When attempting to host a meeting for any type of training (Industry, K-12, Higher Ed, Technology, many others) attendees are unable to hear the meeting audio unless they have a microphone plugged into their PC.

Microsoft has this listed as a Known Issue internally, and has posted about it here before - originally saying they would fix it in Lync 2010 CU4; which they later dropped stating that it would be too costly to fix...

OK, so the CORE of the reason people want to use this product (Nope, it isn't telephony and instant messaging, you could do that so much cheaper with other products) is so invariably broken that the product doesn't function at all in almost every perceivable end-user situation - except for using a laptop with a built-in mic? Yep.

I asked myself how could this be; then found the statement from Microsoft:

"Making a change would involve too many components and the high cost associated for making these changes would not justified to qualify it as a Cumulative Update within this product release lifecycle."

Great, sweet, Lync 2013 is out - must be fixed now, right? NOPE.

This is INSANE - Microsoft let me tell you directly: I don't care if you re-write the entire product from the ground up (this time not having some bat-brained programmer hard-code microphone support into every single module) - this is the MOST important bug you have to fix in this product, PERIOD.

I expect that you do conduct a bit of market research - do you not understand that this is EXACTLY what your competition offers in other products? Do you really not understand the INTENDED USE of your product? What did you design it for? Who did you design it to compete with? This product can't compete in the same market that LiveMeeting had - it is useless in that space.

However - barring that you refuse to fix this issue - would you be so kind as to list this as a Known Issue on your website; so people can stop spending hours deploying this crappy software that is useless without this feature. Thanks.

/end-rant

Hi,

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. Here is a workaround for the users who don't have Microphone connected.

When the client displays audio device is not configured, you can drop-down the list of the button "Retry", you will see an option "Connect to the meeting" under "Call in separate", select it then you can join the meeting.

Nope, using the Web Plugin which users who do not have an account with Lync Online HAVE to use, cannot do this. That means that NO external users are capable of joining meeting audio unless they have microphones. Again - this breaks the intended use of this product. Please escalate this to someone who can consider fixing it. It's also just plain silly to have to call in separate to join meeting audio. Design the product to join meeting audio AND THEN figure out how you can talk back. You should be able to HEAR the meeting even if you have no functional way of participating.

• Edited by chris.bruscato 12 hours 21 minutes ago

Also, Lync 2013 Basic does not have the option you describe at all - you get 2 options - CALL ME, or JOIN MEETING AUDIO under that retry button. Neither of which work, unless you have a conference provider on your Lync Online account. Can I just keep saying how dumb this is? I'm not sure I am getting that across. Microsoft got rid of a WORKING product, LiveMeeting, and replaced it with a Skype Rip-Off that can't do anything unless your a 10,000+ Employee business with all the money to burn in the world. And even then! External customers can't join your webinar unless you buy them a headset.

Nope, using the Web Plugin which users who do not have an account with Lync Online HAVE to use, cannot do this. That means that NO external users are capable of joining meeting audio unless they have microphones. Again - this breaks the intended use of this product. Please escalate this to someone who can consider fixing it. It's also just plain silly to have to call in separate to join meeting audio. Design the product to join meeting audio AND THEN figure out how you can talk back. You should be able to HEAR the meeting even if you have no functional way of participating.

• Edited by chris.bruscato Friday, October 11, 2013 10:26 PM