Hotmail account lock

[gbeirn]

Not sure where this should go so mods feel free to move if this isn't appropriate.

I noticed in the Thunderbird a week or so ago that is wasn't downloading my Hotmail email and giving me a password errors. I went to their website to try and login and had no luck there. I kept getting a message that "It looks like someone else might be using your account". I attempted the reset options and to verify it's mine but there are several problems: I have no phone number on file to send an SMS to, the password for the account has never been changed, I created this account 15 years ago so I don't know what if anything the security questions are, I don't create any folders in the account or send any email out from it or have any contacts listed. It is purely for a receiving mail that goes to my Thunderbird on my local PC.

I have taken guesses at some of the questions they want filled out but every e-mail I get from them says "Unfortunately, we were unable to verify your ownership of this account using the information you provided."

The big problem with this is now my SkyDrive is no longer accessible. I can't access my Steam account since Steam guard sends emails there, my Credit Card accounts and who knows how many various forums and online shopping sites all mail to my Hotmail: eBay, Amazon, etc.

I tried calling Microsoft with a 888 number I found on gethuman.com but they told me that they can't, for security reasons, help anyone over the phone with Microsoft Account problems.

How the heck am I supposed to resolve this? anyone have any ideas or experience something similar?

 

[Ketchup]

Can you just tell it you forgot your password and let it create a new one for you? Hotmail accounts are targets for hackers (at least the used to be) so I am wondering if this is what is at work here.

Suggestion: ditch Hotmail. I got tons of junk with 3 Hotmail accounts I have had over the years. My Gmail account has given me no issues with this.

 

[Steltek]

Not sure where this should go so mods feel free to move if this isn't appropriate.

I noticed in the Thunderbird a week or so ago that is wasn't downloading my Hotmail email and giving me a password errors. I went to their website to try and login and had no luck there. I kept getting a message that "It looks like someone else might be using your account". I attempted the reset options and to verify it's mine but there are several problems: I have no phone number on file to send an SMS to, the password for the account has never been changed, I created this account 15 years ago so I don't know what if anything the security questions are, I don't create any folders in the account or send any email out from it or have any contacts listed. It is purely for a receiving mail that goes to my Thunderbird on my local PC.

I have taken guesses at some of the questions they want filled out but every e-mail I get from them says "Unfortunately, we were unable to verify your ownership of this account using the information you provided."

The big problem with this is now my SkyDrive is no longer accessible. I can't access my Steam account since Steam guard sends emails there, my Credit Card accounts and who knows how many various forums and online shopping sites all mail to my Hotmail: eBay, Amazon, etc.

I tried calling Microsoft with a 888 number I found on gethuman.com but they told me that they can't, for security reasons, help anyone over the phone with Microsoft Account problems.

How the heck am I supposed to resolve this? anyone have any ideas or experience something similar?

I've tried to deal with this on behalf of family members with the same problem. And, based upon my experience, you are pretty much now and forever SOL.

Microsoft support for Hotmail/Outlook (and Microsoft Accounts, in general) is almost totally nonexistent. My experience is that Microsoft doesn't care about your Hotmail problem, and they especially don't care if you ever resolve it or not. They certainly won't make any attempts to help you solve them. They'll direct you to open a support case in their support forums. You'll then be more likely to pick a winning lottery ticket than you have to ever receive a response to your support ticket.

When I got the email the other day about disabling account linking, I decided that was the last straw for me. Hopefully, I'll soon be leaving Hotmail/Outlook far behind and I recommend that you do it as well.

 

[Mushkins]

I've tried to deal with this on behalf of family members with the same problem. And, based upon my experience, you are pretty much now and forever SOL.

Microsoft support for Hotmail/Outlook (and Microsoft Accounts, in general) is almost totally nonexistent. My experience is that Microsoft doesn't care about your Hotmail problem, and they especially don't care if you ever resolve it or not. They certainly won't make any attempts to help you solve them. They'll direct you to open a support case in their support forums. You'll then be more likely to pick a winning lottery ticket than you have to ever receive a response to your support ticket.

When I got the email the other day about disabling account linking, I decided that was the last straw for me. Hopefully, I'll soon be leaving Hotmail/Outlook far behind and I recommend that you do it as well.

To be fair, Google pretty much has the same policy with Gmail accounts. There is no support, period. There's just a user forum full of people crying about xyz. If someone gets into your account and locks you out, you're done. Likewise with Yahoo.

It's just the nature of free email accounts. If you're worried about that level of support you might want to drop a couple bucks a month on a hosted Exchange service like Office365.