importing photos from cell phone with Winows Essentials on Windows 10

I have 3 pcs that have been upgraded to Windows 10.  I am having difficulty importing photos from my cell phone.  In looking at the Microsoft Support site, it appears that many people are having the same problem.  All of my pcs recognize the device I am trying to import from.  I have tried both Windows 10 Photos and Windows Live Photo Gallery with no success.  I get 2 error messages.  "We couldn't find anything to import from that device" or "No photos or videos were found on this device".  I chatted for 3 hours with a Microsoft agent.  She convinced me to invest in a $149.00 Microsoft Answer Desk Assure subscription.  After I agreed, she took control of my pc and reinstalled drivers.  During the process she had to restart my pc and the chat connection was broken.  She called me and reestablished the link.  After performing more work, she had to restart the pc a second time.  The chat link was again broken and I never heard back from the agent.  I called the answer desk this morning and established another chat.  This agent informed me that Windows Essentials was no longer supported and that I should look to the community for support.  That is what I'm doing now.  I'm sure that this problem is not unusual and all I need is a list of steps that need to be taken to get Windows 10 to work with Windows Essentials.  Is there anyone out there that can help me with this issue?  Thanks.