To help us to improve the quality of our products, services, and training, this call may be recorded or monitored, and information collected on this call may be transferred to other countries. To help me best assist you, I need to know if you are calling as a home user or as a business user."
Calling this phone number seems to be more of a way to get to Microsoft's online customer service page through a different means, rather than a way to actually get help. When I dialed this number, I was asked if I was calling about a personal account or a business account. I said I was calling about a personal account, and the system then asked what my concern was.
I'd just received a notice that my subscription to Microsoft Office would be ending soon, and I wanted to ask about that. However, when I mentioned this, I was simply told that I should go to Microsoft's website. The system gave me the web address twice and asked me if I wanted to get the information sent over to me as a text message. I said yes, and the system sent a message with a link.
However, the link didn't go to a page talking about subscriptions or giving any kind of information about Microsoft Office. Instead, the link simply directed me to the help page for Microsoft's website. There, the site encouraged me to type in my problem so they could get me assistance.
Doing so yielded no real assistance; all this did was lead me to a few pages that it thought might assist me with my problem. However, the site was only guessing based on the search terms that I entered, as opposed to giving me genuine support. The phone number had already hung up after sending me the link, so there was no more help to be found from my call.
I understand that Microsoft wants to get people to go to its website, given that its business is computers and online access, but this system really seems to be convoluted and awkward. This number really seems to serve no purpose other than to thwart hackers by giving customers an actual number to call if they're sent a phishing email. That's a worthwhile purpose, but otherwise, this number doesn't really work for providing much help or information.
If Microsoft does want to direct traffic to its website, it needs to make sure that the links it provides can actually be of use to its consumers. As it is, this site doesn't really provide much genuine help. I can see it offering assistance if a customer needs to get started with where to ask a question, but otherwise, the best thing this number offers is one real Microsoft number that can be called if a fake email arrives. Unless you've received such an email, I can't recommend contacting this number, as the services offered don't provide any real assistance to consumers.