Activating Office 2007 -very odd.

[stytagm]

I thought I'd relate the odd tale of me trying to activate Office 2007 at work. I installed using the same media as everyone else and tried to activate over the net, but got a message:

Office can't be activated because the specified product key has already been activated the maximum number of times

OK thinks I, I'll visit the engineering team and ask them, I guess they need to buy more licences. Nope - It's a 100 seat license in a company of only 35 people, and only half of those have actually installed it.? What's more, everyone else was able to activate over the net with no problems.

So I try the telephone activation, Office give me some number which I dutifully plug into the phone, then it asks me

Please answer the following question, is this version of windows XP installed on more than one computer?

WTF? I'm not using XP, I'm running Windows Server 2003, as this is a development box, Oh well I assume, it's probably just poor planning when they recorded the message, I press on. The phone tells me to wait 10 seconds while it deliberates, then....

We're sorry, we cannot activate this version of Windows XP, as it can only be installed on the computer with which it was supplied. <CLICK>...Brrrrrr

Eh?!? I'm not even using XP, let alone trying to activate it! I rang a phone number provided by Office 2007, entered the numbers provided by Office 2007, where on earth did you get the idea that I'm installing windows XP? And, Why oh Why, did you disconnect me, rather than putting me through to a person

So... I ring up again, and refuse to press any buttons at all, until they connected me to a nice bloke in India, who got office activated inside 2 minutes. Job done.

So Top marks to the call centre guy who listened to my problem, took my details, and fixed it. Zero marks to the moron who designed the automatic activation.

Ahhh, and now I feel better. Sorry for boring you all with a rant.

[Dreaming]

It's things like this that make me think automated phone service things will always be just a gimmick that whilst cutting costs, also damages the customer service received.

One exception: paypal authorisation. It rings you straight away and does something and you do soemthing. Can't remember exactly what now, but I do remember, I thought it was very succinct, perfectly done etc.

I think the worst I've come across is the DVLA's. I think it took me 15 minutes to get through to someone to get a replacement licence sent out (cos I lost mine), I said I still had the paper counterpart - and he said I had to send it back and gave me an address :|. Sod that.