"Microsoft quietly raised last week its per-incident support prices across the board for Windows and Office. Support for Windows XP and Windows Vista now costs USD 59 per incident. Prior to the Vista launch, the per-incident support price for Windows was USD 39. Vista users get their first 90 days of support for no charge. Support for Office XP and Office 2007 now goes for USD 49 per incident, compared to USD 35 per incident prior to the January 30 Windows Vista/Office 2007 retail launch. Office 2007 users also get their first 90 days of support for free."
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Member since:2005-07-06
"This way we can make even more money by selling a defective product."
I was waiting for a comment like this to appear on this thread, lo and behold it was the second one.
MS doesn't make any money from their consumer level support; it's a huge cost center for them and they actually lose money every time they answer a support call which is why they push their online no cost support options so hard (newsgroups, KB's, etc).
When I worked in PSS back in '02, average cost per call was over 500 bucks (factor in employee salary, infrastructure costs, etc and it shouldn't be hard to see why).
The OEM's are worthless and usually push off calls to MS in the end anyways. Regardless, that 60 bucks guarantees you a solution, or you get a refund. Turns out to be a legitimate bug? Refund.
*yawn*
Member since:2006-06-02
The cost for support is part of what the consumer pays for, it is the cost of doing business. The consumer also pays for Mr. Gates foundation as well as MS employee salaries. Consumers pay for all this along with the privilage of spending large sums of money for buggy software. OEM's are worhless because they push off calls to MS because of software issues? MS fanboys are annoying enough, but MS shills are elitist snobs.
After the "free" support period is over, consumers can of course choose to pay 60 bucks per call, or find another source of support or education. So be it, but I would think that MS would be more interested in solidifying a warm and friendly relationship with their customers duirng a time when the competiton is growing and doing a far better job with satisfying their respective customers.
Member since:
2005-09-18
Imagine the conversation that prompted this:
Microsoft employee: Linux is now a direct competitor. Look how much redhat charges for support, we can now raise our prices while appearing equally competitive.
Microsoft executive: Sounds like a great idea. This way we can make even more money by selling a defective product.
But this is somewhat misleading because most people get support from their OEM who may not charge anything at all, as long as you continue using Microsoft-only products. I recall a fun chat I had with off-shore support because I could not access safe mode with FreeBSD's boot0: "do you know how to reinstall windows?" I'm just hoping that the premium paid by RHEL users who require support translates to better service.