MS technical support without credit card (i.e., via long distance charges, maybe)??

Anyone know if there is a way to get technical support, esp. in Cda,
that doesn't require a credit card?

One time I called Corel, though quite a few years back now, where I
believe the charges were added to my phone bill, a 1-900 number
probably. That I could do.

I've been asking over at various MS newsgroups for a solution to a
problem, and over one whole year later, no response at all (they just
don't know the solution).

Thanks!

 

so what is the problem?

 

Their name(s) are legion

--
dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
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Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

 

That's an unwarranted assumption, because it supposes there *is* a
solution (other than the known one, which is paying MS).

 

SECOND REPLY Ignore first reply; I thought you were saying that they
didn't know if there was a non-credit-card way of getting MS support.
My bad, on misreading your post.

 

When using Outlook 2000's flag feature, if you put tick the
"completed" box, a date/time stamp for when you closed the flag
appears. By default, every installation I've ever had a work contract
at, shows the flag blurb and that date/time stamp at the top of the
email page. The flag also is a different colour, no longer red but a
greyscale type of icon.

The problem lies in that in some installations, that date/time stamp
prints out in the hard copy, and sometimes _not_. I've been trying to
find solution to how to get any and _all_ installations to print out
that date/time stamp.

********************************
This is becoming a serious problem. I've even asked help desk people
at office in 3 different companies (but they never know much of the
nitty gritty stuff, must admit). My main job at this new contract is
to track BFs for a Director General. Unfortunately, unlike other
jobs, the bulk of this tracking is via email threads. The best way to
do this is to use the flag feature. One can overwrite in the text box
so I'll put something like "BF sent to ADMs office for signature.
Recvd just now and sent via Fedex. BF closed." and when I tick on the
"completed" box in Outlook 2000, the info I just typed in appears with
the date/time that I did this, so in effect, it's an excellent tool
for tracking electronic BFs. Then each email is filed in appropriate
spot and end of worries. Where problem lies is in the hard copy that
is stapled to top of pckg with background hard copy documentation that
was recvd (which we keep since the hard copy is what we have that is
not electronic, with signatures, etc).

When anyone comes back with a query on any BF, I can just pull out the
pckg and info right there. I'm having to write in date/time at this
point next to the flag info blurb.

Now all this probably sounds stupid to many as to why this would be
important. Well, I'm handling about 3 dozens threads (_threads_ not
individual emails) with several messages pertaining to each thread at
any given moment. It's been a headache. If I can just find out how
to fix the setting that will also print the date/time of the completed
flag on the hard copy, that would save a lot of grief.

That's it. Sorry for length of response, but don't know how else to
explain this.

Cheers!

 

A year of asking periodically on various MS Outlook ngs have yielded
no results, so in desperation, trying here.

When using Outlook 2000's flag feature, if you put tick the
"completed" box, a date/time stamp for when you closed the flag
appears. By default, every installation I've ever had a work contract
at, shows the flag blurb and that date/time stamp at the top of the
email page in the electronic copy of the message. The flag also is a
different colour, no longer red but a greyscale type of icon.

The problem lies in that in some installations, that date/time stamp
_doesn't_ print out in the hard copy yet sometimes it does. I've been
trying to find solution to how to get any and _all_ installations to
print out that date/time stamp trying everything I know. I've tried
help file, internet, various Outlook ngs and 2 technical support depts
in the 2 places I've worked where this was an issue and I was trying
to find solution. No-one has been of help.

I don't have a credit card and I called MS today and spent some time
on the phone trying to find way to get technical support w/o credit
card (sometimes via long distance charges). No go.

Does anyone know how this printing of the complete flag information,
_including_ date and time flag completed?

I have Outlook 2000 but believe I even had this in the Outlook 2003 I
worked on this past fall.

Thanks.

 

A year of asking periodically on various MS Outlook ngs have yielded
no results, so in desperation, trying here.

When using Outlook 2000's flag feature, if you put tick the
"completed" box, a date/time stamp for when you closed the flag
appears. By default, every installation I've ever had a work contract
at, shows the flag blurb and that date/time stamp at the top of the
email page in the electronic copy of the message. The flag also is a
different colour, no longer red but a greyscale type of icon.

The problem lies in that in some installations, that date/time stamp
_doesn't_ print out in the hard copy yet sometimes it does. I've been
trying to find solution to how to get any and _all_ installations to
print out that date/time stamp trying everything I know. I've tried
help file, internet, various Outlook ngs and 2 technical support depts
in the 2 places I've worked where this was an issue and I was trying
to find solution. No-one has been of help.

I don't have a credit card and I called MS today and spent some time
on the phone trying to find way to get technical support w/o credit
card (sometimes via long distance charges). No go.

Does anyone know how this printing of the complete flag information,
_including_ date and time flag completed?

I have Outlook 2000 but believe I even had this in the Outlook 2003 I
worked on this past fall.

Thanks.

 

I spoke yesterday with an MS person yesterday via phone, they were no
help at all. Seems that those of us who have no credit cards have no
options <sigh>. I saw something about email support, but I'll check
it out again as I'm not sure I understood completely (there wasn't
much written on that page re any of the options given). M$ sure can
be such a pain.

