M
MikeBShep
Guest
I've contacted both the phone support and had chats with online live chat agents (which I seem to no longer be able to access) that haven't even come close to understanding or resolving a few issues that have come up for me with both Windows activation and Outlook email.
To start, I recently had a major hardware upgrade in my PC, the motherboard and CPU have been replaced, new RAM installed, and a new m.2 SSD installed.
Before making these hardware changes, I went to Activation Settings > Add an Account since my current Windows 10 Digital License was not linked to a Microsoft account. I was NOT logged into a Microsoft account on my PC (I've always used local accounts). I was prompted to use an email address for the account, so I entered an existing one (a gmail account), but it told me that I couldn't use it, so instead I created a NEW AND SEPARATE (I really need this part to be understood) Microsoft email account under @outlook. I then linked my Digital License to that new Microsoft account and confirmed the version in the Activation Settings menu, everything was as it should be. The Digital License was attached to my Microsoft account according to everything in the settings.
This is where my problems began: I noticed my Gmail POP3 inbox was not receiving emails from my @hotmail email address anymore. I checked the settings and re-entered the email and password, it returned an invalid credentials error. I went to check my email under this @hotmail address that has existed all the way from the time Hotmail existed, through the change to Windows Live email, and finally to now with the switch to Outlook (the ENTIRE TIME being as @hotmail). When attempting to login with the @hotmail address in the username field on the Outlook login, it said that my email address didn't exist. I tried to use my phone number to login and I was able to, but now my Outlook inbox is under the NEW @outlook email address but has all of my old @hotmail emails in it up until the DAY that I created the NEW AND SEPARATE Microsoft account with the @outlook email address as a login. The @outlook address has somehow hijacked my @hotmail email account and overwritten it entirely, DELETING the @hotmail email address completely. The @hotmail email address is entirely defunct, I have tested by sending it emails and receiving the invalid address reply and I had recently had some issues with my Amazon account that was attached to that email and the Amazon rep said they saw that I never received the emails they sent either when I spoke to them about something unrelated.
I contacted Microsoft support by calling, was told I would be put on a 44 hour waiting list, so I just hung up and went to the alternative online Live Chat (which seems to have mysteriously vanished over the last week) and spoke to an entirely useless online agent. The chat agent told me that I had probably added the @hotmail email address as an alias to my @outlook account and to check the aliases. No. The hotmail account existed for YEARS before the outlook one. I checked the aliases, I have no aliases on my account. I tried to get the agent to understand that the hotmail account was the actual account, but he told me that I made the "outlook" account many years ago and that I was mistaken somehow. Which is completely untrue, since I made the outlook email address that is currently hijacking my hotmail address's inbox on January 8th, it never existed before then, period. I have NEVER had an outlook email account.
This confirmed my suspicion, however, that somehow through creating this new @outlook email address, it had automatically hijacked my old @hotmail address. The result is that it's impossible for me to login to my @hotmail address, since it has now become the @outlook address, and everything that used to be attached to that @hotmail account (MANY logins on various websites, including Amazon) are now broken and probably can't be changed without some seriously tedious account recovery as I will not be able to send recovery emails to an email account that no longer exists (it does not forward to the @outlook account, the emails simply do not send). I tried to add the @hotmail address as an alias to the @outlook account to see what would happen and it says the alias is invalid.
The agent told me that my ticket would be "forwarded to someone higher up" and to go to the Privacy section of the customer support website and submit a ticket. They claimed their supervisor told them that once the Privacy service team received my ticket it would be placed on a higher priority due to the complication of my issue. So, I followed the instructions, submitted a ticket, got a canned email "we got your ticket" response, followed by another response that basically told me to go back to the original "account support" people because they're "sorry that I'm having issues with my login".
I can really only assume that maybe the first live chat support agent lied about this whole "forwarded to a higher up" thing since despite following his exact instructions I got a back-to-back canned response telling me to go in a circle. Great customer support Microsoft.
