Hi, I have bought MS office for mac from ebay uk. It is a sealed boxed retail version and I am going to receive it via post in few days. However the seller has already sent me the picture of key code as well. I am surprised if it is a sealed boxed item how can he send me a picture of the key code without opening the box. I am asking if it a non-legit copy i will cancel the purchase. Pls guide me. Thanks
Does the listing actually state you will receive the retail box? Some listings may show a box, but you will only receive the product key via email. In which case, the majority of the time it will be a volume license key that is not meant to be sold.
From my experience buying cheap keys on eBay and other sites which sell them at a discount. They sell them to multiple people so you may be activate it now, but sooner or later you try to activate it, it won't work and even if you all Microsoft for phone activation they will tell you the key is blacklisted and you would have passed your refund period so the seller wins and you get burned.
I wouldn't buy any software on eBay unless the seller was a licensed distributor. There are some but mostly not. The idea of saving money is great but when your keys get banned it was a 100% loss.
All the above comments are true ime. Most of that experience is through others. In my case I've bought over the years some multi user multi year licences for BitDefender from Authorized Partners of BitDefender on eBay. In these cases it's worked out extremely well. Huge dollar savings. Just to CYA I've called Bitdefender to check the keys are valid & sometimes they even have verified the Partner. Which isn't as big a deal as the licence because BitDefender has thousands of Authorized Partners. To sum up I'd say for MS Office there's a very low chance a particular listing is legit as it's super popular. If you want to be sure though check with MS.
@all Thanks for the help and great replies. The guy said it is sealed box and he opened the box and sent me the key however he is willing to send me the opened box in addition if i want. He said he used to send just the boxes but many got lost on the way so now he only opens sealed box and then send a pic of the key. The reason I am probing it is that he is selling it in 70 Pounds while the actual price of the office here in UK 120 pounds. If I am not satisfied I have 30 days to return. I don't want to use a non-legit key even if it works for me indefinitely. I guess it will be against the forum rule to post the ebay listing URL. Am I right?
With eBay the buyer is ALWAYS right. You're 100% covered through eBay. So I'd call MS & say something like this: a friend (decline to name if asked) gave me (not sold) a retail boxed copy of MS Office. If asked where purchased say he doesn't remember it was over a year ago (don't volunteer this provide only if asked). The guys a knucklehead so I just want to check the license key. Before any of this ask them their name & ask how are you today? A little niceness with CSR gives you the world.
