Wrong version of Office...help!

[Mike]

I bought an "academic version" of Office off ebay and
did not know there was such a version....the seller
played it up like it was a full version..and stated
that...but did not state that it was an "academic
version" except for one line on the very end of auction.
Neither I, nor my friends are students... Am I going to
be able to install, register and use this software
legally?
Mike

here is email..I forgot to post it

gittarpikk (remove this )@ hotmail.com

 

[Larry Linson]

Erm, one line at the very end of the auction? If it was at the end of the
description of the item, it was there all the time. If it was revealed
before the auction closed, in an e-mail, when you still had time to revoke
your bid (I don't know how, but I believe there is a way to do so on every
online auction.), I don't know if you can resolve this -- but you can pursue
it with the seller and the auction site and your credit card company if that
is how you paid. The Academic Edition license, if you will read it, says
that you must be a "qualified academic user". But there is no check in the
installation or registration that I know about. In the past, Microsoft
supplied me with an Academic Edition, in the past, for me to review for my
user group and it did not have any barriers to my loading and running it --
thus I assumed that they considered me a "qualified academic user" because
of my connection with that user group. However, I never used it for
"commercial use", in any case.

I suggest you contact the seller and discuss the matter with him/her. I am
reasonably sure that Microsoft will tell you that you are in violation of
the license for that edition unless you are a "qualified academic user".
But, of course, if you are to get a refund, it will have to be from the
seller, or get it resolve by the auction site, or your credit card company.

Caveat: I'm not a lawyer, I am not an employee of Microsoft, and I
definitely am not "speaking for Microsoft" on this issue!

Larry Linson
Microsoft Access MVP