things longer then three digits- IE I would have used the top for 01/04/08 , but not if I typed 2008.

So since I'm not a complete newbie (I've been using computers since I was six, I'm now 23), and I've worked 4 customer service jobs that used computers, this isn't necessarily BS.

Hahahahahaha, Wow, very amusing!

That friggin ROCKS.

Justice delayed is justice denied.

I'd say it was my business computer and sue for loss of potential revenue, let's see, I was making $10,000 a month back in 98, so umm....

Hope they finally got that whole cup holder thing worked out...

Wow, they make Blizzard Tech Support look bad... oh wait...

Probably to let him know the fix would be in the next release.

@gizmodohomepage:
And let's not forget the emotional anguish of waiting yearningly by the phone all those years...

My hat is off to the tech that made the call. How do you not just scratch the record.

I work at a telecom company that uses work tickets like that. We can set callback dates, but we also monitor the queues to make sure no ticket has gone more than 24 hours without at least an update if not resolution. I don't know how a ticket could go 10 years without anyone noticing it.

@c.bartlett: We're talking about Microshaft here. They would have to have hand copy or reset their database like 3 times due to incompatible forced upgrades by now.

@Sherryness: It's probably not the same system, it's undoubtedly been migrated to new platforms. For obvious reasons, they don't just ditch all the data in the old system, they import it across.

Either way it's pretty cringe-worthy that the system doesn't do a routine check to see if a callback is within a 2-week timeframe or so.

@jibbly: If he was supposed to type in '01/08/98', it's not hard to have a mental hiccup and type '01/08/08' by accident, just repeating the 08, even if he was using the number pad.

I doubt it happened. A lot of the tech support for Microsoft was routed through third party vendors such as Keane who have since either lost the Microsoft contract or have gone under.

In jobs I've held as database administrator, i've regularly run "sanity checks" on data, making sure nothing is too far into the future or into the past. It's very simple, and this shows that the "data custodian" for these databases is not doing their job.

I work with computers at work, and they are HORRIBLY out of date, but when I'm scheduling follow-ups for new hires, they can't be more than 90 days from the current date. I find it hard to believe that no one set up a future date parameter in the MS system to prevent errors that can play negatively toward follow-up calls - something that is so critical to customer retention... but articles like this remind me why I upgraded to all Apple Computers a year ago, and why I plan to never return as a Microsoft customer.

The system should have had an input edit in place to detect such a problem when it was being keyed in.

I'm an experienced typist, and I rarely use the numpad for anything. The typewriter I learned to type on didn't have a numpad, and I never picked up the habit. It's convenient not to have that habit when you're using a laptop, too.

So far as I can tell, the main purpose of the numpad is to make it less convenient to get to the mouse. If I could buy an affordable natural keyboard without a numpad, I'd reclaim that space.

I imagine the call wen't something like this:

Customer Service Rep: "So Brian, I see here that you're running Windows 95. Have you considered upgrading to Windows 98, then to Windows ME, then to Windows 2000, then to Windows XP, then to Windows Vista? I'm guessing that this might be the root of your problem."

Brian: "Nope, I've done all that... over the years."

Customer Service Rep: "I see. I see... Well, perhaps it's that you're running a system with a 233MHz processor. Do you have a problem, say, playing 'Diablo' on your system?"

Brian: "Yes, but not for the reasons you're thinking."

And so on...

@hi:
Kind of like the last episode of Star Trek TNG.

Remember the hysteria over Y2K?? Remember it was driven by an oversight because many date fields (the year) only accommodated 2 digits.

Well, consider this. The fix (making a 4-digit year field) will also be short-lived. Consider what will happen when the year 10,000 hits (Y10K). The stupid bastards didn't think of that and we'll all be facing the same damned thing when it turns Y10K.

I can't go through another Y2K hysteria bout in the year 10,000. I think the programmers ought to start working on the problem now so we don't have the panic we had for Y2K.

@nursetim: Worf: "A highly localized distortion of the space-time continuum..."

Microsoft has customer service?!

That's freaking hilarious!

"Uhhh...excuse me? 1998? Windows ME? I'm on my 3rd computer since then...are you guys crazy?"

Wasn't this an episode of Journeyman?

I miss the writers. Please come back.

This is pretty hard to wrap my head around. For one, any software or operating system issue that Brian had 10 years ago would be out of its product support life-cycle. So there would not be any support for his issue anymore. For two, case management programs change quite frequently, so there is no way that his original case would be still in a new system. I think that this is a little too strange to be real.

If this is Microsoft we are talking about then by tomorrow all of his PC's should have had Windows Genuine Advantage lock him out of anything important to him and then Microsoft will send him a bill for 10 years of support on a now unsupported Windows ME.

but I'm not bitter or anything.....

Bullshit. I work in Microsoft Product Support Services and our internal tools do not have that long of a data retention. It is 6 months for most of the sensitive data and about 2-3 years for "archived" items.

The author of this story is an dumbassidiot to think their readers are all idiots and stupid to believe this load of crap.