Microsoft Product Registration

[Beltzington]

The rules for this forum are rather narrow but I will try and stay between the lines.

I have been using MS products for 30+ years because they met my needs. 5-years ago I purchased Office 2010 pro plus from an online reseller. Installed and registered the software with no issues but last month I got carried away cleaning up my hard-drive and deleted key components and had to reinstall.

Very long story short 3+ hours with technical support MS refused to register Office because my product key had been deemed as pirated. Even with proof of purchase they refused to fix the issue. Their fallback was it was purchased from a third party provider. Even after I expressed my understanding of how this could happen they refused to meet me half-way and insisted I purchase a new MS office 2013 license.

I requested they provide evidence my registration was illegal or otherwise invalid to which they had no response but to tell me their inability to control product registration was passed on to me at a cost of $400.

Lesson learned is if you buy MS software it needs to be through their store and honestly I do not know if that would make a difference if somehow your product key was judged "pirated" my the MS high command. Seems like a good what to make a few million dollars every couple years but lacking evidence I am just a very disgruntled customer.

 

[MossRoad]

Where did you purchase it from? Just curious.

Didn't your laptop have a system restore function?

 

[KiotiKowboy]

It's difficult to run completely free of Micro$oft products. Yes, there are good free alternatives - like OpenOffice - but they just aren't quite 100% compatible. If you have friends that routinely exchange with you .doc .docx .xls type files, it can be a real hassle. I try to limit my M$ exposure to as little as possible. I use their Operating System - Windoze 8 - and Office. Every other product is a freebie download from places like CNET or TUCOWS or any number of reputable sites.

In M$ defense ... They have distributed a pretty good product that is used by MILLIONS. I don't blame them for protecting their territory. I just wish companies like this would not try to squeeze every possible penny from their customers.

 

[timswi]

It's difficult to run completely free of Micro$oft products. Yes, there are good free alternatives - like OpenOffice - but they just aren't quite 100% compatible. If you have friends that routinely exchange with you .doc .docx .xls type files, it can be a real hassle. I try to limit my M$ exposure to as little as possible. I use their Operating System - Windoze 8 - and Office. Every other product is a freebie download from places like CNET or TUCOWS or any number of reputable sites.

In M$ defense ... They have distributed a pretty good product that is used by MILLIONS. I don't blame them for protecting their territory. I just wish companies like this would not try to squeeze every possible penny from their customers.

I agree with you..As an IT guy I know that there were literally millions of "hot" copies of windows and office floating around for many,many years..They over clamped to knock it down...So I give MS some space on this although it is a PITA when you have to re-image and didn't keep the keys when legitimately purchased...You only get one easy re-image on win7, that's only if you created all of the backup DVD's..I feel the OP's pain.

 

[Beltzington]

Where did you purchase it from? Just curious.

Didn't your laptop have a system restore function?

I backup my PC every two weeks, but if you have ever attempted this it is a HUGE PIA.


Alphashark (out of Biz) - Via Deal News - Hindsight, not a good idea, but a company delegating product registration responsibility to the customer ludicrous. Equivalent to a dealership selling you a stolen car and charging you for not checking their paperwork.

 

[MossRoad]

Did you try system restore?

 

[MossRoad]

I backup my PC every two weeks, but if you have ever attempted this it is a HUGE PIA.


Alphashark (out of Biz) - Via Deal News - Hindsight, not a good idea, but a company delegating product registration responsibility to the customer ludicrous. Equivalent to a dealership selling you a stolen car and charging you for not checking their paperwork.

If you buy a stolen car even unknowingly, when the cops take it from you, you don't get your money back. Same thing goes for software. Its not Microsoft's fault you got stuck.

 

[Zick]

Going to guess you bought it from a similar deal like this and according to another people who commented below, they could not get theirs to register. Sounds like they were selling pirated copies.
Microsoft Office Professional 2010 Digital Download - alphashark.com


Going to have to side with M$ on this one.

 

[rekees4300]

Even after I expressed my understanding of how this could happen they refused to meet me half-way and insisted I purchase a new MS office 2013 license.

Learned a long time ago to avoid M$ software and their propeller-heads support staff. Simply download OpenOffice for free and your problem will be solved.

 

[KubotainNH]

Personally I like some of the free Office programs better with the exception of Excel. Kingsoft is like the older version of Office. As for the keys, you can get those from your PC using software called "magical jelly bean keyfinder". I think it pulls it from the registry so unless you did a full reload it may still be there.