Windows Live Mail Error ID: 0x80048849 "Unable to send or receive messages for the Windows Live Hotmail account"

Come come Mr Tillman,do you really get your star rating by toeing the company line and challenging every criticism of microsoft. We do not all have our company financing our direct connection with Microsoft to  "have fun". please stick to correcting the deep seated problems that Microsoft has and leave the defense of  their non existent after sales service to themselves.

Yet still disenchanted.

> Actually, an effective or opportune way to exchange information pertaining to system or

> application bugs/clashes would be at the point where the end-user is notified of

> updates/patches/service packs which are available for download.

This information is available every month prior to Microsoft issuing their patches.  You need to sign up for the email   See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/dd252948.  You can also comment in any of the blogs Microsoft employees post   http://www.microsoft.com/communities/blogs/portalhome.mspx, http://blogs.msdn.com/, http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/.  You can provide feedback to Microsoft in multiuple places.  http://connect.microsoft.com/ is one.  There are many product-specific web sites as well.

> But in reality, go beyond your warranty, and Microsoft is not interested in conducting any

> discussions without imposing exorbitant fees $$$$.  It is sort of like being in a taxi cab with > the meter running.

I believe it's more like taking your car into the shop.  However, I've seen support models that put a fixed cost on the call.  Those people who have very easy issues pay the same price as those with hard issues and the former wind up subsidizing the latter.  That can lead to resentment as well.  I'm not sure there's any optimal support paradigm.  Microsoft support engineers have the option, in some cases (although I don't know what the criteria are), to not charge you if the problem is determined to be caused by the product and not something specific to the user's system.  Warrantly support (all products have 60 or 90 days of free support) is free in any event.

> That "contact us" is designed to fluster and discourage - ultimately to waste our time.

I don't believe this.  It's designed to minimize Microsoft expense, perhaps, which can result in fluster and discouragement, but it's not _designed_ to fluster and discourage.  Those are merely unfortunate by-products, not outcomes deliberately sought.  However, you are absolutely correct, in my opinion, that the entire support environment for Windows LIve is poorly designed and badly broken.

>  these are the authors of software who should be obliged to help anyway they can.

I'm not sure that requiring the designers and coders (higher-cost employees) to provide support (lower cost employees) would be a good investment for any company.  Good training for those employees (or contractors) and employees (or contractors) who have an analytic orientation are essential.

> The truth of the matter is, we, the end-users, have always been the guinea pigs - the real

> BETA testors so to speak!

This isn't anything new anywhere in the computer industry and for someone like myself, it's fun.  I recognize the larger population doesn't want this, but any non-trivial program will contain bugs and the more complex, the more bugs that can be there.  I have no doubt that Microsoft software design follows industry standards and probably cutting-edge practices also.

> Powerful kings, queens, corporations, etc., have come to their demise because of some

> critical error.   Is the writing on the wall?

I really doubt that Steve Ballmer is sitting in his office laughing at all the little people his company is duping.