A customer of mine has taken delivery of 2 new PCs, custom built and
delivered with Office 2003 basic edition.
The build engineer mistakenly installed and activated basic edition on the
machines - rather than professional. The order was actually for
Professional.
He since went out to the customer, removed Basic Edition and installed
Professional instead. The problem?

I now have two copies of Basic Edition that have been activated and
subsequently deleted from their destination machines. If I phone Microsoft
can they re-activate (or de-activate?) these two copies so I can use them.
They are OEM versions, but my operation is not big, and to write off two
copies of Office will hurt quite a bit.

Anyone ever experienced anything similar?

Regards,
Jim Sweeney.

Jim Sweeney wrote:

I'm afraid you have no choice - unless you can recourse with the vendor
(from where did you purchase the licences?). MS does not, will not and,
indeed, cannot assist with OEM installations. An OEM edition, once
activated, is tied forever to the machine it was first installed on. As an
OEM builder you should be familiar with the wording of the OEM EULA - as you
are obviously not, may I suggest you familiarise yourself with it PDQ?

"... Software as a Component of the Computer - Transfer. THIS LICENSE MAY
NOT BE SHARED, TRANSFERRED TO OR
USED CONCURRENTLY ON DIFFERENT COMPUTERS. The SOFTWARE is licensed with the
COMPUTER as a single
integrated product and may only be used with the COMPUTER. If the SOFTWARE
is not accompanied by HARDWARE, you may not use the SOFTWARE. You may
permanently transfer all of your rights under this EULA only as part of a
permanent sale or transfer of the COMPUTER, provided you retain no copies,
if you transfer the SOFTWARE (including all component parts, the media, any
upgrades, this EULA and the Certificate of Authenticity), and the recipient
agrees to the terms of this EULA. If the SOFTWARE is an upgrade, any
transfer must also include all prior versions of the SOFTWARE."

So, in order to use the licences again, you would have to go back to the
customer and take the systems back, remove Pro, reinstall Basic and resell
the systems to someone who only wants Basic. This, of course, would now
leave you with two useless Pro licences.

You now have no choice but to write those off as a business loss, unless you
can take it up with the place you purchased it from (though, technically,
it's your fault as it was your engineer who made the mistake. If you were
feeling really sadistic you could always claw the loss back from his wages,
but those licences are now considered spent.

Tough s*it, Sherlock.
--
My great-grandfather was born and raised in Elgin - did he eventually
lose his marbles?

I hope that I am not too late writing a response, as I
think Miss Tick was a bit overbearing. I would DEFINITELY
contact Microsoft and explain the situation. While I am
aware of the EULA, Microsoft is not always the money
hungry giant they have the reputation to be. I have spoken
with Microsoft regardind a number of issues, and they have
always come across as pleasant and helpful. Contact
Microsoft! While I am sure Miss Tick was trying to be
helpful, you (as a small business) don't have the ability
to take advice from a well meaning ignorant who hates
Microsoft. Take it up with the people who know, Microsoft.

Actually, you are wrong. Once it is activated, it cannot be reused. MS will
not help you on this issue. I note you have not given any links, supporting
your claims, because you are just making this up as you go along. You are
just wasting the OP's time.

"JimO" <JimO@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:c96501c48a25$f75fa4c0$a401280a@phx.gbl...

Thank you for the responses .. I contacted MS and they were reasonable, but
as has been stated, they can not be re-used. Had they been retail copies I
couuld have possibly spun a story like "I bought a new PC and need to
re-install my
licenced copy of Office" - but not with the OEM product. So I'm out of
pocket.
No vacation for me this year :-(

All Donations gratefully accepted though ....

remove the harddrives from the original machine that
contained the basic edition, oem goes with the hardware,
replace this with a new drive on the machine with the
professional edition.

sell the old drive (with the basic edition attached) or put
into another machine and sell as demo (if you with to be
pedantic) basically the software is attached to a
significant piece of hardware. If there is an issue when
activation is required use the telephone to advise that the
system was upgraded (around the hard drive and or whatever
other hardware you might wish to change over)


If you as an OEM seller cannot get MS to see some reason no
wonder others can't.

Geoff

"Jim Sweeney" <nospam@myinbox.not> wrote in message
news:tlYWc.25750$Z14.8154@news.indigo.ie...

More useless advice. If Geoffw had read the OP, he said the professional
license was installed over the basic edition, so how could the license be
recovered? The answer is still no, the license is lost.

<gwinnetSPAM@SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ueGnn4oiEHA.4092@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

I did

re install the original - format - if this is really
necessary and use phone to reactivate - of course it is re
useable

The advice here is top get an operational basic office and
an operational pro office. If the systems are only setup to
OS and office format to get back to original, if you want to
be really pedantic replace the HD in the first machine and
re activate office using the telephone.

Build another machine around the hard drive from the first
machine and install pro, re activate using the telephone if
necessary.

This person is trying to recover from an error, they have
done nothing illegal and will not if they want to be a
lateral,

A bit of thinking yourself might help

Geoff

"Mercury" <Mercury@matchmail.net> wrote in message
news:2p3un4Fgn1r8U1@uni-berlin.de...

The OP has already made it clear your advice won't work, but if you think
you are hotstuff with the useless information you have just provided, give
yourself a pat on the back, since you are the only one who is going to give
it to you. The license would still be lost, even if he followed your
cockamamie advice.

"Geoffw" <gwinnetSPAM@SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message
news:uQvm%23N1iEHA.2544@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

suit yourself

whilst not an oem, similar options have worked for me in the
past

OP spoke to MS, I presume as an oem dealer not as an end
user - big difference.

I bow to your superior knowledge of course


"Mercury" <Mercury@matchmail.net> wrote in message
news:2p6ioqFhh1ugU1@uni-berlin.de...