brewer@tekcrl.LABS.TEK.COM (David Brewer) (06/15/90)
I have a friend who works for an organization that uses Microsoft Works for just about everything they do. Among other uses, they have been using Works 1.04 for the pc and have written quite a few large macros for functions they needed. When Works 2.0 came out, they purchased an upgrade for their existing copies and purchased new copies of Works for the new computers they were getting. Unfortunately, version 2.0 won't execute the macros they have. Microsoft acknowledged to them that this was a bug and would fix it 'sometime'. In the meantime, this organization has too few copies of the old version to go around. When they asked Microsoft whether they can use as many copies of the old version as they have purchased of the new version, Microsoft said that they would have to purchase a 'downgrade' from the new version to the old version for each copy they use. The charge would be $15.00 per copy. Now granted that $15.00 is not a lot of money, I find it incredible that Microsoft would be so petty as to squeeze this organization because of a bug in their new version of Works. They've gotten their money when multiple copies of the new version were purchased, and should allow the user to at least use multiple copies of the old program until Microsoft gets around to fixing their bug 'sometime'. The levying of a 'downgrade' fee is about as ludicrous as it gets. I'd be interested if anyone else has had a similar experience with Microsoft. David Brewer brewer@tekcrl.LABS.TEK.COM
boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin) (06/15/90)
brewer@tekcrl.LABS.TEK.COM (David Brewer) writes: >I have a friend who works for an organization that uses Microsoft Works >for just about everything they do. Among other uses, they have been >using Works 1.04 for the pc and have written quite a few large macros >for functions they needed. When Works 2.0 came out, they purchased an >upgrade for their existing copies and purchased new copies of Works >for the new computers they were getting. Unfortunately, version 2.0 >won't execute the macros they have. Microsoft acknowledged to them that >this was a bug and would fix it 'sometime'. In the meantime, this >organization has too few copies of the old version to go around. When >they asked Microsoft whether they can use as many copies of the old >version as they have purchased of the new version, Microsoft said that >they would have to purchase a 'downgrade' from the new version to the old >version for each copy they use. The charge would be $15.00 per copy. >Now granted that $15.00 is not a lot of money, I find it incredible that >Microsoft would be so petty as to squeeze this organization because of a >bug in their new version of Works. They've gotten their money when >multiple copies of the new version were purchased, and should allow >the user to at least use multiple copies of the old program until Microsoft >gets around to fixing their bug 'sometime'. The levying of a 'downgrade' >fee is about as ludicrous as it gets. >I'd be interested if anyone else has had a similar experience with >Microsoft. >David Brewer >brewer@tekcrl.LABS.TEK.COM I communicate with Microsoft through two routes that have invariably resulted in the most polite and efficient possible level of service (although they still can't expedite the release of new versions): the MSCUSTSVC address on Genie (I'm sure they have something like that on CompuServe) and the customer service number, (206)882-8088. The response described above is very atypical from what I'm used to dealing with MS through these two channels. If there's still no relief, you probably want to try the tech support center in Bellevue (a separate section from customer service and sales) at (206)454-2030. If that doesn't help, I would be surprised.