Your alternative number for microsoft support was in fact for a company called I-yokie, who charged me £29.99 for advice, and tried first to sell a full year's troubleshooting cover. The advice worked, although I hadn't expected to be forking out at all.

Sad to say but these days you don't get nothin' for FREE.

Still, you got what you paid for & they fixed your problem !  ::)

I should have mentioned the number. It's 0800 6359644. So: not Microsoft.

But this was a FREEFONE number so it cost you nothing to call !?

They did give you support for Microsoft operating systems didn't they !?

And if you sign up to their annual support plan, it would still cost you nothing to call them on the 0800 !?

I'm not quite sure why but are you complaining that you didn't get what you wanted, needed or paid for, or was it that we gave you the wrong number to call for Microsoft technical support !?  :-/

Yup, that's the one. I would have preferred to get Microsoft. It was a simple question about a simple problem and I could have done without I-yokie's hard-selling techniques. The trouble with Microsoft, though, is that they seem permanently out to lunch.

Sounds like Microsoft to me. Probably explains why their OS is rubbish :D

Sorry but Microsoft are PERMANENTLY out to lunch !! If you ever get a return call you'll be lucky.
Did you try ringing  the numbers in Eire. I had more luck with those getting a human contact but again I still got a link to the Knowledgebase. That fixed my problem so I've no problem. It was just that when I searched there for the problem, I couldn't find it.

As for emails - all that they will do is answer your email (maybe!) again with a link to the Knowledgebase. There aren't many problems they haven't come across before.

The alternative is paying someone at £1.50/min for help. Don't you think that the annual support charge to this company works out A LOT cheaper than that ??   :-/