Attention Jim Balsillie: Answer the Phone, it is Microsoft

File under you just can't make this stuff up. 

I have the Research in Motion (RIM) desktop management software on my desktop to deal with various things for my Blackberry. Every once -n- awhile, the software has a brain fart and coughs up a hairball. Translation: It crashes.

Dr. 'phone home' Watson, sends all the bad news home and, from time to time, Microsoft goes beyond just saying thanks for the error report.  Sometimes, to their credit, they are helpful by sending you to a web page which tries to give out further information.

In this case, you can see the extremely helpful goings on below:

I find it just shocking that RIM is not answering Microsoft's calls. 

Given that I know I've sent in the error message a bunch of times and I know of others who have had the same issue, I can only imagine that Microsoft has RIM on speed dial, left a bunch of messages, and is patiently waiting for a call back. 

Jim, come on, throw the Redmond folks a bone.  They have some cash and (I verified this) will accept a collect call.

Of course, there is the slight possibility that somebody deep inside Microsoft charged with writing these error messages, might want to re-think this one.

On a more serious note, there is a lesson here if you are writing an application for Windows.  Microsoft does have a program in place to work with software companies when errors happen.  You can go to the Microsoft MSDN web site and learn more or contact me for details.

[Note: For those that don't know, Jim Balsille is the Chair and Co-CEO of RIM as well as being on the JLA advisory board.]

Comments

[neal]

Microsoft doesn't charge for error reporting(extremely nice of them, IMO), but you DO need a $400 VeriSign certificate. Google has an open-source cross-platform library(not a full-fledged service) that you can integrate called "Google-breakpad"

[Jim Courtney]

For an example of Microsoft working with software publishers to resolve an issue, one might refer to a recent real time communications outage that affected a few million users. Check out the links and quotes from a third party publisher at http://skypejournal.com/blog/2007/08/skypes_clarification_and_accep.html.