Windows 10: Support - both live chat and Tier 2 phone - really let me down (and wasted a lot of time...

I am selling my 2015 laptop to someone. So I followed Microsoft's directions to reset it to factory and wipe my drive of everything. It did the wipe, and then it got stuck in a loop of "Hello - enter your country, language, keyboard and time zone" - then a "we need an update, connect to wifi" - which I would do, watch the spinning circles for about 8 minutes, watch it restart, and then presto: "Hello - enter your country, language, etc etc." I did that about 6 times before I reached out to support.


The first chat support person logged onto my regular computer, and claimed to set up a bootable USB stick, after downloading a Windows 10 ISO file to it. But we got disconnected. I connected again, and the new person took over my regular computer again, inspected the USB stick file and said the USB stick looked great, and he walked me through getting my laptop to the boot screen, and we changed the boot order to the USB, and restarted - and nothing - it did not work, and we futzed with the boot screen configuration options for a while. He became convinced it was an issue with my hardware, and gave up after about 45 minutes and arranged for "Tier 2" to call me today. Which they did - and to their credit - right on time (early, in fact). The Tier 2 person took over my working computer - and she also looked at the file on the USB stick, and told me it was bootable. And for another 45 minutes, the same issue - my computer would not read the stick. She gave up and said I needed to go to a Microsoft store.


At that point, I called an IT expert friend who works next door. He comes in, opens the stick and immediately says "you can't boot from that. It's just a file sitting on the stick - you have to extract and make the stick actual bootable media." Which he went and did, and presto, 20 minutes later, I have a recovered and reset laptop.


So two live chat support staff, and one "Tier 2" support person all were logged into my computer, inspected the USB stick set up (that you all created) and did not know it would not work as a bootable drive the way you configured it? That was 4 hours of my time overnight last night, and 90 minutes today. And it was clearly a "no brainer" issue (for someone in computer support - which Microsoft is!).


Very disappointed.

:)

 

Ten Forums Saturday Live Chat 24-MAR-2018


Welcome to TF Saturday Live Chat on March 24th, 2018

Fellow geeks, Ten Forums & Windows 10 enthusiasts and Insiders:

This is an open invitation to TF Saturday Live Chat on Saturday 24th of March 2018. Come and meet your fellow TF members and Windows Insiders in a live chat. Topic: off topic



Information TF Saturday Live Chat will be held in three parts. Part 1 should allow the members from Asia and Oceania to participate, Part 2 should be OK for the European, Middle Eastern and African members and the Part 3 for our American members.

You can of course participate in all three sessions if you so wish, it's just that spreading the chat throughout the day like this, the more members and guests alike all around the globe have a realistic possibility to be there.

The TF Live Chat will be recorded, remember it when participating in chat, showing webcam or presenting your desktop. Extracts of recordings will be posted on Ten Forums.

• TF Saturday Live Chat, Part 1
  • Start 11:00 (11 AM) UTC
  • End 12:30 (12:30 PM) UTC
  • Part 1 Start & End times in your local time zone: Event Time Announcer - TF Saturday Live Chat, Part 1

• TF Saturday Live Chat, Part 2
  • Start 16:00 (4 PM) UTC
  • End 17:30 (5:30 PM) UTC
  • Part 2 Start & End times in your local time zone: Event Time Announcer - TF Saturday Live Chat, Part 2

• TF Saturday Live Chat, Part 3
  • Start 20:00 (8 PM) UTC
  • End 21:30 (9:30 PM) UTC
  • Part 3 Start & End times in your local timezone: Event Time Announcer - TF Saturday Live Chat, Part 3

The chat will be online 30 minutes before the start time of each part for you to test the connection and join, and will remain online as long as there are attendees, at least an hour and a half.

Use the links above to check the start times for each session in your local time. You will see the start time in UTC shown at left, and the same in your local time at right:





Notice that if your regional settings are set to use 12 hour (AM/PM) clock, you will see the times in your familiar format.

A link to each live chat session will be posted here in this thread 30 minutes before the start of each part. The TF Saturday Live Chat is a group video meeting but to participate with audio and webcam video is optional; if you so decide, you can just listen and participate with text chat.

See this Microsoft support article for instructions in joining using the Skype for Business Web App (no account required): Join a Skype Meeting with Skype for Business Web App:





A small plugin will be installed and you are ready to join the meeting. Joining, including time to install the plugin takes less than a minute.

Notice that you will not need any Ten Forums, Skype, Skype for Business, email or MS Account. Simply select a screen name for you and join as a guest. Of course it would be nice if everyone would use their forums username, but that's up to you. If you want to remain anonymous, sign in as guest John Doe if you so prefer.

