I haven't phoned Microsoft for support for many years. In fact, I wasn't even sure that there was such a thing as support from Microsoft. I called, once, about 15 years ago and the experience was terrible. I had to wait in line for 40 minutes, the technician was dumb and I had to pay $35 or something like that for the support call. I haven't bothered to call Microsoft since then.

Until yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the speed and ease, but my issue was resolved.

For the last 2 weeks, I have not been able to download and open Excel and Word files. I sometimes wonder, in the shadow of Google Drive, why I bother with Excel and Word but they are still great products, so I continue to use them.

But I digress. Not being able to open Excel files is a real pain. Yesterday I was even contemplating re-building a spreadsheet for an Mx3 Metrics client. But in a last-ditch effort, I decided to call Microsoft Support.

Wow. Was I ever surprised? I filled out a form for a callback. Wait time was supposed to be 1 minute which I didn't believe but it was actually true - I got a call back right away. I wasn't put on hold or redirected to another person. The technician asked me all the right questions. She diagnosed the issue. We connected remotely and she fixed the problem. Bada bing bada boom. Done.

I was very impressed.