Need some advice - Office key doesn't work.

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McClintoc

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A couple years ago I built a new rig and bought a Windows 10 key and an Office 2019 key from a user here. I won't say who just yet. Over the past five or so years I have purchased three or four keys from him; none of them with issues and each deal was smooth.

A couple of months ago I decided to upgrade my CPU. I flashed the BIOS then swapped out CPUs. These were the only changes made to my rig. Windows still works fine but my Office 2019 keeps asking me to activate it but it won't activate - not by internet or by phone. Every time I put in the key it just says something went wrong, try again later. I have tried repeatedly over the last two months and it won't activate using the key that did work a couple years ago when I bought it from him. I called MS and they said it was a developer key and it won't work since I'm not a developer. MS said to contact the seller.

I have sent him a PM three times over the last two months, explaining the situation and asking for a replacement key. However, I have received no response at all. He is still around; online as recent as five days ago. My Office software is completely unusable at this point.

1) is asking for a replacement key out of line in this situation?
2) is this something a mod can get involved with and put some pressure on him?
3) MS told me to report him using www.howtotell.com but I don't want to do that just yet, I'd like he and I to try to resolve it first.
 
You bought a developper key I imagine from a third users instead of the real Microsoft store to have really cheap knowing it was probably not legit and bound to have that type of inconvenient, that was ok for the rebate. Or was it past has a legit key with a looking legit price ?
 
I think this is pretty normal with gray market keys. Same thing happened to me when i swapped cpus. For the price these things go for, you should just get another one. Want support pay MS their stupid tax.
Seems crazy to complain so much for 15-20 bucks so yeah your points 2-3 are out of line imho. Ask him for a replacement you might get lucky.
 
So yall are saying the seller has no responsibility here? Even though they know they are selling shady keys that they probably shouldn't be selling in the first place?
 
McClintoc said:
So yall are saying the seller has no responsibility here? Even though they know they are selling shady keys that they probably shouldn't be selling in the first place?
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Well did it was ever implied implicetly or explicetly that those key were not shady keys that was almost certainly not supposed to be solds if we go by their EULA ?

Being an user on a message board not a store and I imagine the price probably made that quite clear ? Is that not what you were looking for, shady keys that should not been sold or buy because they cost lest ?

Why did you think the price was so good if that not the case ?

The sellers had responsibility to not say that they were more than shady key, almost certainly not to be sold for a profit to individuals online under the agreement they were acquired for sure. If he did imply/say that was the case he would have responsibility, otherwise that something that would be judged by your average reasonable third party observer risk. If under 5-6 keys you had just one issue and only after year's and a system change, that sound like an excellent result for low cost key, the kind you would buy a new one from the same person now and give a 4.5/5 stars review.

If openOffice (or google or other free version or pirated without working keys Office 2016 with the little warning at launch) really do not do the trick because it is needed for some bigger use than that, should consider if it is not worth buying.

P.S. All of the above is assuming they were low cost keys (thus presented has fully grey-shady) and not above $100 presented has mid range shady.
 
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McClintoc said:
So yall are saying the seller has no responsibility here? Even though they know they are selling shady keys that they probably shouldn't be selling in the first place?
Click to expand...
You got "a couple years" out of what was probably a 10 dollar key. You then made major changes to your hardware which is widely known to risk triggering the MS activation alerts. Sorry but buying on a forum like this requires you to have some knowledge of what your buying. This isn't BestBuy.

If you want full retail support, pay appropriately. Just be warned that doing hardware swaps will probably trigger the activation alert again but you'll probably get them to waive it "as a courtesy" or some nonsense. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mic...2021/cfq7ttc0h8n8?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
 
I don't see much of a difference between buying a "gray market" key, or outright piracy. Microsoft certainly considers them the same thing.

There are plenty of solutions to your activation woes on Github. A quick search should get you where you need to be.
 
I had the same problem. I had bought 2 Office 2019 Pro Plus keys, one for my main system and one for my laptop. When I re-installed my main system, the key would no longer activate. Microsoft apparently blacklisted them. Interestingly, my laptop (which has been trucking along even with a Windows 10 to Windows 11 upgrade) remains activated with it's 2019 key, and it updates just fine as well.

My Office 2016 Pro Plus keys do not appear to be blacklisted though, just the 2019 ones. My main rig was down-graded to Office 2016 until I purchased a Office 2021 Home and Office key for my main rig from my wife's school ($35). I'm missing Publisher, now, but I never really used it anyway, and Outlook 2021 allows for dark mode e-mails.
 
NobleX13 said:
I don't see much of a difference between buying a "gray market" key, or outright piracy. Microsoft certainly considers them the same thing.

There are plenty of solutions to your activation woes on Github. A quick search should get you where you need to be.
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I agree. It still allows people to believe that it is ok because they paid something for it.
 
vegeta535 said:
I agree. It still allows people to believe that it is ok because they paid something for it.
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In part, that why it is important for the buyer that the sellers to not say it too loudly.

I am not so sure if people using cheap keys from a random message board users really believe it is ok (on cheap website that look legit it could be), there is also buying something else going on.

1) Convenience: the piracy of such program is not that straight forward now a day, specially if you want updates, if the bought key works it could be easier.
2) Security: It often involves running some black box at some point that has some system access, installing a microsoft iso and putting a Microsoft key is 100% safe in comparison

When I knew someone that worked a Microsoft it was ok for him to sells product to friend/family at is employee price without making a profits, it was so much fun to buy stuff from him, why I did it that way instead of simply going the piracy road, Microsoft made no money anyway, I spend little but still money, shipping involved, it was much nicer than the piracy way in my experience.

A bit like still using Netflix/Disney+ even with a nice plex/sonnar/radarr setup, part is feeling less cheap for all the piracy, part is convenience.
 
McClintoc said:
So yall are saying the seller has no responsibility here? Even though they know they are selling shady keys that they probably shouldn't be selling in the first place?
Click to expand...
So yall are saying the buyer has no responsibility here? Even though they know that are buying shady keys that they probably shouldn't be buying in the first place?
 
DooKey said:
So yall are saying the buyer has no responsibility here? Even though they know that are buying shady keys that they probably shouldn't be buying in the first place?
Click to expand...

None. It activated as described in the original listing. The keys are only good for a limited time due to their nature. The OP changed hardware and now the key doesn't work. That is the kind of key he purchased. He should have known that going in.
 
kirbyrj said:
None. It activated as described in the original listing. The keys are only good for a limited time due to their nature. The OP changed hardware and now the key doesn't work. That is the kind of key he purchased. He should have known that going in.
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Agreed. I was just being facetious when I reworded his question.
 
If the key activated when new, you got what you paid for. If you want to change hardware and have the key work years into the future, pony up for a retail key.
 
Retail keys are the only protection against this. If you didn't pay full price, I don't think many will have sympathy for you.
 
Not to pile on, but you got exactly what you paid for. Maybe even more so. If the seller told you these were legit Retail keys, you may have a complaint.

I'm going old school for most of the readers on here, but back in the day, if you bought a bootleg cassette tape, you couldn't go back to the artists and complain about the quality. You knew you were buying something sketchy. The seller made no attempt to hide the fact you were buying a bootleg copy, so no one was duped or lied to.
 
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