You can of course also join using Skype for Business desktop app if you have an organisational Skype for Business Account. Please remember that in that case your personal information will be available for and seen by all participants. I recommend to at least disable your contact card showing the phone numbers. As far as I know there's no way to disable showing your account name, avatar and email address when joining with your Skype for Business account.




Tip All TF Saturday Live Chat participants can share their desktop and show whatever their want to show to live audience. If you have a neat Windows 10 trick, tip, workaround or anything else you would like to show to your fellow members, please send me a PM about it latest by Friday evening (March 23rd) and we'll make it happen.

See you geeks on Saturday the 24th! Please post all your questions, ideas and such about the Live Chat in this thread.

 

Tier 2 Call Back

I chatted with a Tier 1 tech last Saturday, 08/15. She scheduled a Tier 2 callback for 08/17. As of today, I still have not gotten the call. I tried sending a reply to the confirmation e-mail, but have gotten no response. How to I get through to let MS know
that I'm still waiting for the phone call?

 

TenForums Saturday Live Chat 03-SEP-2016


Welcome to TF Saturday Live Chat

Come and meet your fellow Ten Forums members, Windows Insiders and enthusiasts: next TF Saturday Live Chat will be on Saturday 3rd of September 2016.



Information TF Saturday Live Chat will be held in three parts to allow as many members from various time zones as possible to join.You can of course participate in all sessions if you so wish.

The TF Saturday ive Chat will be recorded, remember it when participating in chat, showing webcam or presenting your desktop. Extracts of recording might be posted on Ten Forums.

• TF Saturday Live Chat - Part 1
  • Start 16:00 (4 PM) UTC
  • End 18:00 (6 PM) UTC
  • Part 1 Start & End times in your local time zone: Part 1 Start & End
  • Countdown to the start of the Part 1: Part 1 Countdown

• TF Saturday Live Chat - Part 2
  • Start 20:00 (8 PM) UTC
  • End 22:00 (10 PM) UTC
  • Part 2 Start & End times in your local time zone: Part 2 Start & End
  • Countdown to the start of the Part 2: Part 2 Countdown

• TF Saturday Live Chat - Part 3
  • Start 23:59 (11:59 PM) UTC
  • End 02:00 (2 AM) UTC on September 4th
  • Part 3 Start & End times in your local time zone: Part 3 Start & End
  • Countdown to the start of the Part 3: Part 3 Countdown

The chat will be online 30 minutes before the start time of each part for you to test the connection and join, and will remain online as long as there are attendees, at least two hours.

A link to each live chat session will be posted here in this thread 30 minutes before the start of each part. The TF Saturday Live Chat is a group video meeting but to participate with audio and webcam video is optional; if you so decide, you can just listen and participate with text chat.

See this tutorial for instructions in joining the live chat using the Lync Windows App as a guest if joining from Windows 8 or later: Lync App - Join an Online Meeting as Guest - Windows 10 Forums

If you will join using Windows 7 or older or any other OS or do not want to install the Lync App you need a small browser plugin. See this Microsoft support article for instructions in joining using the Skype for Business Web App plugin: Join a Skype Meeting with Skype for Business Web App - Skype for Business



Tip Easy to follow illustrated instructions to join using a browser and Skype for Business Web App plugin​ in less than a minute, see this post: Solved TenForums Saturday Live Chat 03-SEP-2016 - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums

You can of course join using Skype for Business app if you have an organisational Skype for Business Account. Please remember that in that case your personal information will be available for and seen by all participants. I recommend to at least disable your contact card showing the phone numbers. As far as I know there's no way to disable showing your account name, avatar and email address when joining with your Skype for Business account.

Notice that whichever of the above mentioned methods you use to join the chat you will not need any Ten Forums, Skype, Skype for Business, email or MS Account. Simply select a screen name for you and join as a guest. It would be nice if everyone would use their forums username.

All TF Saturday Live Chat participants can share their desktop and show whatever their want to in live session. If you have a neat Windows 10 trick, tip, workaround or anything else you would like to show to your fellow members, please send me a PM about it latest by Friday evening (July 29th) and we'll make it happen.

See you geeks on Saturday the 3rd! Please post all your questions, ideas and such about the Live Chat in this thread.




Information Winners for two Macrium Reflect Home licenses will be drawn in Part 2 half an hour after its start, at 20:30 (8:30) UTC.

Read more: Tell your backup software, win Macrium Free Home license! - Windows 10 Forums