Seeking Live Support

Question

I have been an MS Word and Office Owner/Renter/User since the FIRST issuance of MS Word that came with a serial card and a mouse. This was for a DOS based computer. Since then, I have spent enough money with MS to buy an airplane. I want to speak or chat with someone at MS who can help me resolve an issue. IS this no longer possible? IF not, my only option is to cancel Office 365 and utilize another software set. At nearly 70 years old, I feel most abused by Microsoft (and Apple...but that's not your problem).

Answer 1

In the beginning, when DOS was on diskettes and came with a printed user manual on a ring binder, and even afterward, it was possible to contact Microsoft employees directly. Those days are long over. Today more than a billion people all over the world use Microsoft products, and it would take many thousands of Microsoft employees to handle even a tiny fraction of that many phone calls or chat sessions on a daily basis.

Today, there are a vast number of user community forums - like Microsoft Q&A - as well as local user groups, teachers, the internet, courses, artificial intelligence (I have a subscription to ChatGPT), PC repair services, books and professional technicians that can help people with their computer problems.

For its part, Microsoft does contract with a number of third-party companies to answer phone calls and respond to chats, but there area limited number of these people, so they can be hard to reach, and Microsoft can't vouch for what they tell you.

If you're pretty good at writing, which you certainly seem to be, I suggest describing your problem to a user community. You could do worse than to ask here in Microsoft Q&A. For people who are not good at expressing themselves in writing, I always suggest they find someone local whom they can talk to.

[I remember when Microsoft would update their user manuals by sending out new pages for the ring binder.]

Answer 2

1

If you are using Microsoft 365 (Office) on a Windows device, please provide full details on the problem you are experiencing with the Office apps and a screenshot of any error you are seeing, or is this a Microsoft 365 subscription problem that you need to resolve with Microsoft support?

2

If you are using the Office apps on an Apple Mac computer:

What version of Microsoft Office do you have, is that a subscription to Microsoft 365 or a standalone version of Office like Office 2019, 2021 or 2024.

At the top left of your Desktop, click the Apple icon and select 'About this Mac', what version of MacOS is installed on your computer?