Complaint About Unreasonable Activation Issues with Microsoft Office 2021

Question

I am writing this complaint regarding a very frustrating experience with the activation of my legitimately purchased Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2021 license (for 5 devices).

After a hardware upgrade (motherboard replacement) on my PC (no OEM), my Office 2021 installation was deactivated. Attempts to reactivate the software, both online and by phone, have failed completely, despite the fact that I still have available unused licenses. This, despite the fact that this license worked fine before the upgrade.

I have taken extensive steps to resolve the issue:

1. Updated all relevant software.
2. Reinstalled Office and performed an online repair.
3. Used the telephone activation procedure, which unfortunately did not provide a solution either.
4. Cleaned up my Microsoft account by deleting historical devices that no longer exist, to no avail.

To my disappointment, I find that this situation strongly suggests a lack of support for customers who purchased a one-time license, in favor of promoting Office 365 subscriptions. This feels like an unfair restriction of my paid license and causes unnecessary costs and loss of time, as I was forced to purchase a new license for Office 2024.

I urge you to reconsider this matter and provide more customer-friendly solutions, especially for hardware changes. In addition, I would like compensation for the fact that I had to purchase a new license while my original one should still be valid.

Kind regards, Willy

PS I already posted this complaint on the Feedback-hub and the Microsoft Community forum. The forum referred me to learn.microsoft.

Answer 1

Hi @Willy D

We apologize for the inconvenience caused by the Office activation issue.

Based on your description, it appears that your Office Professional Plus 2021 is not a volume licensed version. Could you please confirm whether you purchased your Office from Microsoft or a third-party channel?

• If you bought it from Microsoft, please sign in to your MS Account at https://office.com/myaccount, then go to "Devices", remove this computer.
• After that, navigate to "Subscriptions", re-install your Office for a check.
• Microsoft Office licenses are often tied to the specific hardware of your computer, including the motherboard. If the steps above do not work, it is recommended that you contact Microsoft support to see if they can update the activation information in the background and help you activate Office.

However, if you purchased Office from a source other than the official Microsoft website, please reach out to the seller for instructions on activating Office after changing the motherboard, as their steps may differ from those on the Microsoft website. Thank you for your understanding.

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Answer 2

Thanks for the quick response. I have notified the seller (not Microsoft) and am now awaiting a response.