 

A year of asking periodically on various MS Outlook ngs have yielded
no results, so in desperation, trying here.

When using Outlook 2000's flag feature, if you put tick the
"completed" box, a date/time stamp for when you closed the flag
appears in the email message itself in the status box above. By
default, every installation I've ever had a work contract at, shows
the flag blurb and that date/time stamp at the top of the email page
in the electronic copy of the message. The flag also is a different
colour, no longer red but a greyscale type of icon.

The problem lies in that in some installations, that date/time stamp
_doesn't_ print out in the hard copy yet sometimes it does. I've been
trying to find solution to how to get any and _all_ installations to
print out that date/time stamp trying everything I know. I've tried
help file, internet, various Outlook ngs and 2 technical support depts
in the 2 places I've worked where this was an issue and I was trying
to find solution. No-one has been of help.

Does anyone know how this printing of the complete flag information,
_including_ date and time flag completed?

I have Outlook 2000 but believe I even had this in the Outlook 2003 I
worked on this past fall.

 

A year of asking periodically on various MS Outlook ngs have yielded
no results, so in desperation, trying here.

When using Outlook 2000's flag feature, if you put tick the
"completed" box, a date/time stamp for when you closed the flag
appears in the email message itself in the status box above. By
default, every installation I've ever had a work contract at, shows
the flag blurb and that date/time stamp at the top of the email page
in the electronic copy of the message. The flag also is a different
colour, no longer red but a greyscale type of icon.

The problem lies in that in some installations, that date/time stamp
_doesn't_ print out in the hard copy yet sometimes it does. I've been
trying to find solution to how to get any and _all_ installations to
print out that date/time stamp trying everything I know. I've tried
help file, internet, various Outlook ngs and 2 technical support depts
in the 2 places I've worked where this was an issue and I was trying
to find solution. No-one has been of help.

Does anyone know how this printing of the complete flag information,
_including_ date and time flag completed?

 

This ng does not provide patches for MS products.
Get an Outlook add-in, it's under $10 (charge to your boss's credit card).
http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook/Insert-Date-Time.asp

 

Thanks, appreciate the info but the issue in this thread deals with
something completely different from inserting date/time in tasks, etc.
It's trying to find out how to get the date/time info in the info box
put by ticking on COMPLETED in an Outlook flag to print. Completely
unrelated to the above.

Thanks, I'm taking a look just the same as I'm always curious. <g>

 

Okay, better luck next time!

 

Thanks! <g>

It's been over a year with this issue, so really need that luck!
<lol>

 

Hmmm, betcha this could be done with a freeware workaround and a tiny
bit of elbow grease ... <g> I obtained code for both XL2K and W2K
from the Excel and Word ngs to do just that. I esp. like how the
codes could be customized in VBA to give me exact date/time format I
required. Neat.

Here's the code for Word, for example:




Sub DateStamp()
' Inserts current date/time
Dim timeStr, dayStr As String

dayStr = Left(Format(Date, "ddd"), 2)
timeStr = Format(Date, "yyyy.mm.dd.") & dayStr & "., " _
& Format(Time, "HH") & "h" & Format(Time, "nn") & " "
Selection.InsertBefore (timeStr)
Selection.Collapse Direction:=wdCollapseEnd
End Sub




The above gives me the date/time in my favourite format. I'm going to
click on the icon I created for the above code in Word right now to
get a date/time stamp ...

The above code just turned this current date/time out:

2005.02.19.Sa., 08h22

******

Also, for date/time in Outlook itself, I use AutoIt, a freeware
scripting program that is out of this world, in my mind. But the AI
script has a fixed time there. Outlook has a small deficiency in
rules that when you create/turn on a rule that flags all messages with
a certain criteria, it always flags for NEXT day 24 hours after you
sent message. I usu. end up leaving that as I figure 24 hours later
is better than nothing. But when I am sending a msg that needs the
flag to remind me much earlier than 24 hours later, I'll click on my
AutoIt button for this purpose and today's date with 9pm gets sent to
the clipboard and I just change flag date to that. A bit manual, but
it's free! (AutoIt is freeware.) It also helps that I have a flag
button on the main toolbar so that I don't even have to open the O2K
msg in order to change it's flag date/time. <g>

Just some ramblings in case anyone is reading this thread and happend
to need any of the above.

Cheers!

 

Have you tried emailing them directly?

 

I've spoken with them directly; however, was so frustrated, didn't go
that possible route. Will try again when I'm in a better frame of
mind, this afternoon. I found info on the website that did mention
emailing as one possible route of getting technical support, but I put
it off as was hoping for a more immediate resolution to this old
problem <g>. But you're right, I should give that a try. I'm
currently frustrated w/a co. that I emailed to re info where I've not
recvd a reply in a month. So the same might happen with M$ ... I
shouldn't let that deter me. <sigh> Thanks, this was the little prod
I needed to try this last resort (I do NOT have US$45.00 nor do I have
a credit card to get a response _directly_ from the M$ tech support
people ( <g>).

 

I spent half an hour goggling and find nothing, perhaps
no one can get it to work. I hope you'll get some help via
email soon and good luck with it!