Activation by Phone to a "Real" Person at Microsoft

Hi all,

I had to do a clean XP Home installation today on an old Compaq Presario
2500 laptop for a client of mine.

Because he had none of the Recovery or XP Installation CDs that came with
the machine, I called H-P to request a replacement set. However, because the
laptop is so old by their standards they had no installation media that I
could buy.

I told the H-P/Compaq rep that I have a Dell OEM Windows XP Home CD that
came with my own machine. He said that XP should install okay using that --
which it did.

I'm now trying to register Windows XP using the 25 Character XP Code on the
bottom of the Compaq laptop. While I thought it MIGHT just work over the
Internet, it was flagged as being incorrect.

I then called the phone number listed and all I can get is an automated
voice response which tells me -- after I read the 54 character message
code -- that the code is wrong and "I won't be able to validate my
installation right now."

Is there a phone number with a real person at Microsoft, who I can call and
activate this installation?

Thanks very much.

Alan