I am finding Microsoft a complete shambles. Yesterday, 07/10/2013 my hotmail account alleged that it was being hacked by another user, and wanted proof that I was the rightful owner. Unfortunately, I had not updated my secondary account after changing my ISP, and any codes sent by Microsoft were being forwarded to a none existent address. Obviously I can't change the secondary address because I cant access my hotmail account. Chicken and egg. So I filled in as much information on Microsoft's online form as I can possibly remember to try and get the account back in service, unfortunately it wasn't good enough for Microsoft, and after 3 attempts shut down for 24 hours. Dutifully filled in a fourth attempt.

 

At the same time tried to phone Microsoft, and what a total waste of time that is. Call centres cut off, as they are instructional only, and eventually the most appalling telephone connection to someone foreign, God knows where, that I could only discern every odd word. Total disgrace on Microsofts part as far I am concerned. 

 

The fourth attempt has now raised the following response:

 

Your security is important to us
Recently, we received several requests to gain access to   (my email address removed).com.  Unfortunately, we were unable to verify your ownership using the information that was provided. Microsoft takes the security and privacy of our customers very seriously. We are committed to protecting your personal information, and our careful account recovery process is intended to protect you from any possible malicious activity.

Now what?
Because there have been multiple unsuccessful recovery attempts for this account, we recommend at this point that you create a new account. It's quick and easy, and we have tools to help you import contacts, connect with Facebook, and even receive messages from multiple email accounts.

     > Open a new account

With a new account, you’ll be able to use the following services across all of your devices:

  • Best-in-class email with unlimited storage at lightning speed and serious security.
  • Stay connected with friends and family, see social updates and chat with Facebook friends, and make ordinary moments memorable with video calls.
  • Free online storage for thousands of docs and photos, shared your way.

 

 

Well, put simply, I want my hotmail account reinstated. It contains essential emails and contacts some going back over 15 years. It is a sheer disgrace that Microsoft has such an inadequate customer services facility that cannot even respond to a phone call with an intelligible phone line, and some constructive help.

 

I look forward to their - or someone elses - response and assistance, I guess somehow that I am not the only one in this position.

 

FrustratedMicrosoftUser895 

    I have been unable to send or receive e-mails for 4 days now and no one at Microsoft has been able to answer my question and they keep referring me to other sites or tech desks without any answers coming forward and I keep going around in circles.  The error codes are shown above.  Can anyone help me bearing in mind I am a novice computer user?
    Since sometime after Microsoft merged with Skype, when I am accessing SkyDrive.com and working on documents, I notice notifications for incoming Skype IMs.

    While working, in particular, in a OneNote document, I cannot see a way to acknowledge, see, or dismiss the notification.  It just flashes in the tab.  The words in the tab for this open web page alternate between the name of the Notebook I'm working on, and the words "2 New IMs"

    I find this constant flashing distracting, and would really like to turn it off.  But when the only SkyDrive tab you have open is one where you're working in a OneNote document, there is nowhere you can click to either go invisible, or see the messages.

    If notifications are going to show themselves on a given page, then there needs to also be an interface on that page to deal with them.

    Thank you,
    Sandra
    After three days, contacted Brian, X119, at Microsoft about my lost e-mails and all my folders are now empty losing a tremendous amount of information and attachments.   I was initially told for $300 Microsoft could fix this and then the discounted price of $150 was offered and I was sent to a company called FastFix.  They could not fix anything and said the Microsoft servers went down and they lost all the information.  All that was recovered was the folder titles and a few e-mails.  The problem is Microsoft and the added fun was Fastfix said they had nothing to do with the Microsoft servers going down but, for $100 they could clean out my computer but do nothing with the e-mail folders.  Fastfix sent a receipt immediately and then indicated it would take 3-5 business days to refund the money.  A perfect business model in which Microsoft blows up their clients e-mails and then feeds money to their contractors to fix.  No wonder people buy Macs.

     

    The entire story about why the folders were empty was nothing but Microsoft baloney.

