All big companies are evil. A consumer needs to be an opportunist to truly enjoy themselves, I've found. I have a Verizon Wireless smartphone, and they've been great to me and made me a loyal customer for two very big reasons:

1.) After signing up with them and getting a DROID Bionic, I returned it three or four days later and got a DROID RAZR instead since it was a bit faster, and it was thinner. The moron at the cell phone store I got it from forgot to re-apply my texting plan, so at the end of the month I had a $400+ texting bill on top of my cell phone bill. Verizon had absolutely no reason to take care of me, as it was the cell phone place's fault, not theirs. Verizon paid my bill for me anyway.

2.) Shortly after that, there was a commercial on TV advertising 4GB data plans for the same price as I was paying for a 2GB data plan for a limited time. I happened to run into a Verizon rep at my former place of work and mentioned it to her. She nonchalantly stated that I should just call them up and simply ask them to upgrade my data plan for free. I went home and called them up, 45 seconds later my data cap was doubled for free, and the customer service rep simply ended the call with "Anything else I can do for you today?".

They've made a loyal customer out of me for going out of their way to do two things they didn't have to. Having years of retail experience myself, I'm extremely grateful for that. People have crappy experiences everywhere, but sometimes the good sticks with you more.

A recent Microsoft example:

I was installing a digital (as is now common practice) copy of Office 2013 Home and Student for a customer of my own. After registering the serial key on her Microsoft account, I remembered that I had to uninstall her free trial of Office 365 first. I did, and it prompted me to restart to finish removing all the left over files. Upon restarting, and logging back into her account, her registered copy of Office 2013 Home and Student was mysteriously missing, and I couldn't figure out where it went. Frustrated, I had no choice but to call Microsoft, and figured I'd have to beg for a new serial key which I probably wasn't going to get. I got an American lady, who validated my key, gave me a ticket number (with one digit missing) and bumped me to level two tech support. The level two guy was from India. After learning the American lady screwed up with my ticket number, he made a new one himself, and reinstated the Office 2013 account. He then asked me if I'd like him to install it for me.  I entertained the idea and he promprtly took remote control of the laptop I was working on and installed the software for me, even deleting the temp files afterwards. I didn't have to pay a dime for this. And this was the "feared" Indian guy that people can't understand (he speaks English better than a lot of people I deal with day to day). The American lady was the one who screwed up. This guy was great.

That was another experience with Microsoft where the good outweighed the bad, so I haven't lost any faith in the company. Does this mean I forgive their XBOX One crap? No, and I will probably still buy a Playstation 4. But you won't catch me buying an Apple Macbook or a Google Chromebook any time soon.

A more brief note about an experience with Google's customer support:

I bought a digital copy of an album from them, later on I find out not all of the songs were downloaded in their entirety. It took them one month for them to "process" giving me my $10 back, and I got no notification of it in my GMail or even Google Wallet account. I had to check my banking statements apparently, which they didn't tell me about. I had to e-mail them to ask me about it. The first one was after two weeks, and I got "be patient, it takes time" (more or less), then after a month, I found out about the bank statement thing.

Was that a terrible customer experience? No, it's not as if I didn't get my money back, and it was a pretty minor issue, but I'd be very upset if I bought a Nexus phone or something else that's expensive from them, and it took one month to get my money back.

Edited June 21, 201312 yr by unr3al

microsoft removed the console DRM and you can share sell and loan games as you could before

I am never going to stop being a Microsoft fan. Perosnally I have much more respect for Bill Gates than I do for Steve Jobs. Microsoft has been nothing but productive in the strive for newer, stronger, and faster technology, including revolutionary operating systems like 1ian20 said. To me, anything that you buy from Microsoft, you can personalize more than anything you buy from any other major technology company. On a more personal level, Bill Gates has donated so much of his personal savings to so many charities, and he is working on so many projects around the world to help those in need. I would rather support a company built by a man like that, rather than any other.

All big companies are evil. A consumer needs to be an opportunist to truly enjoy themselves, I've found. I have a Verizon Wireless smartphone, and they've been great to me and made me a loyal customer for two very big reasons:

1.) After signing up with them and getting a DROID Bionic, I returned it three or four days later and got a DROID RAZR instead since it was a bit faster, and it was thinner. The moron at the cell phone store I got it from forgot to re-apply my texting plan, so at the end of the month I had a $400+ texting bill on top of my cell phone bill. Verizon had absolutely no reason to take care of me, as it was the cell phone place's fault, not theirs. Verizon paid my bill for me anyway.

2.) Shortly after that, there was a commercial on TV advertising 4GB data plans for the same price as I was paying for a 2GB data plan for a limited time. I happened to run into a Verizon rep at my former place of work and mentioned it to her. She nonchalantly stated that I should just call them up and simply ask them to upgrade my data plan for free. I went home and called them up, 45 seconds later my data cap was doubled for free, and the customer service rep simply ended the call with "Anything else I can do for you today?".

They've made a loyal customer out of me for going out of their way to do two things they didn't have to. Having years of retail experience myself, I'm extremely grateful for that. People have crappy experiences everywhere, but sometimes the good sticks with you more.