Now, back to the original issue that spawned the email account debacle: Windows 10 activation.
Having changed out my hardware in my PC, booting up with the same drive and same installation of Windows, logging in with my Windows account on the Windows login screen, I went to Activation settings to see "We can't activate Windows on this device right now. You can try activation again later or go to the Store to buy genuine Windows. Error code: 0xC004F025", which seems to be a generic "it won't activate" error code.
I started the Troubleshooter > "We weren't able to activate Windows on this device" > I changed hardware on this device recently > Reactive Windows 10 screen > my "previous" PC appears and I check the "This is the device I'm using right now" box > Activate > We can't reactivate Windows on this device. Try again later.
It also kindly suggests to me again to "just purchase another copy of Windows since our service is failing". Ridiculous.
If I go to my Windows account online > Devices, it says that I have 2 devices attached to my account, both named the exact same thing (since it's the same PC with different hardware). The activation troubleshooter tries to reactive the Windows license for the "old" PC and the "new" version of that same PC doesn't appear in the troubleshooter at all. I am logged into my Microsoft account on the NEW version of the PC. I have tried to log in an out to see if it would register, nothing. Both PCs show they have Windows 10 Home Version 1809 installed.
The issue here is obviously that for whatever reason the activation troubleshooter isn't offering me the option to choose the "current" PC that I'm using despite that it's registered to my Microsoft account, and that my hardware changes were apparently drastic enough to disjoint the Windows service from realizing this is the same installation as before on new hardware.
I haven't contacted support about the License issue so far, because the Live Chat support option has seemingly disappeared from the Contact Us page and been replaced with a bot that gives me a phone number for a 40-50 hour waiting list to get to some Indian woman that sits silently as I explain the issue to her and then doesn't say anything for 5 minutes straight as she tries to process my problem in her head because NO, the outsourced CS people AREN'T EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THESE ISSUES.
Honestly, I'd love to just speak to someone that actually has the tools to resolve a single issue or understand that maybe something went wrong with whatever system or account server that handles these things.
Continue reading...
To start, I recently had a major hardware upgrade in my PC, the motherboard and CPU have been replaced, new RAM installed, and a new m.2 SSD installed.
Before making these hardware changes, I went to Activation Settings > Add an Account since my current Windows 10 Digital License was not linked to a Microsoft account. I was NOT logged into a Microsoft account on my PC (I've always used local accounts). I was prompted to use an email address for the account, so I entered an existing one (a gmail account), but it told me that I couldn't use it, so instead I created a NEW AND SEPARATE (I really need this part to be understood) Microsoft email account under @outlook. I then linked my Digital License to that new Microsoft account and confirmed the version in the Activation Settings menu, everything was as it should be. The Digital License was attached to my Microsoft account according to everything in the settings.
This is where my problems began: I noticed my Gmail POP3 inbox was not receiving emails from my @hotmail email address anymore. I checked the settings and re-entered the email and password, it returned an invalid credentials error. I went to check my email under this @hotmail address that has existed all the way from the time Hotmail existed, through the change to Windows Live email, and finally to now with the switch to Outlook (the ENTIRE TIME being as @hotmail). When attempting to login with the @hotmail address in the username field on the Outlook login, it said that my email address didn't exist. I tried to use my phone number to login and I was able to, but now my Outlook inbox is under the NEW @outlook email address but has all of my old @hotmail emails in it up until the DAY that I created the NEW AND SEPARATE Microsoft account with the @outlook email address as a login. The @outlook address has somehow hijacked my @hotmail email account and overwritten it entirely, DELETING the @hotmail email address completely. The @hotmail email address is entirely defunct, I have tested by sending it emails and receiving the invalid address reply and I had recently had some issues with my Amazon account that was attached to that email and the Amazon rep said they saw that I never received the emails they sent either when I spoke to them about something unrelated.
