>>C'mon Craig, get *real*.
>>
>>I've said I admire your zeal for sticking up for MS, but this is truly too much!
>>
>>Did Nick buy this from a contractor? Did Nick even know there was a contractor involved? Are you sure there is a contractor involved?... If so, then just what is it that MS does to make money?
>>
>>And I can tell you from personal experience that "bumping things up to supervisors, managers" simply doesn't work!
>>
>>SHEESH!!!
>>
>>Jim N
>
>Too bad you have those problems, but I've always had success going to the managers. Did he "actually" place the order with a contractor? Absolutely. Microsoft contracts out all that stuff. Convergys (formerly Matrix Marketing) does most of it...and then it is shipped by still another company. A large percentage of this is done here in Utah by Convergys and the order fulfillment by another company, also here in Utah. I can't say if they handle the stuff for Canada, but it is not Microsoft employees that handle this.

I'm afraid here's a case where I have to jump in and stick up for Jim. As he, and Nick, and ... uh, sorry, another guy ... said, MS subcontracting the work doesn't absolve them of responsibility for it. It's their product, the people it was ordered from and shipped by are representing them in this transaction, and the ultimate responsibility for acceptibly satisfying their customer rests squarely on Microsoft's shoulders.

It's an unfortunate choice Microsoft has made to subcontract ordering and shipping this much. Unfortunate for themselves, because although most people will think it's obvious that customer satisfaction is still Microsoft's responsibility, the power to fulfill this responsibility has now been left by them at least somewhat in someone else's hands! An amazing lapse of judgement in my opinion, from a company whose marketing power is legendary. (Even though they don't market VFP enough! Anyone who was able to convince 90%+ of the computer market in the 80s that Windows 3.1 was better than the Mac OS has phenomenal marketing power!)

Rich.