Hi all,

OK, this is probably more-or-less completely my own fault, as I was running my (fully-licensed) copy of Windows 8 Pro in a VM environment, testing the Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 upgrade, and went back and forwards a couple of times; clearly I've blown a usage limit inside MS's activation servers, as now my copy says it isn't activated, and if I attempt to activate I get error 0xc004c008.

The actual issue I've got is that I've tried ringing the product activation number, and it (after going thru the motions of entering the groups of digits etc) wants me to talk to a person.  Fair enough, but...  I'm hard of hearing; the call centre this evening had an enormous amount of background noise (sounds more-or-less like what it probably is - a large room full of people talking loudly!); and I couldn't overcome both that audio challenge and the accent of the person I was attempting to talk to, to the point where I couldn't even understand what they were asking me, let alone answer the question.


Unfortunately, phone calls, call centers and I simply don't get on sometimes.  This was a time, and unfortunately, is likely to continue to be one.

So, are there any suggestions out there about the best way to overcome this issue?  Does anyone know if Microsoft have an Australian call center?  Is there any particular time of day which will result in an easier audible experience?  Or is there a support email address, perhaps?