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Recently, we reported on LibreOffice, accusing Microsoft of intentionally using complex file formats as a tactic to lock in users to Microsoft Office, hindering open source alternatives like LibreOffice.
Now, Microsoft has banned LibreOffice developer, Mike Kaganski, from using its services, citing an "activity that violates [its] Services Agreement".
According to Mike, this happened last Monday when he tried to send a technical email to the LibreOffice dev mailing list, which is a normal part of his routine, but Thunderbird returned an error saying the message couldn't be sent. His account was blocked upon retry, and he found himself completely logged out of his Microsoft account.
Kaganski guessed that his mail and account were getting flagged by a bot or something, since he was quite sure that nothing in the mail violated Microsoft's terms of service.
So he decided to file an appeal, a process which later made him call Redmond "miserably incompetent in IT." The automated system asked for his phone number, which he provided, only to be greeted by a "Try another method" error message.
The problem was that there was no other method offered. He then decided to reach out to Microsoft support directly. After some digging, he found a link to contact the team, and there it was, a button asking him to "Sign in to Contact support".
Now, you might go, "Hold up, how is he supposed to sign in to contact support when his problem is that he can't sign in in the first place?" As Kaganski himself put it:
Yes, you got it right. “Here is a page where we discuss problems signing in. You attempted our FAQ suggestions? You still can’t sign in? No problem! Contact our Support team, and we will solve your problem is a minute! But first, please sign in to continue.”
He eventually got to use his wife's account to file an appeal and finally received a message from support. The instructions inside asked him to go to the sign-in page and, when told the account is blocked, provide a phone number (something he had already tried). Microsoft ignored his detailed report of the failing process, marked his ticket as resolved without any real action, and simply closed it.
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