Trying to be budget conscious, I purchased an MS-Office product from an online vendor and paid for the purchase through Amazon. .It is for a new laptop. When I did this I had no idea what OEM meant. I knew what OEM stood for but stupidly assumed it meant “Hey, I’m not made by some third-world pirate, but by the Real Thing! - I’m Safe!”
Now I know what it means. Should I return this software posthaste? Of course the seller’s website is saying no worries.
As long as you paid an OEM copy price you are fine. If they claimed it was a retail version and charged that price point, yes you have a problem.
They don’t appear to be charging or claiming a retail price. Additionally, it wasn’t discounted to a ridiculously low price, if that means anything. Any way to be sure it’s an oem copy price? (I should add, I have not opened it; in fact it has not even arrived yet).
What’s the software and where did you buy it?
Newegg is a major online seller of computer hardware and software, good place to confirm prices.
Office 2007 student & Home ed.
Direct Deals
Excuse my typing, this laptop keyboard is driving me crazy.
OEM is not bootleg. It’s legitimate software.
Of course, you might get bootleg claiming to be OEM, but OEM itself is legal.
Nothing wrong or illegal about OEM.
You don’t get direct support from Microsoft. Who cares anyhow? I have no desire to spend hours on the phone trying to reach some out sourced support tech in India.
Oh, I understand that it’s not bootleg. I’m simply wanting to avoid issues down the line, if there might be such issues. And I agree about the tech “support”. If I do install it, should I bother trying to register it?
Lots of places sell OEM versions. Most are perfectly legit sellers. I think I bought an OEM version of Windows XP Pro from TigerDirect a few years back. It was much cheaper than the retail box price.
I think the agreement they have with Microsoft says that it can only be sold with hardware but … it seems like it doesn’t specify what hardware so to satisfy that they usually include some small, near worthless, piece of hardware. The package with my Windows included an oddball connector worth a few cents.
I don’t know what the situation really is. It doesn’t seem to be within the spirit of the OEM agreement but … Microsoft don’t seem to care. I’m sure they could have stopped these sales years ago if they wanted to. Also I’m not sure where the resellers get them from. I think they must be surplus from manufacturers who bought more copies of software than they made computers.
Yeah, that they didn’t suggest buying some small piece of hardware is the only thing. Indeed, you’d think Monolith-soft could lay its iron hand across all these guys if it wanted to.
Given all the uncertainty, tho, and since the seller is offering a regular version with a free upgrade to Office 2010 for a few bucks more, I might just call them and ask for an exchange - surely they can’t object to that…
I know that if you try to install an OEM copy of Windows on a different machine that it was sold with, then you will not be able to Activate it.
What this means regarding OEM copies of Office, I have no idea. Why not ask Direct Deals what OEM means?
I could not find a stated return policy from the vendor you purchased from, but OEM software sales are almost always final, for pretty obvious reasons. I would be pretty surprised if your vendor agreed to do that; even very highly regarded vendors like Newegg will not give you a refund on OEM software–they’ll only help you out if what you got is defective somehow.
Why are you having doubts about OEM software, anyway? What issues are you worried about? OEM software is identical in every way to retail software, except A) possible license restrictions, and B) the lack of the retail box and maybe some goodies like a paper manual. The software itself is the same.
Thanks, everybody. BorgHunter, I literally just learned what OEM software is a few hours ago, you can understand I’d be a little nervous about potential problems that might come up, that’s all I’m inquiring about. I’m merely interested to know whether it might affect functionality or cause some obscure technical or legal issue. I don’t know. That’s why I asked the question. And…I have been so reassured there is little likelihood of such.
Sure Micro$oft could stop this if they wanted to. But then these sellers & the manufacturers of cheap PC’s would use open source software instead, like Open Office. And then most buyers would find out that this open source software is perfectly fine for their needs.
Micro$oft is more scared of increasing the market share of open source software than it is of lowered profit from selling OEM versions cheaper. (Still vastly profitable – really, how much does it cost them to burn another CD with this OEM version?)
The issue here is OEM for a laptop.
Laptop manufacturers have custom device drivers made especially for that particular make and model. If you get OS software from someone else, you will have a really hard time getting that laptop to work without the custom-made drivers. If you are lucky, they will have a driver pack. If not, it will be a long, painful process.
When you buy a laptop (which is one of the reasons I advise people against it,) you are pretty much at the mercy of the company that made it. You can’t go to the harddrive manufacturer’s website, for example, to get the latest driver. You have to wait until the laptop company puts out an update, which could be months or years after the fact.
In order to comply with most OEM licences, such as those from Microsoft, the licence must be bought by a system builder and sold with the system they build. Therefore, OEM licences bought off Amazon or eBay and used on a pre-owned system are worthless from a legal point of view. In the very unlikely event that Microsoft’s lawyers decide to come after you, they would have a watertight case.
From a practical point of view, OEM software does give you an activation key that will work, once (and in fact it will sometimes work a few times).
Ximenean, is that true? I’ve always heard that you don’t have to buy a complete system at the same time as purchasing OEM software, but incomplete systems (to be built at home) count too. Apparently, a new mouse counts as being an incomplete system. I know at one time Scan.co.uk would not allow you to buy OEM software without buying it with a mouse (or something more expensive) at the same time.
It’s hard to think that Microsoft have any real objection to this. Here’s NewEgg selling OEM versions of Windows on the same page as the retail box. Likewise at TigerDirect
Superhal, that’s very true about the drivers etc for a laptop but the original question is about MS Office.
I usually buy a hard drive when I buy OEM windows. That way I’m fulfilling the license contract.
I did that last week. I’m upgrading an XP computer. I’m leaving the original drive untouched. I can plug it back in if I hate Win7. Drives are so cheap there’s no reason to format and reuse.
Well, OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer, which is what you have to be to use OEM licences, according to the contract. I know people try to get round it by including trivial items of hardware, but it is a question of what would stand up in court. I’m not aware that it has ever been tested in court, but I doubt that “the sale included a mouse, so we’re an OEM” would stand up. Maybe Scan.co.uk’s lawyers think differently.
[ETA] And yeah, I realise that Microsoft know that this goes on, and they turn a blind eye to it. Same with so-called Student licences. I reckon it’s just their way of selling licences at a more reasonable price, with an eye on the competition, but not officially dropping the retail price, which some people still pay.