Microsoft Reviews 3,732

Microsoft has an automated recovery to get back into the account that is locked. However, this automatic recovery has failed for me. I have been locked out of my account for no reason. It does not appear I was hacked, no emails were sent from it that weren't me but somehow my account gets locked. I have input every piece of information I have, including emails, subject lines, recipients, and more. Only to repeatedly get rejected every time. The inability to talk to a person to help me recover my account is a terrible way to run support. I know this because I was MCSE certified, along with other Microsoft certifications. I worked as an IT Support Specialist for over a decade. I know the capabilities exist to help people who have problems. This automated system will not let me back in. The worst part is, I have my password, previous emails, subject lines, and personal information. However, I keep getting denied access. Microsoft policy makers. Please explain to me how I can get access back into my account. You can't because you limit the help I can receive. My experience with Microsoft has resulted in the loss of years of files and pictures. I will no longer give Microsoft any more of my money for them to lock my account. Probably, from automated rules that flag accounts whether there is a problem or not. Bye, Microsoft, you have screwed me for the last time.

"Help protect your account"

"Add an email so you can safely sign in to your Microsoft account if you ever get locked out. Learn more
Add email"

How can I add an E-mail? You're my E-mail. I don't have any other E-mail address to use, so how can i put another recovery E-mail address on my account?
I want to just log into my account, but I can't even do that.
Really! Who is in charge of Microsoft E-mail? Maybe it's time they retired and you got someone who is competent in doing this job.

LOL 😆 I wondered if there were a Microsoft presence on Trustpilot .. and there is! I have used every personal use version of Windows since Version 2! It astounds me that even now, some 40 odd years after I first used Windows, that it is both the most amazing and most irritating operating system ever. Why are Windows 11 updates frequently larger than the original OS itself? Why, in 2026, can't Microsoft have sufficient capacity to allow users who are updating their software to allow it to happen in a reasonable length of time; not the inordinate amount it generally takes? I've never known my Linux server take more than a few minutes, but when a raft of Windows security updates and - worse - .NET and/or firmware upgrades are involved ... you may as well go out for the rest of the day! It has always been a running joke for iOS and Linux users. Nowadays I just find it a complete ball ache. For someone who used to enjoy looking deep into the operating system to solve user issues, both commercially and to help out friends, my advice these days would be to go to Mac, Linux or Chrome! On a high spec'd W11 laptop, I've been waiting 2 hours for a shed load of files to install; so far on reboot number 3 and it does look like it'll be finished any time soon. 🤨

Microsoft has become the blueprint for how a giant company can fake competence, fake innovation, and fake accountability while delivering an experience that feels like a never‑ending obstacle course of confusion, broken features, and corporate indifference.

Every interaction feels engineered to obfuscate, delay, and frustrate. Products launch half‑baked, services glitch constantly, and support is a maze designed to wear you down until you simply give up. The company talks endlessly about “empowering users,” yet everything about the experience feels like the opposite — a slow grind of errors, forced updates, disappearing features, and systems that never behave the way they claim to.

The pattern is always the same:
Big promises.
Glossy marketing.
And then… nothing but disappointment.

Whether it’s software that breaks itself, subscriptions that feel predatory, or support that loops you in circles, Microsoft has perfected the art of saying everything and delivering nothing. It’s a corporate illusion — a polished exterior hiding a hollow, unreliable core.

If you’re looking for honesty, reliability, or transparency, look elsewhere. Microsoft has become a case study in how a company can lose its way while pretending everything is fine.

One star only because zero isn’t an option.

A preordered controller, and it ended up arriving to the delivery agency without a controller in the box. I continuously requested just to get a new controller.Instead, they refunded me and told me to order it again. For a billion dollar company, you'd think they'd be better.

Hello,

Two days ago my internet from Huawei router went down - it was probably hacked or malfunction.

I was using internet through cable connected to my Windiows PC.

So I temporarily switch to wifi connection. I plugged in Alfa wifi adapter to my PC and from this moment in Task Manager I saw that there started to occur progress - Windows Firewall and Firewall Rules that was consuming 20% oc my CPU and this process was almost always on top.

