MS Office on google and many sites for £10-£25

[u587162]

Any simple Google search for Microsoft Office Professional will list a plethora of offers like £15 to £20 (I'm not referring the Office 365 subscription but the perpetual licence). I question how this is possible when MS sells the subscription sells for £10+ per month.

I thought these might be pirated or fake, but it is being sold on multiple platofrms including Very.co.uk

How is this possible? I plan to buy a few licences for my business.

 

[Mottie]

If something is too good to be true……

 

[u587162]

My point is that it’s being sold on large platform sites including amazon and eBay too. If you can’t trust those sites then…..

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

How much is it from Microsoft?

 

[Mottie]

My point is that it’s being sold on large platform sites including amazon and eBay too. If you can’t trust those sites then…..

You often can’t. What’s to stop me or you advertising them for a fiver on those sites? May be fakes or copies. You'll get your money back eventually though but I suspect they are relying on the fact that some people won’t bother. Let us know how you get on.

 

[RandomGrinch]

I thought these might be pirated or fake

They are often legitimate product keys, but they will be sold without a valid license for their use.

Where these keys are garnered from is a matter for debate - officially it is against MS terms and conditions to release these keys, so it's probably illegal and MS may reject the keys when they are discovered to be in use.

For example, if a PC manufacturer had a volume license for preinstalling office on a number of machines, but not all the product keys were issued - 'Someone' may sell these keys on, against MS terms, for their own profit.
These keys exist, have been paid for, but haven't been used - the selling on of these keys could be seen as being in a grey area.

A clue may also come from the office version offered - i.e. Office Pro Plus is only available to organisations, via a volume license (It isn't sold for retail) - some organisations have a huge number of available activations - would anyone notice if a few went missing?
Or, if an organisation moved onto a new version of office, all the licenses for the previous version would no longer be in use - could these keys then be legitimately sold on?

The keys could also be stolen, pirated, fake, don't work, or are purely a scam; and if they do work, if MS get their act together, the keys could be annulled at any time.

It's always best to buy and download software from a reputable supplier.
Or, go for the open source options such as Open Office, or Libre Office.

but it is being sold on multiple platofrms including Very.co.uk

The products sold on Very are legit...

 

[foxhole]

Ooh paying for MS office , that’s a novel idea.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Ooh paying for MS office , that’s a novel idea.

Not really, if you're a business.

 

[opps]

As per the @RandomGrinch post... there are people that will sell, for example, Office 365 licences for a one off price of something silly like a tenner. They are, often, dodgy companies that convinced that MS they are, for example, charities or educational institutions. MS will eventually revoke those licences and the duped subscribers will have a world of pain trying to sort out a new subscription.

Years ago, I was a guest on a MS account (Family 365 account) that my other half had been paying for. When she kicked me out for 3 months, I could no longer access my Office space. I tried to pay MS directly but because my MS account was tagged to her MS account, I was in limbo. I had to get her to unsubscribe me before I could take out my own subscription

 

[opps]

Ooh paying for MS office , that’s a novel idea.

I have the office 365 family account. I can share licences with 5 other people. Each of us have access to each of the Office apps and and 1Tb of web space (per person). I purchase discounted licences via eBay.I pay between £60-80 per year. I think it is extremely good value. And I can write the whole lot off against tax.

By comparison, 1Tb of Apple webspace is about a tenner a month. That is about £120 pa (for one person).

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The keys could also be stolen, pirated, fake, don't work, or are purely a scam; and if they do work, if MS get their act together, the keys could be annulled at any time.

I understand, that can be circumvented, by simply preventing the Office apps from updating themselves regularly.

 

[Notch7]

Any simple Google search for Microsoft Office Professional will list a plethora of offers like £15 to £20 (I'm not referring the Office 365 subscription but the perpetual licence). I question how this is possible when MS sells the subscription sells for £10+ per month.

I thought these might be pirated or fake, but it is being sold on multiple platofrms including Very.co.uk

How is this possible? I plan to buy a few licences for my business.

I looked into this earlier this year and spent ages looking at prices between £15 and £400

Eventually I chose a company that sold a download for just over £20 for MS 2022 professional, it all works absolutely fine. I’ll look up the link and post it later once I’ve found it

 

[foxhole]

I have the office 365 family account. I can share licences with 5 other people. Each of us have access to each of the Office apps and and 1Tb of web space (per person). I purchase discounted licences via eBay.I pay between £60-80 per year. I think it is extremely good value. And I can write the whole lot off against tax.

By comparison, 1Tb of Apple webspace is about a tenner a month. That is about £120 pa (for one person).

Have zero use for web space.
What do you need it for?

 

[opps]

Have zero use for web space.
What do you need it for?

I use it for things like photo storage on my phone and files that I want access to when out and about. When I used to import pet supplements, I could save the catalogues and advertising material to my cloud space and send a link to the printer. Most email accounts place limits on the size of attachments.

I like the fact that I can generate an invoice on my laptop, send a link to my customer via SMS and then edit the invoice on my phone if need be. Additionally, I can edit it on another PC if required.

Personally, I find it far more productive than the stand alone copies of Office that I used to have. Until 365, the last version that I paid for was Office 2003, the other versions after were ones that I "acquired" from the likes of Pirate Bay.

 

[morqthana]

I have no principled objection to paying for software licences.

TO BUY, NOT RENT.