A recent Microsoft example:

I was installing a digital (as is now common practice) copy of Office 2013 Home and Student for a customer of my own. After registering the serial key on her Microsoft account, I remembered that I had to uninstall her free trial of Office 365 first. I did, and it prompted me to restart to finish removing all the left over files. Upon restarting, and logging back into her account, her registered copy of Office 2013 Home and Student was mysteriously missing, and I couldn't figure out where it went. Frustrated, I had no choice but to call Microsoft, and figured I'd have to beg for a new serial key which I probably wasn't going to get. I got an American lady, who validated my key, gave me a ticket number (with one digit missing) and bumped me to level two tech support. The level two guy was from India. After learning the American lady screwed up with my ticket number, he made a new one himself, and reinstated the Office 2013 account. He then asked me if I'd like him to install it for me.  I entertained the idea and he promprtly took remote control of the laptop I was working on and installed the software for me, even deleting the temp files afterwards. I didn't have to pay a dime for this. And this was the "feared" Indian guy that people can't understand (he speaks English better than a lot of people I deal with day to day). The American lady was the one who screwed up. This guy was great.

That was another experience with Microsoft where the good outweighed the bad, so I haven't lost any faith in the company. Does this mean I forgive their XBOX One crap? No, and I will probably still buy a Playstation 4. But you won't catch me buying an Apple Macbook or a Google Chromebook any time soon.

A more brief note about an experience with Google's customer support:

I bought a digital copy of an album from them, later on I find out not all of the songs were downloaded in their entirety. It took them one month for them to "process" giving me my $10 back, and I got no notification of it in my GMail or even Google Wallet account. I had to check my banking statements apparently, which they didn't tell me about. I had to e-mail them to ask me about it. The first one was after two weeks, and I got "be patient, it takes time" (more or less), then after a month, I found out about the bank statement thing.

Was that a terrible customer experience? No, it's not as if I didn't get my money back, and it was a pretty minor issue, but I'd be very upset if I bought a Nexus phone or something else that's expensive from them, and it took one month to get my money back.

 

I've been a Verizon customer for a long time, and they've been nothing but a PIA. My bill is 9 times out of 10 wrong (in their favor of course) and I have to call up and wait an hour for them to figure it out and send me a gift card (Visa) for the difference (which always gets declined when I try to use it.) They got rid of their unlimited data and replaced it with "Family Share" data which is a fancy way of saying "Less Data." Everything they do is motivated on getting you locked into a contract. This is not to say that AT&T is not the same way though.

 

Microsoft on the other hand is an axis of evil of itself. Just look at the Xbox One. When it was initially announced, they were proud of the DRM and other nonsense they implemented. Also, I do not have a photogenic 50' x 50' Microsoft living room to play the Kinect in. I don't want to have it connected all the time. Look at Windows 8, they took a Windows phone and extended it to all of their other products. Everything is slowly becoming a phone if you haven't noticed. Desktops > Laptops > Tablets > Phones. I also hate this "Cloud" nonsense that every company is using now. I refuse to pay a little "rent" to keep my stuff stored in some data center in North Carolina. I'll buy another Hard Drive if I need to. You can only do that with a Desktop PC though because everything is so darn small.

 

Google also grinds my gears. They are one of the world's largest companies yet they have NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT. Try looking up "Google Technical Support" and I guarantee you will be directed to some forum where other users can answer your question, at no expense to Google. I am also a YouTube partner. That is hell. They just "updated" the stat-tracking system to go from the AdSense to YouTube website. The YouTube stat tracking is far more inaccurate and they know it. They go out of their way to screw you.

 

Today's technology is going downhill. I'm going to play my SEGA Dreamcast.

Edited June 22, 201312 yr by Senatov

It seems that somebody over at Microsoft has had a change of heart. They've removed the 24 hour online check ins, as well as the restrictions on sharing/buying and selling games.

It seems that somebody over at Microsoft has had a change of heart. They've removed the 24 hour online check ins, as well as the restrictions on sharing/buying and selling games.

Nope, They didn't They just knew that this is the only way they could still make some money.

Nope, They didn't They just knew that this is the only way they could still make some money.

That's exactly what I mean. someone's realized from the public's reaction that they made a huge mistake and are trying to fix it.

That's exactly what I mean. someone's realized from the public's reaction that they made a huge mistake and are trying to fix it.

 

It wasn't due to all the online rage, it was because Sony basically forced them.

 

Hell, if I worked for Microsoft and saw the glorious reaction Sony got at E3, I'd seriously re-think my ideas.

 

It wasn't due to all the online rage, it was because Sony basically forced them.

 

Hell, if I worked for Microsoft and saw the glorious reaction Sony got at E3, I'd seriously re-think my ideas.

I must admit, I laughed when I watch them take everything Microsoft did, and turn it into marketing for their own console. I agree that Sony was very influential in making them change their restrictions, but I still feel that the public had an even bigger part, since they are the ones that buy the console in the end. Sony just used the public's opinion against Microsoft. 

Well I don't think Microsoft really cares who buys it considering they lead in the OS business. If you get what I'm saying.

Yeah, I agree. I'm more of a PC guy, but if I had the choice, I would go with the Xbox 360 or the PS4.

Well I don't think Microsoft really cares who buys it considering they lead in the OS business. If you get what I'm saying.

If they didn't care, they wouldn't produce it in the first place. They need to at least cover their costs, to ensure that they don't make a loss, and since business's nowadays are purely for making money, they wouldn't bother producing a product if they didn't care about the sales.

Who knows, maybe this was the whole idea for Microsoft in the first place, release BS information about their DRM and see how Sony would react, if Sony kept theirs they could then later on say that they are changing their DRM and then have the upper hand on Sony. It's not uncommon for big companies to play games like this.

Also, given that much of Sony's point was that they didn't have the DRM, Microsoft has now blunted that whole thrust.

When the Xbox One comes out, I am probably going to get the Xbox One. If I hate it I will trade the Xbox One in for a PS4.