I used to be big on using pirated software. But I work in the computer industry. I don’t want people pirating my work. And so I’m 100% legal software these days. But now I feel like I am being pushed back to piracy again.
I build my own computers. And when I built my last one, I purchased a legal OEM copy of Windows 7. A little while ago, I zotzed out my motherboard by doing something so stupid that I’m not going to tell you about it. Take it as played that I did something really stupid. It short-circuited several of the ports on the board. For awhile I was doing work-arounds but this past week I got tired of that and went out and bought a new motherboard.
One day after getting the system up and running, I get a message on screen that I need to reactivate my software. Okay. I type in the license key. After a few minutes, back to screen 1. So I type it in again. Again, nothing. So I select the option for using the automated phone system for activation. Then the screen spits out at me nine six-digit numbers.
I call the phone number. I punch in all 54 numbers. I get a message telling me that the software has previously been activated and I get switched to a person. I explain the situation to the person and, unfortunately, I was honest. She tells me that since I have the OEM version and since I switched motherboards and since the motherboard is a different brand and model from the previous motherboard, I am screwed.
I say to her, as calmly as I can, that it’s the same CPU, same memory chips, same hard disk, same case, same user. She says maybe they can make a “special case” for me. I have to email in my information including, get this, a photo of the label with the product key. They will get back to me in one day to let me know if they can make a “special case” for me.
Let’s see what happens next …
UPDATE:
Yes, I know, it’s just a coincidence, but just minutes after sending my email to Microsoft, I received this in my inbox: ”Your email has been awarded Ł750,000 for being a regular user from microsoft/msn PROMO 2011 in London.”
If only life really worked that way!
UPDATE UPDATE
So this morning Microsoft emailed me a new activation key. But this whole experience just goes to show how customer unfocused Microsoft is. Probably a bit more on this later, might do a post on the Steve Jobs book soon since I’ll finish it today.
