Windows complaint?

Do you have a dispute or a bad customer experience with Windows? Report it through our website to maximize the chance of getting it resolved.

We help you write an effective complaint in minutes. Our AI models are trained on thousands of effective complaint letters. Then we push it through emails, social media, paper complaint letters and other tools at our disposal. And you are not alone: our helpful community is there for advice.

Windows is Microsoft's operating system, so software and licence problems are handled by Microsoft, while a hardware fault on a pre built PC belongs to the manufacturer or the shop that sold it. Support runs through the account rather than through a Windows phone number: start from the support pages on the Microsoft site and sign in with the account the licence or subscription sits under, or open the Get Help app that ships with Windows, which leads to the same routes. Have the account email address, the order number from the purchase confirmation, the edition of Windows and the device details ready. Treat any number shown in a pop up warning or a sponsored search result as suspect: fake support lines are one of the oldest scams aimed at Windows users, and a genuine error message does not carry a phone number.

Microsoft and the PC maker each pointing at the other? Start the complaint through our complaint process and we push it out by email, social media and printed letters instead of another support ticket.

Replacing the motherboard, and sometimes the drive, breaks the link between the digital licence and the device, and Windows then reports that it is not activated. What you can do next depends on the licence: a retail licence can be moved to new hardware, while an OEM licence that came with a pre built PC is tied to the original machine and does not transfer. Sign in with the Microsoft account the licence was linked to and run the activation troubleshooter, which has an option for hardware that was recently changed. Have the receipt or order number for the key, and the email or sticker that carried it. Keys bought from marketplace sellers far below the usual price are often volume or reused keys that get blocked later, so where you bought it is part of any complaint.

Product key refused after a hardware change? Report it here and your case becomes the record the next user blocked after a motherboard swap can point to, with the licence type and the exact error wording in it.

Refunds on digital purchases run through the order history of the Microsoft account that made the purchase, and the outcome usually turns on the purchase date and whether the software has been used. A subscription such as Microsoft 365 or extra cloud storage is stopped in the services and subscriptions area of that same account, and cancelling ends the next renewal rather than refunding the charge that already went out. If Windows came pre installed on a PC, the refund route is the manufacturer or the retailer instead. Screenshot the order, the cancellation confirmation and the card statement line, and write down three dates: when you bought, when you were charged and when you cancelled. Those dates decide it.

Still being billed after cancelling? Set the case out on our website and we open a case for you, then keep coaching you on what to reply and when to escalate.

Account recovery runs through the recovery form on the Microsoft sign in page, and it is judged automatically against the details held on the account rather than by a person you can argue with. Submit it from a device and network you have used before, use the address the account was opened with, and answer as much as you can: old passwords, subject lines of recent messages, billing details and order numbers linked to the account. Partial answers are the usual reason a recovery request is refused, and you can submit again with more detail. A local account on the PC is a separate thing and is reset at the sign in screen using the security questions set when it was created. Never pay anyone offering to unlock an account, and never pass on a code sent to you by text or email: that is how accounts are stolen rather than recovered.

Nothing has been reported about Windows here yet. Our research shows what typically goes wrong with desktop software sold this way: product keys refused after a hardware change, updates that install themselves and leave a machine unusable, account lockouts when the recovery address or phone number on the account is out of date, subscriptions and cloud storage that keep billing after a cancellation, refunds on digital purchases that stall, and the manufacturer and the software maker each pointing at the other.

Sound familiar? Be the first to report it and open the record for other consumers.

Your complaint gets its own public page on Complain.biz and we get to work: we bring it to the attention of Windows through emails, social media, paper complaint letters and other tools at our disposal.

And we stay with it after you file. Our trained AI opens a case file for you and keeps coaching: what to reply, when to push again, and how to escalate if nothing happens.

Yes. We have an active community of consumers, and complaints here are public: people who ran into the same problem with Windows can give you advice or back you up with their own story. A complaint with a community behind it is much harder to overlook.