Office for Mac 2019 License not working - suspicious workaround provided

MrRockliffe · 25 Jul 2019 at 11:55

Hi all,

I bought an office 2019 for mac license from Fast Software. Their website is pretty clean, and their Trustpilot decent, other than your standard share of bad reviews.

Their license key activated in the Microsoft account fine, and allowed me to download Office 2019 for mac. Upon installing, I was asked to sign in to the same account I activated the key on, so I did. At this point, I was told no valid license for this software could be found on this account.

The next step was to contact Microsoft, who confirmed they (Fast Software) have provided an OEM key (pretty normal when buying cheap licenses). The key, however, only works for Windows, not Mac. They advised to ask for a refund.

I did just that - I contacted FS to ask about the situation, and they sent me a Google Drive link to a .pkg, explaining that if I install it, Office will work.

This sounds incredibly suspicious to me?

Minstadave · 25 Jul 2019 at 12:18

You’re surprised a dodgy website selling Office for a quarter of MS’s price and supplied an OEM key is asking you to do something dodgy to get it to work?

Feek · 25 Jul 2019 at 13:40

I think you should be asking for a refund, not installing something to get around Microsoft’s activation.

MrRockliffe · 25 Jul 2019 at 13:51

Minstadave said:
You’re surprised a dodgy website selling Office for a quarter of MS’s price and supplied an OEM key is asking you to do something dodgy to get it to work?

Not a dodgy website - it's quite normal to see companies selling OEM keys. Their website and structure was considerably better than most :-)

Feek said:
I think you should be asking for a refund, not installing something to get around Microsoft’s activation.

I have indeed asking a refund, and they were happy to provide one

bremen1874 · 25 Jul 2019 at 14:43

Did you buy that OEM licence with a fully assembled computer system?
Are they an authorised OEM licence seller?

Minstadave · 25 Jul 2019 at 14:51

MrRockliffe said:
Not a dodgy website - it's quite normal to see companies selling OEM keys. Their website and structure was considerably better than most

I have indeed asking a refund, and they were happy to provide one

My understanding is OEM software is meant to be sold with hardware. Yes you can buy OEM keys from multiple places but without hardware they're not properly legit.

joey1211 · 25 Jul 2019 at 14:51

bremen1874 said:
Did you buy that OEM licence with a fully assembled computer system?

Since when do Apple sell computer kits?

bremen1874 · 25 Jul 2019 at 14:58

joey1211 said:
Since when do Apple sell computer kits?

What's that got to do with anything?

If it's an OEM key purchased on its own by the end-user then there's no way it can be legitimate.

MrRockliffe · 25 Jul 2019 at 15:20

bremen1874 said:
What's that got to do with anything?

If it's an OEM key purchased on its own by the end-user then there's no way it can be legitimate.

Well Microsoft seem to be happy with them selling it - they're considered a Microsoft partner, and haven't lost that status after telling them over chat that they're selling OEM keys to the public

bremen1874 · 25 Jul 2019 at 15:43

Selling an OEM key isn't necessarily an issue.

Using one is, but it obviously isn't policed. Microsoft is very clear about who can use an OEM key and under what circumstances.

As your average home user isn't going to be subject to a software audit it's not much of an issue (unless the key suddenly stops working one day).

Steveocee · 29 Jul 2019 at 14:58

I had a problem with FastSoftware before they were FastSoftware. They do look and sound very legit but they are operating very much "on the border".

I wouldn't be installing any random files from a GDrive, request a new product key, they have thousands so won't cost to do so.