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Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

kolemcrae.com

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Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#51

Post by legohead »

Funny to see this thread after what's happening to me today.

I need to get access to my Microsoft Office online documents. I go to login and it has me do a security check with my email: microsoft@mydomain.com. It's supposed to send a code to verify my email, but I never get it. So I try option 2, a different email: microsoft@myotherdomain.com. Never get the code...

Hmm, does it not like the word microsoft? So I try myname@mydomain.com, and I get the code! Although now I have to answer a bunch of questions and my account is under review -- I should get an answer within 24 hours.

But what about the future? My real account is still microsoft@mydomain.com. Will this keep happening? :\

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#52

Post by ArmandGrillet »

Microsoft truly sucks with account management. Here is what happened to me with Microsoft Office last week:

- My Office University account expires.

- My father invites me to be part of his Office 365 Family subscription (it includes 5 accounts).

- I click on the "Get the invite" button on the email I have received and... "You already have an active account".

There was no way from the website to cancel my expired University account, the only available option was to subscribe to my own Office 365 Personal account (€10/month).

I have contacted Microsoft and it took 90 minutes of chat, including a one hour session where a Microsoft support guy took control of my computer (it was totally useless, the error has been solved by a modification in the Microsoft account database), to fix the issue. As titled here: this is insane.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#53

Post by bsg75 »

> Let me change my Skype username. What the hell, this is just obvious.

The number of services that don't allow this is also insane. Its as if they use the username itself as a key, rather than one that is masked from the user allowing such changes.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#54

Post by josefresco »

badthingfactory wrote: post #5

It looks like [email] is used with more than one account. Which account do you want to use? - Work or school account - Personal account I get this prompt every time I try to log into Azure with my work email. If I choose the work account (the most intuitive option) my azure subscription list is empty. I have to log out and select the other option. Why is there a difference and why isn't this transparent? I am authent…

Google does the same thing when a customer previously used their own "branded" email for Google services, and then switches to use G Suite (formally Google Apps).

Every login will prompt to select the organizational account, or the personal account.

Not sure why only MS is being called out for it ... they probably modeled their system after Google.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#55

Post by orbitingpluto »

philliphaydon wrote: post #32

As much as I dislike Google services. Their account stuff just works. For everything they create. It just works. I love MS stuff, but they have the worst account process ever, closely followed by Apple. I do wish MS would sort their act out in regards to accounts. I lost my Xbox account trying to transfer my games and such between my windows live account and an old account. Lost my games and points and credits :(

Not entirely true. I've seen issues with Google's G Suite / Google Apps for Work and Google+. Things like your co-workers avatar being displayed instead of your own.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#56

Post by arkitaip »

stretchwithme wrote: post #27

Don't get me started. I once subscribed to Office and am pretty sure I had to supply my first and last name once if not multiple times. But the final confirmation email still started with "Dear null null".

Serves you right, little Bobby Tables.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#58

Post by Maarten88 »

teekert wrote: post #21

Try using Skype for business... Your chat history is gone when you switch to another app and is not even saved on a PC. It's always the question if a chat ends up on your laptop of mobile. You frequently miss chats or have a "you missed a chat" email, even though you were logged in. It is an insanely poor product. I guess it's not where their focus is. It could easily be a Slack alternative except that it is so bad.

My Skype for Businesses conversation history automatically goes in an Outlook/Exchange folder, so it never gets lost and I can search it. It's possible that our IT has configured this, but it has always worked like that for me, I think even since it was called LCS 2003.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#59

Post by bpicolo »

Google drive also has extremely frustrating multi-login issues. It frequently forces me to log out of all accounts in order to correctly access drive on a specific one. It's entirely random whether it works or not. It's just infuriating.

Re: Microsoft: You need to fix your Skype and Microsoft account issues, this is insane

#60

Post by klodolph »

josefresco wrote: post #54
badthingfactory wrote: post #5

It looks like [email] is used with more than one account. Which account do you want to use? - Work or school account - Personal account I get this prompt every time I try to log into Azure with my work email. If I choose the work account (the most intuitive option) my azure subscription list is empty. I have to log out and select the other option. Why is there a difference and why isn't this transparent? I am authent…

Google does the same thing when a customer previously used their own "branded" email for Google services, and then switches to use G Suite (formally Google Apps). Every login will prompt to select the organizational account, or the personal account. Not sure why only MS is being called out for it ... they probably modeled their system after Google.

That's not what Google does. (Edit: It sounds like Google used to do this. I switched to G Suite very recently and did not end up with an account in this state.) If you have an existing joe@example.com Google account and then sign up for G Suite as the owner of example.com, what happens is the old joe@example.com account gets divorced from its email and given a new temporary name. You can then change it to a new @gmail.com but that change is permanent.

Unfortunately you cannot merge. Google services will have an option to switch between the different accounts. The priority order is shared, and to change the order you have to log out of all your accounts and log in again, with the primary account first. I decided to keep my @gmail.com account first, so I only have to switch to the @example.com account when I check GMail.

Could be much better, of course. I was personally a bit frustrated with the process.

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