I contacted Microsoft support by calling, was told I would be put on a 44 hour waiting list, so I just hung up and went to the alternative online Live Chat (which seems to have mysteriously vanished over the last week) and spoke to an entirely useless online agent. The chat agent told me that I had probably added the @hotmail email address as an alias to my @outlook account and to check the aliases. No. The hotmail account existed for YEARS before the outlook one. I checked the aliases, I have no aliases on my account. I tried to get the agent to understand that the hotmail account was the actual account, but he told me that I made the "outlook" account many years ago and that I was mistaken somehow. Which is completely untrue, since I made the outlook email address that is currently hijacking my hotmail address's inbox on January 8th, it never existed before then, period. I have NEVER had an outlook email account.
This confirmed my suspicion, however, that somehow through creating this new @outlook email address, it had automatically hijacked my old @hotmail address. The result is that it's impossible for me to login to my @hotmail address, since it has now become the @outlook address, and everything that used to be attached to that @hotmail account (MANY logins on various websites, including Amazon) are now broken and probably can't be changed without some seriously tedious account recovery as I will not be able to send recovery emails to an email account that no longer exists (it does not forward to the @outlook account, the emails simply do not send). I tried to add the @hotmail address as an alias to the @outlook account to see what would happen and it says the alias is invalid.
The agent told me that my ticket would be "forwarded to someone higher up" and to go to the Privacy section of the customer support website and submit a ticket. They claimed their supervisor told them that once the Privacy service team received my ticket it would be placed on a higher priority due to the complication of my issue. So, I followed the instructions, submitted a ticket, got a canned email "we got your ticket" response, followed by another response that basically told me to go back to the original "account support" people because they're "sorry that I'm having issues with my login".
I can really only assume that maybe the first live chat support agent lied about this whole "forwarded to a higher up" thing since despite following his exact instructions I got a back-to-back canned response telling me to go in a circle. Great customer support Microsoft.
Now, back to the original issue that spawned the email account debacle: Windows 10 activation.
Having changed out my hardware in my PC, booting up with the same drive and same installation of Windows, logging in with my Windows account on the Windows login screen, I went to Activation settings to see "We can't activate Windows on this device right now. You can try activation again later or go to the Store to buy genuine Windows. Error code: 0xC004F025", which seems to be a generic "it won't activate" error code.
I started the Troubleshooter > "We weren't able to activate Windows on this device" > I changed hardware on this device recently > Reactive Windows 10 screen > my "previous" PC appears and I check the "This is the device I'm using right now" box > Activate > We can't reactivate Windows on this device. Try again later.
It also kindly suggests to me again to "just purchase another copy of Windows since our service is failing". Ridiculous.
If I go to my Windows account online > Devices, it says that I have 2 devices attached to my account, both named the exact same thing (since it's the same PC with different hardware). The activation troubleshooter tries to reactive the Windows license for the "old" PC and the "new" version of that same PC doesn't appear in the troubleshooter at all. I am logged into my Microsoft account on the NEW version of the PC. I have tried to log in an out to see if it would register, nothing. Both PCs show they have Windows 10 Home Version 1809 installed.
The issue here is obviously that for whatever reason the activation troubleshooter isn't offering me the option to choose the "current" PC that I'm using despite that it's registered to my Microsoft account, and that my hardware changes were apparently drastic enough to disjoint the Windows service from realizing this is the same installation as before on new hardware.
I haven't contacted support about the License issue so far, because the Live Chat support option has seemingly disappeared from the Contact Us page and been replaced with a bot that gives me a phone number for a 40-50 hour waiting list to get to some Indian woman that sits silently as I explain the issue to her and then doesn't say anything for 5 minutes straight as she tries to process my problem in her head because NO, the outsourced CS people AREN'T EQUIPPED TO HANDLE THESE ISSUES.
Honestly, I'd love to just speak to someone that actually has the tools to resolve a single issue or understand that maybe something went wrong with whatever system or account server that handles these things.
Continue reading...