So I'm an independent business owner, and every penny counts. Not to mention every minute. You really begin to realize the importance of those minutes when your neck is on the line every day trying to meet payroll and make your business grow.
In earlier days, I had worked for other companies as a computer programmer, and had enjoyed the benefits of an MSDN subscription. For those who do not know, this type of subscription can give you development and testing access to Microsoft operating systems, development environments, toolkits and other goodies for use in designing solutions based on Microsoft platforms.
It was early Tuesday morning, at around 5:00 AM EST, that I was working to solve a problem with some virtual machines I had set up, that I thought it might be better to host said machines on a Windows Server x64 host rather than the current Windows XP Pro host.
The problem was that I didn't want to buy the new OS until I first tested to see if it would solve my problem.
This seemed a perfect fit for an MSDN subscription. This would allow me to test to see if the new OS would do the trick prior to purchasing it, and also give me access to the new Visual Studio 2008 that I would eventually migrate my code to.
So I placed my order for this MSDN subscription, setting me back roughly $1,200. Now I've placed orders online before for downloadable content. I have seen the wait times vary from a few seconds to an hour or so.
It floors me that my MSDN subscription, placed more than 36 hours ago, is still not active.
In my world, now filled with deadlines and revenues based entirely on how fast I can get things done, this is a real pain in the ass.
My first call to Microsoft regarding the subscription was at around 7:30 AM the day I ordered, a couple of of hours after the order. The friendly rep tells me that it can take up to 24 hours for a subscription to "take effect", after which time I can start using it. I asked what might cause such a delay, to which he responded with some vague description of the internal complicated machinations that have to occur in order for the subscription to go live.
Subsequent calls between then and now have resulted in varying information ranging from "another 24 hours would be needed" to "it can take 72 hours for this to happen".
On my calls to Microsoft, I asked a few pointed questions roughly as follows:
Q. Are there any human reliant steps in this process?
A. No.
Q. Why should an entirely electronic process take 24-72 hours to complete?
A. There are many systems involved.
Q. How many systems are we talking about here, like maybe 4 or 6?
A. Perhaps, not sure.
Q. So you're telling me that for my subscription information, mainly names and number, to make it into 4 or 6 Microsoft databases, running together with software designed by Microsoft, by Microsoft programmers, takes 24 to 72 hours?
A. Yes.
Q. Am I to believe that the largest software company on the planet, using it's own software, programmed by it's own programmers, is so slow as to take literally days to insert a few names and numbers into 4 to 6 databases?
A. Yes.
Q. And you're saying there are no humans to slow this down?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you think this sends a good message to people considering using your platform to operate their businesses?
A. I do not know.
Q. Would it make any difference if I said that this type of information does not fill me with confidence, and makes me likely to consider other platforms, such as Linux?
A. If you like, you can talk to a supervisor, but he will tell you the same thing.
I'll pause for a moment to make a humble recommendation to Microsoft.
You are the largest software maker in the world. You market your software and platforms as stable, fast and secure.
Might be wise to give developers signing up for expensive MSDN subscriptions a taste of this stability, security and speed by processing what is in effect an online order in a timely manner.
24-72 hours is not fast.
