Are discount versions of Office OK?

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I am in the market for Office 2019.  I find an offer for Office 2019 Pro Plus for S46.99 at https://softwareproworld.com/index.php/microsoft-office-2019.html. Is this legitimate or a scam?

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I have been taking the Office Watch newsletter for years. They are straight forward about authentic software and scams. Check out information on prices from Office Watch.

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bmeacham, WildBill, geekdom

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You should check out Get the most from Office with Office 365. Office Watch has information on getting the cheapest Office 365 and how to renew at the best prices.

IMO, Office 365 is the way to go. If you are getting Office Pro Plus on a onetime payment you won’t get any feature updates. You will get security updates for the support period for the product. Office 2019 is for one system. Office 2019 Pro is $439 USD on the Microsoft site. You can find it for less usually in the $349 range elsewhere. Office 365 Home is $99.99 USD per year. Home is for up to 6 users. Office 365 Personal is 69.99 per year. Personal is for one user. You can find both for less money elsewhere (See Office Watch). You get both features and security updates with Office 365. IIRC, for Office 365 subscriptions each user can install on multiple devices (i.e. PCs, MACs, phones) and still only count as one use.

--Joe

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Lugh

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joep517 wrote:

IIRC, for Office 365 subscriptions each user can install on multiple devices (i.e. PCs, MACs, phones) and still only count as one use

That’s correct.

MS is very vague—or hides the info very well—re exactly how many and what kind of devices are meant by the frequently used word “multiple”.

While Wiki currently says 6 devices per user, my understanding is 3—1 desktop, 1 tablet, 1 phone.

I suspect MS are taking a light approach with this, ie they’re not going to hound paying customers about this. But I haven’t tested being one user on 4 or 10 devices.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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Lugh wrote:

MS is very vague—or hides the info very well—re exactly how many and what kind of devices are meant by the frequently used word “multiple”.

It’s been an unlimited number of devices per user for installation for nine months (since Home increased from five to six users), with concurrent use on up to five devices per user:

You’re about to get even more from your Office 365 Home or Personal subscription!

It’s not really vague or hidden as the account overview page at https://account.microsoft.com/services/office/overview clearly says, “You can install Office on all your devices and be signed in to 5 at the same time.”

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Lugh, rc primak

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I found the following transcript useful in looking into these “deals”:
https://www.tekgia.com/content/11-7-tips-on-how-to-avoid-buying-fake-microsoft-office-software

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A message from Stephen Stephenson:

When a deal sounds way too good to be true, it usually is too good to be true. softwareproworld.com are selling this version of Microsoft Office (and other software) for a fraction of what it sells for at known legitimate outlets.

I do most of my online shopping at eBay, because of their protection policies and their vendors competing with one another, resulting in low prices. When I do consider buying directly from an on line vendor I’m not familar with, I google their name and the word ‘scam’. So in this case: softwareproworld.com scam .

If there are no google results, the website might be new (and might be fake, a scam).  But in this case there are a number of results. Looking at review sites only in the results, one is: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/softwareproworld.com .

Wow, 5 stars and effusive positive comments! But let the reader of online reviews beware, since many disreputable websites outsource low paid workers to write positive online reviews for them. When we select ‘Bad’ (1 star) reviews only, it’s a different story: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/softwareproworld.com

Multiple reports of product keys not working, and softwareproworld.com not responding when they’re contacted. They do reply to the review comments, but that might well be only because they didn’t want bad publicity.

Personally, I would not buy from them.

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Bluetrix, Microfix

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I have purchased nearly 200 licenses and had 1 license that had already been licensed, I called microsoft to register it and it works.

Had my sell rep at a major pc supplier check ont his with heo MS rep and they said it is a valid company.

saved my company $30k easily.

 

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anonymous wrote:

I have purchased nearly 200 licenses and had 1 license that had already been licensed, I called microsoft to register it and it works.

Had my sell rep at a major pc supplier check ont his with heo MS rep and they said it is a valid company.

saved my company $30k easily.

 

It’s going to be fun at audit time.

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Did you end up buying it, and did it work? I’m considering it now..

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