Microsoft Launches Its Own Live Tech Support Website
Microsoft has quietly launched an online tech support service.
Microsoft has launched a new tech support website that its users can rely on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Dubbed AnswerDesk.com, the site bears the same name as Microsoft's in-store help desk and promises a "premium" tech support service for those experiencing issues with Microsoft products or services. Currently only available for people in the United States, the site allows visitors to choose their own Answer Tech by viewing their profiles and checking out their expertise and service history. From there, the techs are trained to troubleshoot your problems and as well as teach you how to use various different Microsoft products. Of course, Microsoft isn't doing this for the good of its health. This tech support service is going to cost you. According to the Next Web, a virus removal will cost you $99, while an hour of training on Microsoft products will set you back $49.
Fusible was the first to spot the website, pointing out that it's so new, it has yet to be indexed by Google and has barely made it to Bing (Bing turns up just one result, which is a link to one of the Answer Tech's profiles on Answer Desk). Microsoft has not yet commented on the live status of the new website, so we don't know if this is a mistake or just a really quiet launch, but we're sure it's only a matter of time before we find out. Interestingly, while the site is only available to U.S. users, Fusible reports that Microsoft also owns it also acquired answerdesk.ch, answerdesk.fr, answerdesk.jp, answerdesk.tw, and answersdesk.com, so perhaps international versions will arrive soon.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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funguseater Great, just what I need. MS taking away Virus Removal money out of my pocket, maybe it'll cause mass confusion and us techs will have to be called in to fix it up!Reply -
amstech Removing todays worms and/or trojan horse infections can require significant knowledge with an NTFS file system, registry, services and operations. Running a malwarebytes is simply not enough, many small infections stick around. So I wonder if they only charge the people they actually help?Reply
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memadmax Long time coming.Reply
I hope you don't have to pay an arm and a leg to have someone tell you the obvious like "Change your screen resolution", or something small and silly like that, because there will be lots of people like that........ -
jdwii It's about time!! They've been a company producing OS's and software for the last 25+ years and now they do it. Microsoft should of done this when more people where uneducated with PC's back in the 80's and 90's. Once again Microsoft a little to late.Reply -
Lutfij next thing you'll know, MS is charging a bloke - who "accidentally" broke his cup holder only to be educated that its an ODD tray.Reply -
Parsian the more i think of it, Microsoft is resembling Bill Gate's personality. He is so quiet and chill but has master plans for world domination and how to grab ur $$$.Reply
I love Gates. -
Do they really need humans involved in this? Surely they could have written a bot that takes people's money and then say, "sorry, that's a third-party software issue and you should call the vendor"...Reply
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memadmax Another thing that really torques me off is when you get an error code and it says to go on the MS website to see what it means and....... tada..... nothing..... MS doesn't even know what their own error codes mean...............Reply
Fail.