1

Hello Spiceheads

Rebuilt a PC late last year in some DELL case the client had got prior to bringing us on board, to resolve a problem where the PC would kind of just drift off and never come back causing the user to restart it several times in the AM before he can get to work. Doesn’t matter what state the PC is left in the night before although typically it is restarted so he comes into to a fresh system in the AM.

Anyway, during the rebuild we couldn’t locate the Office CD as they are never included and DELL kept putting off delivery of a CD and kept saying they don’t know when could ship so we replaced it with a 2016 H&B Office license. PC ended up having the same problem and after months of trying to figure it out we have decided to move on. Built the new PC and went to activate this Office 2016 license we received from our vendor (certified MS reseller supposedly) and MS says it is not legit. We only received it last Oct and have no issues activating. Now it is flat out saying no good.

I called our vendor to figure out what was going on and they gave us a new key to replace it. That is great and all but we have purchased several licenses from this vendor and now have concerns we may run into similar issues should the PCs crash and the software needs reinstall so I asked the vendor if we should consider this being a problem in the future going forward. She said as long as you don’t wait very long after receiving the key from us then it should activate fine.

They honored their statement to fix any licensing issues and the new key checks out at MS. However, I am still concerned that these may not be legitimate licenses. My questions is: Is there such a license that expires after a set time period, even if never used?

8 Spice ups
2

I’ve never heard of it on a retail license, just subscriptions.

If you activate a key multiple times in rapid succession, it will refuse to do it at some point. After some time passes (months), it will work again. Until then you have to call it in for activation.

Are you sure the key is BAD, or just failing to activate? If your reseller is giving you truly pirated keys, then you need to get your money back, let MS know, and find a new vendor.

2 Spice ups
3

A valid windows license key does not expire.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/do-product-keys-expire/bd61d9fd-b281-4658-9756-77fc0bd8b59c

1 Spice up
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To me, this reads as: “As long as you activate before Microsoft finds out we’re illegally selling you this key, you should be fine.”

8 Spice ups
5

I am with you all on that but wanted to make sure as I know their are quite a few different license types out their floating around. Thank you all for you input

6

I had that same thought when she told me. Their site looks legit and has all the MS certified logs and crap but the whole time I was communicating with their support chick, she didn’t troubleshoot anything, she just said give me your order info and the license key and we will send you a new one. Every question including her name was like torture as she would take a minute to respond like someone was telling her what to say. She wasn’t concerned about the license key not working and in general was very vague and non descript about anything

(Big Green Man) 7

This is screaming scam. At the very least, I would look for a different vendor.

3 Spice ups
8

We did try several times and it was by phone as we received instructions to activate by phone only. I told the boss the moment I saw it that it didn’t look legitimate. He said he checked it at MS and it said valid so we continued on with it. It stated each time that the key was not valid. There was no option to select numbers of times installed or anything, it simply flat said not a Microsoft key. No options at that point other then a link to go to the MS store to buy a new one

9

Unfortunately I am not a decision maker around here yet, but I have since convinced the Boss that we need to stay as far away from these people as possible. Sad truth is this isn’t the first time we have been sold scam keys from vendors. I keep telling the Boss to stop trusting sellers on Ebay hahahaha

10

Ebay and Amazon are about as far from reliable as you can get for buying software legitimately because there are just too many scammers. Your boss should look at finding a reliable partner (CDW, PCM, or whatever OEM you buy your machines from). When you get audited by Microsoft (it’s just a matter of time - everyone gets audited eventually) and the licenses don’t pass, you’ll be forced to buy licenses to cover all of the fraudulent ones at the very least. At the most, there will also be fines imposed on top of buying new licenses and MS can take part of the profits which were generated while using their software without a legitimate license.

A big red flag for this is if they give you a key with no paperwork for proof of license.

3 Spice ups
11

Your boss needs to grow up and buy from REAL vendors.

You should also report to MS and the proper federal authorities all the information you have on the fraudulent vendor. If for no other reason than others may end up in the same position you’re in, but it’s also the right thing to do.

4 Spice ups
12

Thanks for all your advice and yes we will be reporting and taking necessary steps to resolve. He did learn about the Ebay thing which is why I joked about it. He is older fella been in IT a very long time, just has a trusting soul unfortunately.

The site we have been using is not an ebay seller. See for yourselves if you wish, they portray themselves as the real deal. One other thing I saw that kind of seemed fishy is they use an Outlook.com domain for email instead of one for themselves but I also notice many companies having GMAIL / hotmail / yahoo / etc accounts.

https://www.officemediasoftware.com/

13

I’ve never heard of it on a retail license, just subscriptions.

14

If you cannot afford to have your own email setup, why should I trust you?

At least that’s my position, if your “company” email is @gmail.com or @outlook.com that’s a huge red flag. Many many companies use O365 or Google email but it should be pointed too their domain. Very unprofessional.

Reminds me of the scam emails I get offering web design from companies that don’t have a website of their own.

1 Spice up
15

MS product keys or most products keys are usually kept or sold in the product box/enclosure such that people selling it will not be able to access it.

Even in the box or enclosure, the product keys are usually not visible until some packaging is opened such that you can verify that there are manuals and/or DVDs in the box but not able to see the product key.

For that, sellers never have access to the product keys especially for MS and Symantec products.

1 Spice up
16

The fact that they’re selling Office 2016 Professional licenses for less than 1/3 of what other vendors are selling them for is the final nail in the coffin for me.

17

I have that same process but it surprises me how many legitimate companies are using GMAIL or Yahoo mail for some aspects. We have a vendor (yes legit) we have been using for over 10 years and for some reason, they recently decided to start using a gmail account for their RMA department. Our rep, the sales team, and everyone as far as can tell have an email for their domain but not their RMA department. Boggles my mind.

18

Not sure where you got 1/3 of the price. We actually were paying over half the price of what retail is at. For instance 2016 H&B at Best Buyis at $229 and we were paying about $150