Missold MS office!

Glaucus

Glaucus

Glaucus

Man of Honour
Joined
11 Mar 2004
Posts
76,678
Right a mate of mine is a self employed contractor and buys his laptops though a competitor on a business account, registered as a business. Now with his new laptop he needs office. The competitor kindly said they could do him a special deal as it was for a small business. Anyway it turns out this special deal is for a student and teacher edition of office :o.

Know the competitor insured him that this could be used for profit, for a small business. Now As far as my understanding of licence agreement are they:
1) you have to be a student or teacher and when you leave you have to uninstall
and
2) they cannot under any circumstance be used for profit.

Now he wisely took the name of who sold it to him (over the phone), time, date ect..

Now am I right in saying this has been miss sold to him and if so what can he do.
 
SiriusB said:
Send it back for a refund.
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he wants more than a refund. he wants heads to role and as much free stuff he can get

Would MS be interested in such a large company doing this. Would trading standards be interested ect?
 
AcidHell2 said:
he wants more than a refund. he wants heads to role and as much free stuff he can get

Would MS be interested in such a large company doing this. Would trading standards be interested ect?
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what an arse, he got a FREE copy of MS and he wants to get them done for it, maby they accidenty gave him the wrong one?
 
Beansprout said:
Why? Human error, chill.
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Because he repeatedly asked them if it was legit, be used for business use ect and as far as he's concerned was repeatedly lied to on purpose. Probably for commission reasons.

Andr3w said:
what an arse, he got a FREE copy of MS and he wants to get them done for it, maby they accidenty gave him the wrong one?
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it wasn't free 1/4 of the full version.
 
Afaik, the S&T edition of office (at least the one we sell at work), although intended for educational use, can be installed on up to 3 home computers - you can actually purchase this edition whether or not you are a student or a teacher (but strictly not for business use).

As said, chill - so someone got something wrong - take it back with reasons mentioned (ie for business use) and get a full copy. Problem solved.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Probably for commission reasons.
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I bet they earn so much more on a product which is vastly discounted. Or not!

It's likely the noob CS person on the other end of the phone didn't have a clue.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Now am I right in saying this has been miss sold to him and if so what can he do.
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If they explicitly stated it could be used for business purposes – which is against the EULA of the software in question – then yes, he was missold it. However, I highly doubt it was a deliberate attempt to deceive him for commission; it was probably just one or two customer support staff who don't know what they're talking about. After all, you can use the Student & Teacher edition for business purposes, it is just the EULA which states you are not allowed to.

How expensive was this laptop he purchased, anyway, and does he have a history of purchases with them which could leverage such a deal? I know I'd be highly suspicious of an offer to throw in a software package which retails at £400 for free, even if I was a prolific customer of said company.

Just tell him to take it back to the company. If he got it for free, he can't really argue, but I'd ask for some credit/vouchers for the trouble the incident caused – although I wouldn't kick up a fuss if they sent me packing. After all, you can't argue with free.

P.S. Microsoft won't care at all. CAB will probably give him exactly the same advice as has already been given – to stop moaning and take it back. He doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as the right to compensation goes – anything he does get will be nothing more than a good will gesture.

*av
 
Last edited:
Al Vallario said:
If they explicitly stated it could be used for business purposes – which is against the EULA of the software in question – then yes, he was missold it. However, I highly doubt it was a deliberate attempt to deceive him for commission; it was probably just one or two customer support staff who don't know what they're talking about. After all, you can use the Student & Teacher edition for business purposes, it is just the EULA which states you are not allowed to.

How expensive was this laptop he purchased, anyway, and does he have a history of purchases with them which could leverage such a deal? I know I'd be highly suspicious of an offer to throw in a software package which retails at £400 for free, even if I was a prolific customer of said company.

Just tell him to take it back to the company. If he got it for free, he can't really argue, but I'd ask for some credit/vouchers for the trouble the incident caused – although I wouldn't kick up a fuss if they sent me packing. After all, you can't argue with free.

P.S. Microsoft won't care at all. CAB will probably give him exactly the same advice as has already been given – to stop moaning and take it back.

*av
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he used them a fair few times. Laptop was about 800, charged him an extra £86 for office and was EXPLICITLY told it could be used for commercial used. He wont kick up a huge fuss, but he doesn't mind complaining and taking it further when he feels he's right. But thanks for the advice :)
 
Just like to say that the purple shirt brigade (who this sounds like) no longer work for commision, as of around november last year so he will not push a product for that reason. It is more because, the S+T version is legit for them to SELL to you, its not their problem whether your student/teacher or not, its microsofts.
 
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