How I got “qualified” help with Microsoft

Prehistory

At one time, I bought an Asus EeePC 1005HA netbook with WindowsXP preinstalled.

Honestly, I read that you can somehow get your money back for an unused system, but didn’t bother to think of it, maybe sometime before that license key that was placed on the label glued from below. Therefore, boldly demolished Windwos XP (up to the best of times) and installed the native and favorite Debian GNU / Linux, while not forgetting to leave a small partition on the screw for the possible installation of a “native” OS.

The time has passed. And just the other day for quite certain purposes I needed to install this very Windows XP Home Edition. In order not to use all sorts of Best @ assemblies, I decided to install an honest OS, with an honest license, since I thought it was good, I had it. How naive I was ...

We get help from Microsoft support

Looking at the label with the license, I “with horror” discovered that a good half of the letters are simply impossible to read:



Well, well, I thought, it does not matter. This is an honestly purchased product, which means I have every right to contact the Microsoft office and get full-fledged help on my problem. Feel free to go to the site, find where you can send your request to support and began to wait patiently for a response. The request was sent on April 5, 2010 at 16:59:26 UTC and looked as follows:

At one time, Asus EeePC 1005HA was purchased with Windows XP Home preinstalled.

It was necessary to reinstall the OS, but there is a small problem - half the letters of the Product key are stuck.

What can you advise how to solve the difficulty?

')

The following day, the following response was received:

Thank you for contacting the Microsoft Information and Technical Support Center.



1) If the system is still installed on a laptop, then it is possible to specify the last 15 characters using the MGADiag utility. You can download it from the Microsoft website:

www.go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=52012



2) If the system has already been removed from the computer, then it is not possible to recover the license key.



We apologize for the late reply.



In case of additional questions, you can contact us by phone +38 (044) 230-51-01 (Kiev), 0 (800) 308-8001 (Ukraine) or send them to the e-mail address: ukraine @ microsoft. com



Respectfully,



Alexei Chornous

Many thanks to Chernous Alexey and the entire Microsoft office in Ukraine for the invaluable help. I would like to ask only one question, which I wrote to the Microsoft Information and Technical Support Center in my answer, but to which I don’t hope to get an answer:

Those. There is no way to restore a license legally purchased, along with a netbook. Did I understand you correctly?

I do not want anyone to call for a refund for the pre-installed OS and the installation of pirated Best @ assemblies. I also don’t want to denigrate all support from Microsoft and sincerely hope that it was only me that was so “lucky.” But to an even greater degree I hope that this message will still be noticed by someone from Microsoft who can really help me, and will not be limited to unsubscribe.