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Ask HN: Is it normal for Microsoft Azure support to send you to a 3rd party

1 points by vanattab ↗ HN
I was interested in starting to use Azure for a project at work and was trying to figure out how much a VM costs when it is in the shutdown state. But the support/sales guy just said he could not give me pricing but told me to contact a 3rd party company for support.

>Thank you for waiting. Big Green It, LLC and GOBI TECHNOLOGIES INC will contact you to provide detailed information regarding billing and pricing for Azure VM. They are with Azure competency (VM)and certified from Microsoft. We hope to collaborate with your chosen specialist to complete an efficient business.

Is this normal operating procedure for Azure or is the support guy going rouge and trying to send clients to his friends?

2 comments

[ 2.3 ms ] story [ 16.4 ms ] thread
orbz
This is happening more and more with all the major cloud platforms. They realized that they couldn’t staff up enough service desk and solutions architects so they started partnering with Managed Service Providers. Companies that have specialized in providing those services, often for just a cut of the revenue and the opportunity to upsell.
rogerthis
My experience is unless you're a big payer (1000s), you are a long way until getting to a MS guy. And the first and second level (3rd parties) I've got are mostly "have you read this part of the manual?".