On March 24, 2009 the Professional level “Enterprise Platforms Support” business at Microsoft will transition to a call-back model for all After Hours Professional support incidents in the United States and Canada.  Below is a description of how to contact Microsoft customer service, as well as other relevant information regarding this change:

Why are we moving to a call-back model?

1. To minimize the amount of time that customers spend on hold
2. To enable the support incident to be routed to the correct resource, thus minimizing the incorrect routing of support incidents.

Below are the Service Level Agreements for Professional Level Cases:

EPS Professional Service Level Agreements – Business Hours

• Severity A - initial response < 2 hours for phone only.  No Severity A for e-mail or online submission.
• Severity B - initial response < 4 business hours for phone and online submission.  No Severity B for e-mail incidents.
• Severity C - initial response < 8 business hours for phone, e-mail and online submission. 

EPS Professional After Hours Support

• Severity A - Initial response < 2 hours for phone only.  No Severity A for e-mail or online submission.
• Severity B - Call back will be made in regular business hours
• Severity C - Call back will be made in regular business hours

Contacting Microsoft Product Support using Online Support Submissions

As an alternative to opening a support incident via phone, you can use our Online Support Submissions process. 

For more information on this change, please refer to the following web page on the Microsoft Support site: Professional Support Options and Phone Numbers

For more information on contacting Microsoft Product Support, please refer to the following resources:

• Microsoft Help and Support – Assisted Support
• Business-Critical After-Hours Support

- CC Hameed