Funny and Humorous Technical Support Tales and Stories

I do sympathize with you Tech gurus when I read your stories but I think it's time you see the other size. I consider myself a user with intermediate knowledge but frustrated by the poor support I receive when I ask Tech sites for assistance. My Windows 10 Dell PC has been getting slower and often get error messages that I don't understand so I decided to download a fresh copy of Windows 10 with the choice of 'saving my files'. Knew that it would remove 3rd party programs but didn't know it would also remove Windows programs as well. So after about a 2hour re-install I found that all my Office 2016 programs were gone. Since these were purchased and pre-installed from Dell (and you don't get the installation disks any more) I went onto the Dell Chat line for help. After a 1/2 hour of I'll help you and delayed responses, I was told that since my warranty had long expired, I could buy a full extended warranty for 349-, a shorter plan for 249- and finally when I protested, a one off plan for 129-. I refused all. I then googled and found what I thought was a Microsoft site which turned out to be a 3rd party disguised as Microsoft. They were willing to help but after another 1/2 hour, they needed to 'bump' it up to a higher level for 99.99. Again I refused since I felt somewhat misled. I then googled Microsoft chat line and after they also wanted to charge me, the person suggested I go into my Microsoft Account which when I did, I found the download link for the Office 2016 programs that I had purchased.

I downloaded all successfully but found out with Outlook 2016 that all my subfolders had disappeared- fortunately I had exported those to an external drive and spent about an hour importing these back. However, Outlook would not connect to my Comcast email account. So... I called Comcast Tech Support twice who verified my settings and I could send but not receive mail. Comcast said it was a Microsoft problem. So once again I went onto the Microsoft Chat line. Finally found someone who was willing to 'logmein' and found that one setting was incorrect. Now ok.

Next to re-install BitDefender, again this was downloaded on purchase. Contacted their chat line and they wanted to charge me for a higher end tech at about 100-. Finally, she told me where to go into my online account to do it myself which I did successfully.

Thus 3 days and countless hours spent on this, I am finally back in operation. No user who has previously paid for these programs should have to go through this nightmare