No phone support for Entourage's end of the Exchange support

[ramatsu]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: intel
Email Client: Exchange

I have a problem with Entourage's Exchange connection that is not covered in the forums (I'll post it separately), and am really upset to discover that Entourage phone support does not include any aspect of the Exchange connection, even reviewing what the settings should be in the Account dialog box.

I can understand that many if not most Entourage/Exchange issues will be Exchange server setup issues, and the Entourage group can't support those. But this is a situation where our Exchange connection was working fine with Entourage 2004, then suddenly isn't with 2008. So something unique to 2008 has broken our connection. Our user who is still on 2004 is not having problems.

I was told on the phone that other than rebuilding the database and setting up the account in a new identity, Entourage support can't touch anything having to do with Exchange.

The retail cost difference between Home edition that doesn't include Exchange support, and the regular one that does, is $250. Other than some Automator actions, there is no other difference between the packages. So most everyone buying the regular edition is pretty much paying $250 for Exchange support.

It seems outrageous that this $250 feature does not include any technical support at all. Again, I don't expect them to troubleshoot my ISP's Exchange Server. But I do expect them to be able to tell me what the settings in Entourage should be, and to know what the common issues are that might cause a breakdown. But they are not allowed to even discuss it.

Also, it would be awfully nice if Microsoft would publish a list of certified partners who offer Exchange Server hosting support and support Entourage.

As it current sits, I am using a Microsoft email client to connect to a Microsoft email server, but Microsoft can't give me any help in getting them to work. I could talk to advanced support for a couple hundred dollars, but we don't manage the Exchange server, our provider does. (Their support is in India and not only doesn't know anything about Entourage, they actually don't know anything about Exchange - they are clearly reading from a knowledgebase.)

I know- I need a new provider. But I have no way of knowing the next one I try will be any better, since Microsoft won't give me some love with an Entourage-savvy partner recommendation.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I have a problem with Entourage's Exchange connection that is not
covered in the forums (I'll post it separately), and am really upset to
discover that Entourage phone support does not include any aspect of the
Exchange connection, even reviewing what the settings should be in the
Account dialog box.

MS does support Exchange for Entourage. Did you talk to MS over the
phone or was it with whoever does the Exchange hosting for you??

You didn't say what your problem actually was by the way...

But I do expect them to be able to tell me what
the settings in Entourage should be, and to know what the common issues
are that might cause a breakdown. But they are not allowed to even
discuss it.

You need:
- the server address for e-mail
- the domain name
- the public server path for free/busy data
- the LDAP server settings for GAL look-ups.

You can also find a lot of information on the Entourage Help Page:
<http://entourage.mvps.org/exchange/index.html>

Corentin

 

[ramatsu]

Sorry for the confusion, the word "support" is used two ways here, so I'll try to clear it up. Entourage (in the $400 version of Office) supports Exchange connections - that is, it is a feature of the software. However, Microsoft Entourage technical support does not support this feature - they will not talk to users about it at all, as described in more detail above.

Yes, I was talking to MS technical support, using up the first of my two free tech support calls to find out that there is no tech support for this feature. I was offered the opportunity to pay for an Exchange support call, but again, per the details in my original post, it looks like an Entourage 2008 configuration issue, or at least a conflict between 2008 and some recent update of Exchange Server 2007 that doesn't cause problems for our Entourage 2004 user.

The rep I spoke to was polite and sympathetic, but very clear about the policy. I asked her to confirm it several times, and she put me on hold to confirm that she couldn't talk to me about the Exchange feature.

The actual problem, which I indicated I would post elsewhere (because this post was focused on the lack of technical support as a topic), is that our Public Folders don't connect anymore. The "syncronizing..." dialog appears and goes away without indicating a problem, but changes aren't sync'ed. And when I unsubscribed from all public folder contacts and calendars to try a fresh setup, I lost all my local copies of those things, and so my public folders contacts list is empty! (Again, the lone Entourage 2004 user here is still able to sync, so thankfully our shared contacts appear to still exist on the server. I'm saving them all as VCF files from her Mac in case I manage to sync at some point and the server thinks my empty contact list is prime and deletes all our contacts on the server!)

So, that's a little off topic for this thread now, but I thought I would reply since you asked.

The main point of my original post, which I should have stated more plainly with less detail, was this: It's a bad, unfair, nonintuitive policy to not provide phone technical support for Entourage's connection to Exchange, since the feature basically costs $250.

Thanks for your attention,

Allen

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

Yes, I was talking to MS technical support, using up the first of my two
free tech support calls to find out that there is no tech support for
this feature.

Amazing! I had never heard that before.

The actual problem, which I indicated I would post elsewhere (because
this post was focused on the lack of technical support as a topic),

This is a peer support group. There isn't a thing we can do about MS not
supporting the Exchange features of Entourage over the phone
unfortunately :-\

is
that our Public Folders don't connect anymore. The "syncronizing..."
dialog appears and goes away without indicating a problem, but changes
aren't sync'ed. And when I unsubscribed from all public folder contacts
and calendars to try a fresh setup, I lost all my local copies of those
things, and so my public folders contacts list is empty! (Again, the
lone Entourage 2004 user here is still able to sync, so thankfully our
shared contacts appear to still exist on the server. I'm saving them all
as VCF files from her Mac in case I manage to sync at some point and the
server thinks my empty contact list is prime and deletes all our
contacts on the server!)

Just to make sure... you triple-checked the settings for the public
folder to make sure they were OK??
Can you still see the data on the OWA page for instance?

Corentin

 

[ramatsu]

I can still see the data using our Entourage 2004 client desktop... I never use OWA, so can't ever remember the syntax of the login required. (Some are configured to require the Exchange domain/, other aren't, etc.)

This is a peer support group. There isn't a thing
we can do about MS not supporting the Exchange
features of Entourage over the phone unfortunately

Yep, but since that was the MS support phone rep's last suggestion (post it here, if enough people do, maybe MS will change their policy), I thought I would take the time anyway.

I'm currently shopping new Exchange providers in the hopes of finding a single vendor who will help me get up and running, since Microsoft and my current Exchange provider just want to point fingers at each other.

Thanks,

Allen

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

I can still see the data using our Entourage 2004 client desktop... I
never use OWA, so can't ever remember the syntax of the login required.
(Some are configured to require the Exchange domain/, other aren't,
etc.)

Well this at least tells me that the data is not deleted from the
server. It's just not accessible from Entourage 2008. There is probably
a configuration issue in your setup for 2008.

Yep, but since that was the MS support phone rep's last suggestion (post
it here, if enough people do, maybe MS will change their policy), I
thought I would take the time anyway.

Whoever made that suggestion didn't offer you the best option:
MS *might* come here and read the groups and see your message, but there
is no guarantee they ever will.
You should use the Send Feeback command that you can find in the Help
menu in ENtourage. The MacBU will then get the message and read it. If
enough people complain about somethign specific, it gets a higher
priority (but don't expect and answer through this mechanism: it's just
to send feedback)

I'm currently shopping new Exchange providers in the hopes of finding a
single vendor who will help me get up and running, since Microsoft and
my current Exchange provider just want to point fingers at each other.

Good luck :-\
I still suspect a configuration issue and your Exchange provder *should*
have been able to help you out with this,

Corentin