Earlier this week we reported on an open letter that was sent to Microsoft executives regarding the problems that many users are having when installing Windows 10 updates. Microsoft responded, and unfortunately, it was not the response people were looking for.

Susan Bradley, a Microsoft MVP who for the past 18 years has volunteered her time helping Windows users, took a survey of over 1,800 respondents regarding the Windows 10 Update experience. She then sent an open letter to Microsoft executives summarizing the results of this survey and providing thoroughly researched material regarding the poor update experience Windows 10 users have been experiencing.

After the time and effort that Bradley put into creating her letter and the amount of support she has personally given to Microsoft and Windows over the years, it was expected that she would receive a response from someone in the Windows group who could respond to her concerns.

Instead the response to her letter came in the form of an opened service request.

Service Request # 1435381482 Hello Susan, My name is [redacted], and I’m a Customer Relationship Manager here at the Microsoft corporate offices in Redmond, Washington. Thank you for reaching out. I would like to let you know that we got your concerns about the Windows 10 patch quality issues that you have brought to our attention. I wanted to give you an update and let you know that at this time I working on finding the best venue to bring your concerns to our leadership team who would be better equipped in making any decisions that need to be made.

A few days later she received a more formal, yet in my opinion, inadequate response that almost feels like her letter was not read, her concerns were not understood, and that simply a canned response was given.

Hello Susan, This is (redacted) again with Microsoft customer services and support team. I would like to thank you for all the great feedback that you submitted in your previous letter that you sent to Microsoft. I would like to tell you that I have forward[ed] your letter to a team that is better equipped to handle the concerns and feedback that you have stated in your letter. Your letter clearly states the concerns that you have due to the quality and timing of Microsoft updates. I would like to add that with Windows 10 Microsoft decided to be more proactive. This has always been the way we keep commercial versions of Windows on the market current. There are also bug fixes. These updates can be vital. The Windows software environment and its associated hardware is incredibly complex. When these bugs are fixed, updates have to be issued to move them out to users. You want these updates to make sure everything works as expected. Windows 10 is very different from earlier versions of Windows. Earlier versions of Windows consisted of a single product which was updated over time. Windows 10 consists entirely of a base install and then fluid updates. The updates aren't add-ons from which to pick and choose but are part of the operating system. I have provided a link below to our Feedback Hub. In the future you could use the link to provide feedback and share your suggestions or comments on issues with Windows products. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/feedback-hub/9nblggh4r32n?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab Again, thank you for all the feedback. Is there anything else I can do to help? Did you have any other questions or concerns you wanted to discuss? If there are none I will go ahead and close out of your service request.

Honestly, I expected more from Microsoft on this, especially considering how the Windows team has been working much harder to take feedback from Windows users since the release of Windows 10.

Instead, Microsoft responded with a statement that sounds more like they are talking to someone complaining only about the frequency of updates. While that is a concern, it does not address other problems such as the quality of some of these updates, lack of transparency and information, IT professionals having to search among themselves for crucial information, and incorrect information being given in knowledge base articles.

When it comes to responding to customer complaints, especially well documented and researched ones, they should respond in a similar manner. Microsoft can, should, and needs to do better than this.