By pure chance, all of our Office 2016 sales for the last several months (perhaps a year) have been to existing business clients (who already have MS accounts) or to home users who handle their own activations. I have had no need during that time to create a new MS account (either for myself or on behalf of a client). That’s despite the sheer number of licenses we sell.
But today I did have to create a MS account for one of our biggest clients… and I have yet to be successful.
Now this post isn’t about Office specifically, but that’s the context in which I discovered this issue.
You see.. when creating a new MS account, it now asks for a phone number. It’s been this way for a while, and it’s creepy and off-putting, but most everyone has a phone number at least. What’s changed is that you can now only recieve the one-time code via SMS. That’s it. No calls. No alternate email. No letters. No telegrams. No smoke signals. It’s SMS or nothing.
Want an account? Buy a cell phone. Want to talk to MS support? You need an account. This is a problem.
So now the client is thinking about moving away from Microsoft products altogether (or at least Office). They’re a principled bunch, and aren’t going to jump through hoops just to make MS want them as a customer.
So has anyone else had this problem? Is the “phone call” method just temporarily down? Or is MS really that incompetent?
skane2600
<p>I would create a bogus number via Google Voice although that's not helpful if you were already using it as one of your primary phone numbers.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#265020"><em>In reply to toshdellapenna:</em></a></blockquote><p>I guess Microsoft is more strict. I've used my Google Voice number for many such scenarios but never had a problem.</p>
seapea
<blockquote><a href="#264928"><em>In reply to skane2600:</em></a></blockquote><p> I wonder if Text2Me would help for this. I use it for a couple of small time things.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#265778"><em>In reply to seapea:</em></a></blockquote><p>I don't know, I've never tried it.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#265025"><em>In reply to paul-thurrott:</em></a></blockquote><p>You certainly have a point, but not it's not true that everyone has a cell phone or a cell phone with a plan that includes texting. </p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#265225"><em>In reply to Chris_Kez:</em></a></blockquote><p>I guess it's a matter of opinion but I'd say it is an undue burden. If a cell phone is required for work, the business should provide one as would be case for any other equipment required for the job.</p>
skane2600
<blockquote><a href="#265205"><em>In reply to Daekar:</em></a></blockquote><p>You do realize that you have to have a provider to receive SMS messages, not just a phone.</p>