Microsoft bans LibreOffice developer's account without warning, rejects appeal

Recently, we reported on LibreOffice, accusing Microsoft of intentionally using complex file formats as a tactic to lock in users to Microsoft Office, hindering open source alternatives like LibreOffice.

Now, Microsoft has banned LibreOffice developer, Mike Kaganski, from using its services, citing an "activity that violates [its] Services Agreement".

According to Mike, this happened last Monday when he tried to send a technical email to the LibreOffice dev mailing list, which is a normal part of his routine, but Thunderbird returned an error saying the message couldn't be sent. His account was blocked upon retry, and he found himself completely logged out of his Microsoft account.

Kaganski guessed that his mail and account were getting flagged by a bot or something, since he was quite sure that nothing in the mail violated Microsoft's terms of service.

So he decided to file an appeal, a process which later made him call Redmond "miserably incompetent in IT." The automated system asked for his phone number, which he provided, only to be greeted by a "Try another method" error message.

The problem was that there was no other method offered. He then decided to reach out to Microsoft support directly. After some digging, he found a link to contact the team, and there it was, a button asking him to "Sign in to Contact support".

Now, you might go, "Hold up, how is he supposed to sign in to contact support when his problem is that he can't sign in in the first place?" As Kaganski himself put it:

Yes, you got it right. “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.”

He eventually got to use his wife's account to file an appeal and finally received a message from support. The instructions inside asked him to go to the sign-in page and, when told the account is blocked, provide a phone number (something he had already tried). Microsoft ignored his detailed report of the failing process, marked his ticket as resolved without any real action, and simply closed it.

He is yet to recover his account. As for the email he was trying to send, he was later able to use Gmail, and it went through with no problem. If you are interested, you can read the full email for yourself and see if it violates Microsoft's services agreement.

Mike's not the only person who's had their account locked recently, with seemingly no way to recover it. On the 17th of last month, Reddit user u/deus03690 shared how Microsoft locked their account, which, among other things, contained 30 years of "irreplaceable photos and work" on OneDrive.

Their appeal, like Mike's, has been fruitless so far. The user said Microsoft reached out 10 days later, asking them to fill out a recovery form and promising to help them "every step of the way," but they haven't heard from the company since.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Posted Wednesday 30 July 2025 at 12:11 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025 (till end of June): 2,864

RIP Matrix | Farewell my friend