I already called this hotline previously. After the bot asks to describe my issue and I answer that it's about Windows activation, I get told by the bot to go to the general Microsoft support website and then the call is terminated.
Jezzz... A bot that just point to as direction without giving you any clue and hangs up.....
www.elevenforum.com
No.
| 0xC004C003 | You may see this error because the Windows 11 product key you entered isn’t valid. Product keys are unique—assigned to a specific user to install on a single device. If a key was used (or attempted to be used) on multiple devices, it’s marked as not valid. To activate Windows, you’ll need to provide a different Windows key unique to your device. If you bought a device from a reseller of Windows 11 and expected the key to be valid, contact the reseller. If your device was purchased with Windows 11 preinstalled and you received this activation error upon turning it on for the first time, contact your device manufacturer. |
What a rain-dance! One has to wonder how that got so screwed up in the first place! There's nothing like having the actual key in your possession!
In the middle of the night I thought my NEXT suggestion was going to be don't say it was an activation issue but I had no way of knowing if there was another valid option choice. I could have swore I posted some ways to do what I think the support person did, I'll have to read all my posts to check. It was by using a few command prompts.
you got it solved. I'll bookmark it
Have you tried to enter the Win 11 Pro generic key? (VK7JG-NPHTM-C97JM-9MPGT-3V66T) If you try calling MS support again try saying something like "I want to talk to a technician" You may have change the word technician to something else such as a support person for example. That's what I do when I make a call to a business and get stuck talking to a computer. Some times when I get a recording that says press 1 for this or press 2 for that, and etc., I've had success by pushing the 0 on my phone.
I always ask for a "human" but some are tricky and ask you what you want to talk to the human about and then you're still stuck with the phone bot.
Yes, I tried that generic key as well. It didn't solve the issue.
I don't know where your located but I've never had a problem contacting a support person when calling the US number. I do have to admit that it has been years since I had to contact MS support. In your case I would try other reasons and not say activation. Have you tried mentioning that online support was not helpful? Just try to not mention that online activation support wasn't helpful. I would try any reason I could think of to get to a support person. If you get lucky to talk to someone then tell them the real reason you called.
I am located in Europe. But regardless of the location difference, making it increasingly difficult to get in touch with an actual person seems to have been a trend for consumer helpdesks of many large companies for a while.
If the chat was by texting it probably was for the best. My hearing isn't the best any more and if they have a heavy foreign accent I can't always understand most of what they're saying. When this happens I always try to be polite by telling them that the connection is bad so please talk louder and slower.
I avoid telephone help desks of large corporations whenever I can these days. I've had it happen too often that if I call for a problem (especially if it doesn't have a standard solution) the help desk person offers me what my instincts tell me right away is a worthless non-solution that they're just giving me to get me out of their hair, but I don't immediately have clear arguments against it ready so I can't outright reject it during the phone call.
Bingo!! And well done for your perseverance (which obviously wasn't in doubt from the outset
). Another triumph, takes the score to Consumers 158 -vs- Microsoft 1bn+Agreed. Problem with help desk is that they're mostly contracted out. Responses are based on the clarity of the enquiry so the help person can input appropriate key words into a database, from which bog-standard generic responses are "parrotted" to the caller. And when that computer software enquiry is finished, the same help centre person then takes the next call on behalf of another contractor, this time about how to stop the washing machine from overflowing ....
A word of caution .. just be absolutely confident that it was Microsoft with whom you were discussing this issue, and that it was MS that was given/gained remote access to your device.
Yes, that's good advice of course given the prevalence of help desk scams. However in this case the chat session was initiated directly by me from the Windows Get Help app and the screen share / remote control session was initiated directly by me from the Windows Quick Assist app.
