wagnerblog.com

I can see why more and more developers refuse to deal with Microsoft and turn to open source tools. Today I had a first rate experience with MS corporate nonsense. As you may know, for almost a year I have been back in the world of software consulting. We have done really well in this time and delivered a number of nice projects for companies like Chevron, Kaiser, NxTV and more.

Recently I became interested in furthering our marketing and educational goals by joining the Microsoft Partner Program. On the surface this seemed like a good idea. Any small business can stand some help from larger manufacturers, especially when that business is reselling technology of that large corp. Its a nice symbioses when it works.  (Please note that you need a MS Live ID to access the site)

As a Partner organization, one of the most appealing benefits was the availability of bundled software for the purpose of testing and in-house development. Its called the Action Pack. When I called to obtain a license for this Action Pack I entered the ninth circle of hell - namely Customer Support.

For some reason MS has a requirement that every company that signs up for the Action Pack needs to watch some form of training video and take an assessment exam. No problem - lets do the quickest one because time is money. Lets do the 30 min presentation on Expression Web.

No dice.

When I navigated to the assessment page it wasn’t working. Three calls to the support line at the Partners Program resulted in more frustration . I wasted almost two hours on something that should be a no-brainer and just work.

Support personnel didn’t even have the most basic answers. When I asked them why Microsoft makes you watch a novice level 30 minute video, in order to obtain sever software that requires years of experience, nobody had an answer. 

At some point I asked for a supervisor. “Oh they can’t talk to you, they are busy on other calls.” I left my number and was assured someone would get back to me. When asked how long I would have to wait the answer was - you guessed it - “Oh I don’t know…. I don’t know how long their call is”. 

I have yet to hear back and its been about five hours. That’s some darn long call those supervisors are on ! Probably another ticked off customer.

The only reason support personnel can act this ignorant and lazy is because management allows this.

I have for many many years held the position that most developer certification programs are absolute bogus. My experience with the MS Partner Program is really starting to remind me of the cert system. Its leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

Maybe someone at the Partner Program comes across this post and cares enough to answer. 

UPDATE: I went back to the site and tried the ASP.NET exam. That one worked. Without needing to see any video one could start the assessment. I still don’t get the value of having people answer “How do you tell VS Express to use a different page than default.aspx as start up ” in order to qualify for server software. I still hope someone from the Partner Program reads this and hopefully calls whatever manager is responsible for Customer Service on the carpet.