Well, this isn't going to be a long post, but I recently had an experience at work that enlightened me to just how good the Support @ Microsoft really is.
A Little Bit of Background
Well, a little bit of history on this topic. At work, it's kind of a tradition, as it probably is at many organizations, that when someone leaves their screen unlocked that you change their desktop wallpaper and lock their computer for them, just to kind of remind them that they forgot to lock their screen, and comically embarrass them a bit.
Well, there's a new guy at work, he's been there about 3 months, and he has a bad habit of leaving his screen unlocked. Well, naturally, someone changed his wallpaper, to a picture of a Shirtless David Hasselhoff lifting weights, and tiled it across both his screens.
Well, needless to say this was quite humorous, and naturally he laughed and logged back into his computer. He then proceeded to change his wallpaper back to what it was.
To his dismay, for some reason whenever he locked his screen, it still showed the tiled picture of the hoff across his desktop, despite changing his wallpaper.
What to do?
Well, what any usual course of action to combat the Hoff invasion, you'd have expected his first move to do some google searches to see what needed to be done to change this back. Well, he had another idea. That's right, he decided he'd skip the googling and go straight to the source of the problem. He emailed support@microsoft.com as follows:
Dear Microsoft,
Recently, my wallpaper was changed to a tiled picture of a shirtless David Hasselhoff. After changing my desktop picture, I have noticed that my lockscreen still displays the Hoff, and he’s still shirtless. How did it get stuck there?
Did windows recognize the Hoff and decide that it liked it so much that it should remain my lockscreen background forever? Is this some undocumented feature of Windows Server 2003?
Any information on the subject would be greatly appreciated.
And he blind CC'D most of the dev's at the company. It was freakin' hillarious. He did eventually figure out how to get rid of the Hoff. However, this is not the end of my little tale. See the best part, is the fact that in under 24 hours, Microsoft sent him a response!
Hello _______,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft Customer Service.
I understand from your e-mail that you are unable to change the wallpaper on your Windows Server 2003 computer.
There are several ways to obtain support:
You may search for self-help articles to resolve your issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/ph/3198
You may also post your issue in the Microsoft newsgroups:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/bb430837.aspx
If the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 came from your computer manufacturer, they are your primary option for support:
http://www.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=oemphone
_______, you may also work with a Microsoft Support Professional via e-mail, telephone, and for some products, chat to resolve your issue. Please select the appropriate edition of Windows Server 2003 from the below link to contact the Support Professional. Depending on how you obtained your software, there may be fees to use the Assisted Support option: https://support.microsoft.com/oas/default.aspx?ln=en-us&x=14&y=13&c1=508&gprid=3198&&st=1
I hope the issue is resolved soon and appreciate your patience.
Thank you,
Sandeep
Microsoft Customer Service Representative
If you have any feedback about your Online Customer Service experience, please send it to my manager, Harpreet Singh, by clicking the link below. Please be sure to include the name of my manager in the subject field.
Now that's what I call impecible customer service! I must say, with confidence this is a definate WIN for Microsoft!