I don''t know yet if it is malware or some Windows malfunction but I can't use my PC comfortably because of that.

I must add that I use top anti-virus and anti-malware software and I scan my PC regularny. Also I update system regularly too.

So if this system - Windows - work in this way - that you are unable to use it comfortably I can't recommend it honestly.

Thanks.

I don't understand what kinda security or operation you guys running on Xbox because it sucks you guys aren't detecting Cronus zen users or hackers before they enter the game or connecting on Xbox console third party devices because obviously Activision isn't detecting nothing in game this been going on for a while there's a guy is on Xbox he is no where to be found on the report player list in bo7eat or the resent play list on Xbox or try to search him on Xbox This is concerning for all my information on Xbox and my Account in Microsoft nobody seems to care about other people information play station was already hacked because the anti cheat failed to detect and Microsoft is faild to detect Cronus zen users and other software devices on Xbox console. Activision hasn't changed there anti cheat because they think the anti cheat is great at detecting ain't detecting fast enough.i think Microsoft needs put tighter security on the Xbox console and start detecting third party devices on there consoles

An absolute joke of a company, by far the WORST customer support there is. I was trying to redeem a gift card, and it was activated from where I purchased and it doesn’t wanna work on Microsoft’s side, and just for trying the code a few times they want to lock my account. And then their recovery process is so excruciating. What they need is geniune and good customer service and support, not some sloppy “virtual ai agent” to help. What a terrible company.

Unfortunately account hacked, tried to recover but AI refused numerous times. Complained on their Facebook page, at least there was non verbal comms but ultimately back to where we started. Kept on trying to recover but now no response at all, at least my experience is now archived!!! I can always now register for new account with new email address and pay with same card used in hacked account. Useless customer services.

I have long been a Microsoft Office 365 user and pay an annual subscription for a family version. Word itself is great as is Powerpoint, the main programs I use, but trying to share my account has proved a nightmare. My wife's account which had been working for years suddenly demanded validation, which didn't work. In the end, I had to send her a link to join but this involved reinstalling 365 on her computer. THEN the validation worked. That's three hours of my life wasted... Customer service was no help

Literally the greatest software distribution company in the world, the Xbox is a fantastic gaming machine, game pass is like no other subscription in the world giving access to some of the greatest games all packaged in, Office products are used globally across every organisation on the planet for good reason, building brand new datacentres globally, creating 10s of thousands of well paid jobs, innovating new technology, people writing the negative reviews here are all morons.

Doesn't let me reset my password, use email to reset it and it send me ANOTHER PERSON's email for me to reset

TERRIBLE ASS WORTHLESS COMPANY. Don’t give a damn about the customer. Products are overpriced, services terrible and any help available is useless. XBOX has fallen off. Microsoft 365 is just a moneygrab. Outlook barely works half the time.

GO TO HELL MICROSOFT

I just don’t understand with today’s technology why should it be so hard for me to recover my account ….. if I’m using my phone why is it constantly sending me to the same damn cell phone I’m constantly saying I don’t have and all my information is updated yet when I get done it’s still saying enter code to the wrong damn number like this is so unprofessional fix it please and I shouldn’t have to wait 24 hours to have my account fixed

My issue with Microsoft support remains unresolved, despite spending more than 48 hours trying to get help and even having to raise an escalation complaint.
I initially contacted support because I wanted assistance setting up a label and rule so that all of my business emails would be encrypted automatically. After a long delay, I was eventually contacted by Pepakayala Jeminah, who set up a label and rule in Purview. However, once this was done, recipients were unable to open the encrypted emails received from my Business, which meant my business was effectively unable to send emails successfully at all. Pepakayala and her supervisor then advised that they did not know how to resolve the matter immediately and needed to read up on it and get further support. I was told I would receive a phone call back within 60 minutes, and Pepakayala also confirmed this in an email sent at 5.54 p.m. Unfortunately, no contact was received from either Pepakayala or her supervisor.

