I cannot use some software support forums due to lack of an official phone number [closed]

Question

Sometimes I need to access Microsoft forums, for example, to report bugs in Visual Studio, or ask some programing related question. The problem is that I cannot open an account in Microsoft websites, because it demands a phone number.

Due to my employer policies, I cannot use my personal number for working purposes, and I am not provided a personal phone number at work, so I cannot open an account. I'm impeded to use a lot of internet resources for that reason. (For instance, I can no more open a gmail account.)

Actually, I have an office number, but it was already used by another employee, and I cannot reuse the same number to open my accounts. The company will not provide a phone just for me.

My manager isn't a programmer, and she doesn't understand my problem, since I'm the only one complaining. Other programmers in the team mostly use Oracle SQL or non-Microsoft products.

What can I do to address this conundrum?

Answer 1

Tell Email your boss that your work is impeded due to the lack of an official phone number, and do as he/she says.

Explaining technical issues to non-technical coworkers is an important skill every technical person must grow, especially since non-technical bosses are ubiquitous in the software industry.

In this case, instead of telling the boss "I cannot reliably generate the TPS report because Visual Studio's JSON parser sporadically fails to highlight a mismatched brace", phrase it in a manner that would be of interest to him/her:

Boss, one of the steps to generate the TPS report requires Visual Studio tool. This tool comes from Microsoft. Sometimes, the tool doesn't work as expected, which messes up the TPS report. To get this issue fixed, I need to post a bug report on Microsoft's customer support forum. An official phone number is mandatory to create an account on their support forum. Hence, I would need one to be able to make progress with the TPS report.

This is a lot more verbose than what you would have to explain to a technical manager, but it is more likely to get you the support you need.

Then the next time the boss asks why you haven't prepared the TPS report, you can just say you are still blocked due to the tool issue. Keep repeating as often as necessary.

Either the boss will get asked for the TPS report soon enough (at which point, he/she will "get" the issue and tell you what to do) or nobody will ever bother about the TPS report (in which case, you can just forget about the whole thing).

Answer 2

You've presented your manager with a problem, but not any solutions. This leaves your manager responding with "gibberish" instead of approving something that gets you unblocked. So how could you solve this problem? A few possibilities:

• Get a company phone. This would work, and I have no idea whether it would be helpful to you in the rest of your job, but it's also overkill for this specific problem. You need a phone number to create the account, not ongoing access to a phone to use it routinely.
• Get permission to use your personal phone number to create the account.
• Get permission to use someone else's phone number to create the account: your manager's phone, your office's reception, a co-worker's phone, etc...
• Create a team account your office can use, using a company phone number.
• Use a service (whatever is available in your country) for a VoIP phone number at no/low cost.
• Check to see whether a valid phone number is required at all (does the registration process validate it with a challenge/response?)

Pick one or two that make the most sense for your situation, and propose them to your manager (if needed; some you may be able to implement yourself), along with a brief explanation of the problem and how it impacts your work. In other words: "I'm blocked on X because of this phone number problem. I'd like to do Y to fix it. Is that ok? If you have questions or want to discuss the other options I considered, let me know."

Answer 3

Try calling your number with some extra digits at the end, so instead of 555-1234 try 555-12345678.

If it works, you have an unlimited number of phone numbers!

Answer 4

I assume that the company has a phone line. In which case, just give the company's main switchboard number. If somebody actually tries to contact you through that number, then you can probably be hunted down.

That's a lot simpler and quicker than trying to persuade your boss to give you a personal phone, just so you can put something on a form.

Answer 5

You do what you´d do with all resources you think you need for your work:

• Write to your management what exactly you require.
• Outline clearly what the benefits for the company are (faster work-results, better quality etc.?) Try to make a good estimate of the numbers.
• Briefly outline the costs.
• If you have, alternative solutions, list them also. (instead of providing a phone, allow usage of private account for this purpose)

Start with a short summary in your first line, than go into the details.

Then wait and live with their decision. Remember, they pay you for your time. If they decide it is better for their success if you to work a week on a solution you could get from the internet in 5 minutes, it´s their decision to make. You made them aware of the costs involved in that decision, you can use that whenever a performance-review comes up so you are kind of covered.

example:

(Subject: Request for work-resources)

Summary: I am loosing productivity due to inaccessible information resources at MS. The problem could be remedied by either assigning me a work-phone for authentication purposes or by giving me a waiver to use my private account.

Hi Bob,

I am experiencing frequent problems when working with M-Soft products, because I cant access their documentation without a MS-Account. To authenticate, MS requires me to provide a phone number. I can´t use the general office line as this has already been used by a former colleague. I´d use my private phone or my personal account, but to my understanding you policy explicitly forbids this.

As we use MS-Technology for almost all of our products, this causes a frequent delay, I would estimate that I have to spend about ~5 hours a week looking for other resources, which are often not as reliably.

To register an account, I need a simple phone number, which is occasionally checked by MS so I need continued access. It can also not be a shared phone, as MS allow only one account to be associated with this.

A viable alternative could be to give me permission to use my private MS-account for this purpose. I would only use it to access information, not to post or store company information so the operational risk should be minimal.

Please advise how to proceed in removing this obstacle.

BR,

Daniel

_{(adjust tone to your setting)}

Answer 6

What can be done?

Ask your boss about using a Google Voice and get a free VOIP number. Once you set it up, this Google voice number can point to any real number you wish. I use it so I don't have to use my real cell phone number. (Available in US only, otherwise you can use Google hangouts)

Getting started with Google Voice

Also, I would suggest you use the various sites here on stack exchange, such as stackOverFlow -- a far superior resource and does not require a phone number. I have not used a MS Forum in years.

Answer 7

Since you have an office number that is now in your possession, get that number dissociated from another person's account, so that you can create yours. Contact Microsoft customer support and ask them how to proceed.

Answer 8

Lets's try some lateral thinking.

You don't need a physical 'phone to have a 'phone number.

I googled free phone number receive sms and there were a bunch of hits.

The first one says

Currently We support few countries numbers like: USA, Spain, Romania,Uk,Germany, France, Russia, Italy and we will try to add more.

You don't say which country you are in, but a search ought to be able to turn up something to help you - just so long as you only want to receive SMS and not voice calls.

And, if the web form does not validate that the number given is from the country where you are, or which you give as your street address, then you don't care which country you use.

Answer 9

Use a Microsoft account that you created for yourself with your personal phone number. The Microsoft account should be tied to you personally since you will want access to those forums outside of your current employment. Unless there is a company policy that you cannot use personal accounts to access those Microsoft forums, this is within bounds of the existing policy.