MS: Please add a Groove support section

[Sly]

What are your Groove customers supposed to do with at this point? The product
documentation has innacurate support and help information, the versioning
poorly managed across your sites (update linking to groove.net installs
different version instead of updating as advised on the site), and there's no
concrete way to submit a serious bug or contact Groove's support personnel
(free or paid).

Groove 2007 being part of office, I believe users would hope to see some
support backing on MS's part.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...-939483df2db8&dg=microsoft.public.office.misc

 

[JoAnn Paules]

microsoft.public.groove

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Sly]

Thanks, JoAnn. Pardon my bluntness, but would you honestly say that's the
best way a paying customer should get a resolution to a production problem?
People paid for the software and expect it to be supported to some extent;
this is not some shareware app off the web.

 

[JoAnn Paules]

You are more than welcome to call Microsoft but you will pay big time for
the tech support. Or you can post your questions in the newsgroups and
perhaps get a response for free. Your choice.

--

JoAnn Paules
Microsoft MVP - Publisher

How to ask a question
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Sly]

If my opinion counts for anything as a customer, I think that is a bit of an
extreme business model. I believe users understand they shouldn't expect to
be trained, but this is a technical issue related to a product in GA that's
part of Office 2007. Did I somehow read that wrong?

I wouldn't mind paying for support at all if a resolution was guaranteed,
but the level of Groove expertise I've witnessed so far is not enough to
convince me to bite the bullet and pay just to "give it a try". I've wasted
enough time and resources just locating someone that would respond to a
serious techical support issue, which you were kind enough to do to some
avail and I sincerely appreciate it.

Don't get me wrong, Groove really is a fantastic product, but your support
organization seems to have dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Mary Sauer]

There are support documents on the Microsoft web site. Good demo's too.
Microsoft Office Groove 2007
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/FX100487641033.aspx

Your help files are very extensive.

 

[The Suite]

Hi Sly,

I seriously agree with you on the "dropping the ball" issue. The basic
support infrastructure is not available to you and moving new customers over
to this new awesome product is overshaddowed by Microsoft's lack of that
basic support infrastructure for the product.

Microsoft needs to re-evaluate the product offerings and support model for
them. The newsgroup setting doesn't work for everyone especially the C-level
executives who will sign off and approve of this product.

~Brett A. Scudder~

 

[Sly]

Mary, as I said earlier, I'm not talking about training users. I'm talking
about supporting them with important technical issues.

Regarding your help file, here's a couple of examples of not-so-helpful
support info:
- clicking Help > Check for Updates (this installs Virtual Office version
3.1 that corrupts your Office Groove 2007 installation)
- To send customer feedback to Microsoft, select Help-Customer Feedback
Options... and select options in the Service Options dialog box. (option
doesn't even exit in Help menu)

I've posted on just about every Groove forum on your website. I still didn't
get a real acknowledgement of the issue, or seen an effort to address it.