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Recent discussions have highlighted Microsoft’s alleged strategy of employing complex file formats, which critics suggest is a deliberate tactic to entrench users within the Microsoft Office ecosystem, thereby impeding the adoption of open-source alternatives like LibreOffice.
Adding to this narrative, Microsoft has now taken action against a key LibreOffice developer, Mike Kaganski, by suspending his account across its services. The company cited “activity that violates [its] Services Agreement” as the reason for the ban.
The Unexpected Account Lockout
According to Kaganski, the incident began last Monday. While attempting to send a routine technical email to the LibreOffice developer mailing list via Thunderbird, he encountered an error preventing the message from being sent. Upon retrying, his Microsoft account was immediately blocked, leading to a complete lockout from all associated services.
Kaganski speculated that his email and account might have been flagged by an automated system or bot. He was confident that the content of his email adhered strictly to Microsoft’s terms of service, making the sudden ban particularly perplexing.
A Frustrating Road to Recovery
Determined to resolve the issue, Kaganski initiated an appeal. This process, however, quickly led him to describe Redmond’s IT operations as “miserably incompetent.” The automated appeal system demanded his phone number, which he provided, only to be met with a generic “Try another method” error message. Bafflingly, no alternative methods were offered.
His subsequent attempt to contact Microsoft support directly proved equally challenging. After considerable effort, he located a link to the support team, only to find that it required him to “Sign in to Contact support.” Kaganski wryly noted the inherent paradox: “Here is a page where we discuss problems signing in. You attempted our FAQ suggestions? You still can’t sign in? No problem! Contact our Support team, and we will solve your problem is a minute! But first, please sign in to continue.”
Eventually, Kaganski resorted to using his wife’s Microsoft account to file the appeal. A response from support finally arrived, providing instructions that mirrored the problematic steps he had already attempted: navigate to the sign-in page and, upon being told the account is blocked, provide a phone number. Despite Kaganski’s detailed report outlining the failures of this very process, Microsoft disregarded his input, marked his ticket as resolved without any meaningful action, and promptly closed it.
As of now, Mike Kaganski’s account remains inaccessible. Interestingly, the technical email he was initially prevented from sending was successfully delivered when he used Gmail, experiencing no issues whatsoever.
Not an Isolated Incident
Kaganski’s experience appears to be part of a broader trend of Microsoft account lockouts. On the 17th of last month, a Reddit user, identified as u/deus03690, shared a similar ordeal. Their Microsoft account, which contained invaluable data including 30 years of “irreplaceable photos and work” stored on OneDrive, was also locked without explanation.
Like Kaganski, u/deus03690’s appeal efforts have been futile. The user reported that Microsoft contacted them 10 days after the initial lockout, requesting them to complete a recovery form and promising “every step of the way” assistance. However, there has been no further communication from the company since.
These incidents underscore growing concerns among users regarding account security, the transparency of service agreement violations, and the efficacy of customer support for major online platforms.