topicalhuman.com

We’ve had an issue overnight with up a client who is transitioning from Microsoft Small Business Server to the ‘full’ versions of Micrsosoft Server and Exchange, using the Microsoft Transition Pack. Now, to put this into context, the client is correctly licensed, and the Transition pack has been purchased to legally give them the license for the ‘full’ products.

However, when we installed the Transition pack it came up with an product activation screen, with a blank installation ID in Step 3. As a result we cannot proceed and cannot log on to the server. Upon speaking to Microsoft Support, they want to charge us $400 to help resolve the issue.

Now, if we’ve done something wrong, we’re happy to pay up, although we believe we’ve followed the correct procedure. If we’ve done nothing wrong, and the client has been properly licensed, I don’t see why we should be made to pay to fix an issue that is a product fault.

So, I’m asking for help from anyone who reads this, with a particular shout-out to those who I know may have some idea how to resolve this: Michael, Frank, Ben, mssmallbiz.

[Update] If anyone can offer any advice, please either leave a comment, or shoot me an email at stephenh {at} centra {dot} com {dot} au. Thanks!

[Update #2] Matthew (my esteemed Technical Director) has managed to get hold of a helpful Microsoft Support person, and will be uninstalling SP1 from the Server component via the Transition Pack console. Hopefully this works fine; we’ve been assured that it will do the trick. However, any ideas or thoughts are still welcome. Thanks to those who have already emailed with suggestions.