Microsoft is offering half-price on one of their Office 2007 bundles just until 1 December 2008. But, as usual with Microsoft, there are traps for the unwary. We explain the traps and suggest a way to buy for the advertised price elsewhere.
UPDATE: the Black Friday offer has now expired, however there’s still strange and expensive purchase options on the Microsoft web site.
Microsoft is offering a ‘Black Friday’ special to buy Office 2007 Home and Student edition supposedly for $69.99 instead of the regular $149.95 price (until Monday 1 December 2008) But, as usual with Microsoft, the offer isn’t what it initially seems.
The price isn’t really $69.99 and the promise to ‘Save 50%’ isn’t quite true.
You get Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and OneNote 2007 (note, NOT Outlook 2007). The Home and Student bundle lets you install the software on up to three computers – making it a good choice for families. Despite the name, this bundle can be sold to anyone who wants it – there’s no attempt to verify that the software will only be used in a home or only by students.
The offer isn’t consistently advertised on Microsoft’s own site. If you go to their new Microsoft Store, there’s no mention of this offer with only the standard $149.95 price (plus tax) to be seen.
But if you go to this page you can find the offer plus the supposed higher prices from other online retailers. We say ‘supposed’ because as the Microsoft web page euphemistically says “Third party offers are subject to change without notice”. Indeed that’s the case – when we checked both Amazon and Best Buy they were offering the same price as Microsoft, in fact a better price in many ways (more on that later).
If you go with the Microsoft offer you’ll find that the $69.99 price jumps to $76.98 before tax – making it more expensive than buying from a major retailer.
The price hike is because the online store is adding extra ‘Licence Lock Box’ options ranging from $6.99 to $16.99. At least they are labeled ‘Optional’ but we could not find a way to purchase without selecting at least the ‘Digital Backup and license key’ choice for $6.99 (the quantity item can’t be changed for the ‘option’). Update: the order form now shows faint ‘Remove’ icons on the right-side to let people remove the extra charge. It seems the icons are so faint that we could not see them on our computer screen!
These ‘options’ don’t appear when you purchase a download from the standard Microsoft Store (continuing download and license key storage is included in the displayed price). For example if you buy the Home & Student bundle normally there’s no extra charge even though the product and delivery method are the same.
Really Microsoft is pulling a trick – advertising the $69.99 price then adding an extra fee afterwards. The advertised price should be $76.98 – not quite 50% off.
You have to wonder why Microsoft made the offer this way, after all selling the bundle for $76.98 is still a significant discount on the standard price. Apparently the temptation to have the ” 50% off ” headline was too great and they figured they could fool both customers and their ‘valued’ retail partners with a misleading lead-in price.
The other retailers seem to unaware of Microsoft’s pricing deceit, they have matched Microsoft’s initially promoted price not the real price that people pay. The retailers might be entitled to complain about such practices but in the meantime there’s an opportunity for anyone looking to buy Office 2007 Home and Student.
The cheaper option
At least until Monday 1 December, the best option for US customers would seem to be buying Office 2007 Home and Student from Amazon via this link:
Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
At the time of writing Amazon is selling the H&S bundle for $69.99. If you choose ‘Free Super-saver shipping’ then you’ll pay the displayed $69.99 price and no more (maybe some state sales tax).
Better still, you’ll get a DVD disk for no extra charge. Sure you don’t get the immediate download from Microsoft, but I suspect that if you’ve waited this long for Office 2007 a few more days wait won’t matter too much.
Best Buy has the same $69.99 price but charges for shipping. You may be able to get the promotional price from a local store.
See Also
- Office 2010 Military Appreciation Edition
- More Office purchase anomalies from Microsoft
- Wanna pay more for Office? Use the new Microsoft store
