MS Office 2010 Home and Business product key already used

Question

MS Office 2010 Home and Business product key already used

Anonymous

Hi, I purchased Office 2010 Home and Business from a retail store this afternoon, this is the FPP version. It was sealed in the plastic wrap when I got it, and the DVD looks genuine, judging by what I read from the "How to tell" guide. I installed it on my computer right after a clean OS install. When it asked me for a product key, I keyed it in and it accepted the key as valid. However, when I tried to activate, I was told that the key has already been used and cannot be activated. I phoned MS customer support and the customer service representative confirmed that my key has indeed already been activated 3 times (which I haven't done). He advised me to return the software to the retail store and ask them to give me a new copy. I am going to do that, but just in case the store proves uncooperative, I want to know what my other options are, and if it is really possible for a sealed retail box of MS office to have it's key used by someone else? Maybe there's a glitch or something? I ran these scripts I found in other forums to check the status of my MS Office.

C:\Windows\system32>cscript "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.

vbs" /dstatus

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8

---Processing--------------------------

SKU ID: 7b7d1f17-fdcb-4820-9789-9bec6e377821

LICENSE NAME: Office 14, OfficeHomeBusiness-Retail edition

LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 14, RETAIL channel

LICENSE STATUS: ---OOB_GRACE---

ERROR CODE: 0x4004F00C

ERROR DESCRIPTION: The Software Licensing Service reported that the application

is running within the valid grace period.

Last 5 characters of installed product key: 6CW3Q

REMAINING GRACE: 30 days (43105 minute(s) before expiring)

---Exiting-----------------------------

C:\Windows\system32>cscript "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Office\Office14\ospp.

vbs" /act

Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.8

---Processing--------------------------

Installed product key detected - attempting to activate the following product:

SKU ID: 7b7d1f17-fdcb-4820-9789-9bec6e377821

LICENSE NAME: Office 14, OfficeHomeBusiness-Retail edition

LICENSE DESCRIPTION: Office 14, RETAIL channel

Last 5 characters of installed product key: 6CW3Q

ERROR CODE: 0xC004C008

ERROR DESCRIPTION: The activation server determined that the specified product k

ey could not be used.

---Exiting-----------------------------

C:\Windows\system32>

Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance!

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2 additional answers

Answer 1

A fine distinction: A H&B key could be "Activated" 3 (or more) times (remember transfers and re-installs are allowed), but it can only be "ACTIVE" on 2 computers at the same time. Exactly what did the MS person say ... ?

To your question, I suppose in theory the store may have re-wrapped a returned LEGAL package and the original purchaser did not uninstall (aka they STOLE office, The activation center should be disabling the product key! )

There really isn't much we can tell you about why keys are rejected. You already took the step we normally advise, call the phone activation center to get specific information about activation problems.

Yes you can return your purchase and ask for a refund (or an exchange). It would help you if you have a specific person at the phone activation center, or an incident number that the store could refer to. Microsoft North American Retail Product Refund Guideline

https://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/productrefund/refund.mspx

Hit them in the bottom line by “voting with your feet”, ask for your money back.

Answer 2

A fine distinction: A H&B key could be "Activated" 3 (or more) times (remember transfers and re-installs are allowed), but it can only be "ACTIVE" on 2 computers at the same time. Exactly what did the MS person say ... ?

Oh yeah, I did not realize that. The MS guy only told me it's been activated 3 times, I did not think to ask if those installs were active. But the fact remains that the supposedly sealed product has been used then and sold to me. Thanks for the reply, someone is going to get my boot when I return this.

Answer 3

Anonymous

Something not right here "the customer service representative confirmed that my key has indeed already been activated 3 times " The H&B retail version is licensed for 2 working PC's only, it cannot have been used/activated 3 times

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MS Office 2010 Home and Business product key already used

2 additional answers