We Consumerist editors kind of wish that companies would put us out of business. We wish that all consumers could resolve their problems with a few calm, reasonable phone calls or e-mails, and that getting anything done in a massive bureaucracy didn’t require hours of phone calls. We’re still here, though, and Steve’s story is a good example of why.

Yesterday, we posted his story about being unable to get a refund out of Microsoft for his Windows 8 download. After six months of fighting with Microsoft, he got in touch with a Microsoft public relations representative through Consumerist. Just a few hours later, a refund hit his PayPal account.

I emailed the contact at Waggener Edstrom at 7:30AM. I was contacted by Microsoft via phone at 10:20AM. At 12:15PM I received confirmation from PayPal that $45.19 was deposited to my account.

As long as it gets past the “pending” stage, you helped get done what in 5 hours (and no headaches), what I couldn’t in over 6 months!

Amazing!

No explanation at this point as to what the issue was, but I am happy enough to not have to deal with it anymore.

That’s great news, but sad news for the many people who are surely out there with the same problem whose stories Consumerist doesn’t have the space to publish. Who will wrangle a refund for them?

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