At 20:35 hrs, I was contacted by another representative, but he appeared to have no information at all about the actions already taken earlier by Pepakayala or her supervisor. He then spent more than two hours attempting to remove the label Pepakayala had implemented, simply so that my Microsoft emails could be returned to their original basic state. After all of that, I was then told that he could not provide any further support and that I would need to wait until Pepakayala returned to work in three days time following the weekend. I made it very clear how dissatisfied I was, explaining that the lack of effective support was having a direct impact on my business. The representative’s supervisor then came to the phone and advised that he needed to seek additional assistance in order to help me achieve the original aim of encrypting all business emails without the need for individual encryption. I explained again that after two days of trying to get support and spending four plus hours on the phone with different representatives, I was effectively back at square one, with the original reason for my contact still unresolved. The supervisor then promised that he would return my call within 30 to 45 minutes, but once again, no call was received.
The following day, at 8.08 p.m., and without any further attempt from Microsoft support to contact me or resolve my request, I received an email stating, “We recently resolved the following support incident.” This was plainly untrue, as nothing had been resolved. By this stage, I had given up trying to get the support I originally asked for.
Needless to say, I will not be renewing my Microsoft Business Premium subscription. It is one thing for support staff not to have the basic knowledge, communication or skills required to resolve what I consider to be a basic business query, but it is another matter entirely to repeatedly promise call-backs that never happen and then mark the incident as resolved when it clearly was not. Overall, this was an extremely poor experience and one that has left me with no confidence in Microsoft’s support service.
Extremely poor support service – very disappointing experience for a paying business customer.

I used to really like Microsoft and was probably their no 1 customer. The late windows 10 era or the early windows 11 times were great. OneDrive was much better than the alternatives, I used Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Windows, I even used Copilot a bit, even before it was called Copilot. I used to earn rewards from using Bing.

However so much has changed.

It started with silently installing Edge and quietly changing settings to try and make us use it. This means by definition, Edge is malware. A ton of things in Windows use Edge, so computers with low RAM are absolutely cooked, as people always have 2 browsers open, Chrome (for normal browsing) and Edge (which Windows forces to be open). Lots of apps rely on Edge, like Teams for example, which I think is completely wrong.

AI advanced, Copilot did not, now it's the easiest AI to gaslight; I can make it think 2+2=5 in about 3 prompts. It's now pushed in our faces all over Windows and I hate it.

There was a time when Microsoft services like OneDrive became very unreliable and went down often. They also ran out of capacity, so everything became slow. I run a datacentre, so I know these things happen. However the way Microsoft responded is awful. Instead of spending some money on more servers, they wasted millions on a rebrand that made their products look objectively worse. WHAT IS THIS?!

Last year, my account got taken over, which I know isn't Microsoft's fault. What IS Microsoft's fault is their lack of competence, blatant lying to my face, and refusal to give it back. Recovery forms are bugged, support don't know what they're talking about, and "permanent suspension" is definitely not permanent. If it weren't for an amazing Discord server, there would be no saving my account.

A couple years ago before I built my datacentre, I experimented with Azure. After a couple months, I had to start multiple chargebacks due to their deliberately misleading pricing.

I usually don't write negative reviews but there really is no saving this company. Screw you Microslop.

Atrocious experience from start to finish.

Supposedly a £2400 laptop. Hardware failure within 7 months. Non-existant support. Had to send it away for over a week for it to be replaced by a refurb(!). No details on issues provided.

Charger now doesn't work. Passed from pillar to post online without any useful assistance. I've wasted more time chasing this than is fair or reasonable.

If you can't provide automated flows for resolving issues- with safety nets where they don't work- then don't. It's an immensely frustrating customer experience, especially for such a high-ticket product.

The Microsoft team continues to ignore my emails and has yet to provide any solution for my OneDrive issues. It has now been 6 years since my first interaction with them. This level of incompetence is unacceptable. There appears to be 0 willingness to properly assess or resolve their mistakes. As a result, I have chosen not to purchase what is a poorly supported product.

I bought nero express through microsoft store stating 7 day free trial. After 3 days didn't want program and tried to cancel. Microsoft has no way so I tried to do it through nero. Nero said go to microsoft and cancel subscription. Tried and couldn't do it. Not a subscription. It is a program. Tried contacting microsoft but that is a joke. I guess they got my money under false pretense. How can I trust microsoft? I can't!!!