    Another week has started in Australia and as expected still no response from Microsoft support. Microsoft has shut down my Skydrive account as previously described in other posts and requests for help from the community. Microsoft have stolen my photos. Microsoft appear to have access to our Skydrive accounts. I have received private messages from the community which I am grateful to receive but in reality offer no help or answers and appear not to have any association with Microsoft or they would answer questions and get stuff back for us. Do Microsoft read our text messages, view our MMSs,?  Here is a response to a private message I received from a community Moderator,  mainly out of frustration with their advice of communicating with Microsoft from the Support page and telling me that although they know why the account is closed they can't discuss the matter with me.. I send a message to Microsoft every night. They never answer. Nothing in my automatic uploads should have been cause to shut down my account. How would Microsoft know the content anyway unless they are viewing our private property. MICROSOFT HAS STOLEN MY PHOTOS.  My response to the moderator :-   Thankyou for responding to me. I am trying to be polite here and failing. I have sent messages from the site that appears from the link you provided somewhere in the vicinity of 8 times in the last 10 days. Since no record of messages appears in email outbox or sent items there is no way to know if the messages even go anywhere. I don't understand the term "Since we cannot discuss the reason behind this". Why can't you? What is this, a secret society? You people astonish me. You send out lovely messages of welcome. People faced with the most frustrating situations turn to you for help and open up the site and there are pretty pictures of happy people smiling at us. You present a picture of help and assistance, but what do you actually do? My time is valuable so I haven't read all the questions posted to the community but I've read a few and I feel for these people. You people never actually answer anything. One of the more interesting posts came from a professional photographer concerned about inadvertent and unmonitorable uploads and in consequence the closing down of his account, just as we are now going through, with the potential loss of massive amounts of photos and he receives a private answer to his dilemma following which he posts a flowery statement to the net singing Microsofts praises. Rubbish. Publish the private message for us all to read. I have turned to the community for help and to receive the advice to contact support through the link you left just isn't good enough. I message them every night. they do not respond. Microsoft don't give a stuff about anyone. ( I nearly used the F word. Whoaee, you could have really shut me down then). You contact them on my behalf and see if you get a response. My next contact will be to Australian Consumer Affairs and the Australian Federal Police. Microsoft have stolen my photos, have invaded my privacy by viewing content belonging to me stored in the cloud. You yourself by your refusal to discuss the matter with me have indicated that you have access to my private property. I have text messages with private residence details, Bank account details, credit card numbers all saved automatically to the cloud. What I was led to believe was my own private and personal storage and backup facility. I feel invaded. MICROSOFT HAVE STOLEN MY PHOTOS. MICROSOFT HAVE STOLEN MY PHOTOS. John Quintal MICROSOFT HAS STOLEN MY PHOTOS. 
    Hi i have a domian registered to *** Email address is removed for privacy *** but as this is my personal one i want to change it to *** Email address is removed for privacy *** whixh i have created.

    but everytime i go to register the domain i get the following error

    This domain name can't be used with Admin Center because it's already registered with Microsoft. If you own this domain and want assistance please contact support.


    I received a reply from Microsoft to my original question (below) but cannot reply to it, they sent me a link to reset my password which puts me straight back into the same circle of issues

     

    "A few days back my 13 year old son had problems logging into his xbox live account on his xbox 360. We have tried logging onto his account *** Email address is removed for privacy *** using a PC and eventually asked for a password reset. We received the link but it results in a temporary service error. We have tried this on a different PC and cleared the cache but it's still not working after several attemps. We also filled in online recovery request form and this sent a link which again did not work. The password reset will work with another email address"

    Skydrive has not synced in about a week.  I don't know why.  I'm not getting any messages that would explain it.  It is syncing if I go to skydrive.com and sign in but I can't edit the files in Micorsoft applications.  It is not synced when I enter Skydrive using the desktop icon from when I got the Microsoft apps.  Should I uninstall the Microsoft apps and re-install?