So, I have written that I purchased new laptop computer. I purchased a Toshiba Satellite http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/satellite?src=MAXQ&cm_mmc=SEM_Direct_Bing&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc because I was pleased with my old computer, a Toshiba Satellite, until it became outdated, including because of the software, not the hardware, and I decided not to put new money into an old computer.
I was not really happy about having to use Windows 8.1, but I can learn to live with it. Because the files on my old computer were not compatible with the new computer, I have been entering all of my many hundred email addresses manually. And made quite a number of mistakes, which I fixed as I could.
Until Thursday night. I could access the primary email account I have with Suddenlink http://home.suddenlink.net/, but not the secondary email account which is the one with most of the email addresses. I was afraid this might happen. For security reasons, in the past, Suddenlink would lock me out of this account if I had too many bounce back emails. The first time I reported it, the technician fixed it right away. The next two times I reported it, I went through customer service hell to convince the technicians that this was the problem, but finally, we got it fixed.
So, Thursday night I called Suddenlink, and was connected to a nice young lady who heard my story and immediately told me I was not locked out of my account. We spent an hour or so changing all kinds of settings to try to activate the account, to no avail. She transferred me to Microsoft http://www.Microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx for further assistance. The first representative I got was not very helpful, had a very heavy accent that I could not understand, took my phone number "in case we were disconnected" and when we were disconnected, did not call me back after about 8 minutes. Fortunately, the Suddenlink representative had given me the Microsoft number, so I called back, and was connected to a very patient and very knowledgeable representative. We tried several things, and discovered that when I signed onto Suddenlink to access my secondary (problem) account, I was indeed locked out. He suggested I totally delete my secondary account, and not set it up until Suddenlink unlocked this account. He also told me that I had free access to Microsoft technological help for 90 days from the date of purchase of Microsoft Office. That was REALLY good to know.
By this time it was well after 9 PM. I had not eaten dinner and had other things to do on the computer, so decided this could wait a day.
Friday night, I called Suddenlink again, and explained the entire story and problem, including my interaction with Microsoft. The gentleman I worked with was very nice. I told him I was older, had bad vision and difficulty reading the small fonts and adjusting to a new key board, all of which contributed to my typographical errors. He related to me as an older user, also. He had a good sense of humor. He accepted the premise that I was locked out of my account (probably verifying it on his end.) I had trouble resetting my password. He helped me, accepting the unimaginative process I was using to reset the password, and it worked. I had to run a virus scan before he could submit the request for reset, and we had time to chat because it took so long. When it was reset, he told me the manager who did it was a reliable manager and he trusted that person. He gave me the setting to re-establish my Microsoft Outlook account. And he made sure that I was able to send and receive mail with the Suddenlink account I had previously had trouble with. He was great!
Every time I think I have everything set up with this new computer, something else happens. I had hoped to set up the new printer and the mail merge files I need to do last weekend, but that did not happen, as I was still trying to update email addresses and figure out the Outlook program.
I am in hopes that this weekend, I will be able to set up the new printer and the mail merge programs. Although I will have to move the old printer, I can set it up to use, with the old laptop, if I cannot figure out what I need before I need it, using the new computer.
This has been an adventure. Not a bad one, but still, an adventure. And more work and much more time consuming than I had bargained for. But, it will be okay.
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