Pirated Copy XP Pro, Help Please

Here in Thailand there is no support from Microsoft, no return calls, no knowledgeable staff.

I decided to take up Microsoft on their "amnesty" offer and ordered a legal copy of XP Pro from the Singapore office.

A little background!!!
Here in Thailand we have a lot of internet access problems, slow, up & down slow etc: we also have a lot of problems with spy ware and viruses.

I loaded the "Legal Copy" on my computer and things went as well as it could, just a few hitches.

over the next 4 months I changed computers and H.D. 4 times due to failures, electrical Failures and hardware failures and once because I wanted a new Motherboard.

Each time I had to reload my "Legal Copy" of windows (on the same computer) or a different computer after removing the program from the old H.D.

Now I went to reload my "Legal Copy" again and the message came back that I had loaded windows to many times. Call Microsoft Support, well not from Thailand as I tried this on several occasions and it cost a fortune and I was on hold and had to hang up.

So I put my Old Copy version back and it works fine as it did before I tried to become legal.

I paid Microsoft over $200 USD for the "Legal Copy" of XP Pro.

I have tried to contact Microsoft at the e mail address on the receipt, there has been no response, or acknowledgment, as usual from Microsoft.

I am completely happy with my Copy, it works and is stable, just can't upgrade to IE7 , but I have Firefox!!!!

I do want my $200 USD back as I have a product that does not work and was designed to fail after a predetermined amount of installs.

What I want to know is how I can get Microsoft to either fix my "Legal Version" permanently or send me my $200 USD back.

Here we can not get support for most programs, and they are overpriced for 90% of the population, $200 USD is almost 2 months salary for most people in S.E. Asia.

For me it is no problem, but with no support and at full price, you can understand why pirated software is so popular.

Can anyone tell me how to contact someone at Microsoft about my problem and get some satisfaction.

Thank You

Farang, An American in Thailand

 

Hi farang and welcome!

I guess you'll just have to move back to America so you can join the rest of us people who are mistreated by MicroSoft. We also have to pay for toll charges for any help we get. and yes, I think that stinks.

That's how it is in the good ol' U.S.A. also.

That sounds like you may have been beating the system up until now.

Join the crowd there, we all have our problems in that area.

I think that's standard treatment so we can all expect that.

I suppose the bottom line may be, we all get treated the same by MicroSoft but you happen to live farther away and the toll calls are a problem. I don't know anyone who can help you with that. It's too bad there isn't a local MicroSoft facility there in Thailand. Maybe next year. If it's any consolation to you, someone in Thailand will probably soon duplicate the product and then one up it and sell it for less, so stay tuned for that. That's the way the Japanese and Chinese did when they entered the global market. As you are finding out, it may take longer to pull Bill Gates down that it did Henry Ford though. Bill seems to be smarter than average. I've had little luck beating his protective system.

 

I'll assume Google is still reaching all the way to Thailand. Although I'd love to give you a little script to run from a command prompt and a registry edit that will permit you to replace your illegal key with your legal key, the rules of this board don't permit that.

Before you get too excited, this isn't necessarily going to get you past activation, but it will give you an option to handle this problem online as opposed to on the phone. So, unless "the Woz" can send you a Blue Box to circumvent the phone charges, you might want to see what Google can do for you.

As to guidance on getting your money back - you said you used the software, no? Let us know if you get it figured out and Good Luck.

 

Thanks for the help and advice

Thanks guys, makes me get a warm fuzzy feeling about Microsoft.

It is not bad using the copy, just inconvenient at times.

If your are ever in Thailand let me know

Thanks

Farang

 

Have you tried the online chat route? I've never tried it so I can't tell you how it all works but it might be looking into. The page I've linked to below allows you to choose the country you're in and then find out what's all available for support. The only problem is, to get English you have to select US or another English speaking country and I suppose that info won't necessarilly be correct for Thailand. However, if you can read their language or can get somebody to do it for you, Thailand is in the list. It shows the options available to you, the cost, etc. You get unlimited free support in the US for installation problems and 2 free support sessions for other problems. I can't see why it should be any different there. I see there's an 800 telephone number on the Thai page but I don't know what it's all about. There is an icon for signing into Windows Live on the page so I take it the live chat thing may be available to you. If you haven't tried this route yet, it might be something worth looking into.

http://support.microsoft.com/common/international.aspx?RDPATH=dm;en-us;select&target=assistance

 

Microsoft Customer Support

Send emails that you are interested in upgrading to Microsoft Vista . Which version is correct for me ? Tell them you are calling from Romania:

http://www.itweek.co.uk/vnunet/news/2174068/piracy-helped-gates-told

At least the level of concern for their customer and customer support is at a better level than ebay

or: try http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/d...6&WT.mc_id=0107_47&wt_svl=20107a&mg_id=20107b