Do Office 2007 version upgrades really qualify for Office 2010?

Office WatchLast updated: 17 July 2018

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There’s a gap between what Microsoft says and their written policy.

We’ve had a few messages from readers querying our articles about buying Office 2010 cheaply by buying Office 2007 now and getting the ‘Technology Guarantee’ later.

Apparently some retailers and Microsoft staff are saying that Office Watch is wrong – that ‘version upgrade’ Office 2007 packages don’t qualify for the Office 2010 Technology Guarantee.

A ‘version upgrade’ is the lower priced Office package which is the same software but requires that you have a qualifying past version of Microsoft Office to be eligible for the lower price. There are version upgrade packages available for Office 2007 but Office 2010 will NOT have version upgrade discounts.

” I just got off the phone with the sales department at Microsoft Office, and they told me that the upgrade versions do not qualify. I specificy[sic] asked them about the Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Upgrade which you featured in the your recent article from Amazon.com. They told me that I would need to buy the full version, not the upgrade version, in order to qualify for an upgrade to Office 2010.”

On Amazon they have a list of qualifying products that doesn’t include the version upgrade options.

That’s interesting because Microsoft’s own documentation says otherwise. Source: Microsoft Office 2010 Technology Guarantee: FAQ a page which is linked to with the phrases ‘eligibility requirements’ and ‘See full list of Office 2007 qualifying products.’

Under the question

What Office 2007 products qualify for the Office 2010 upgrade?

It says amongst other things …

Version upgrades, Academic versions and Military Appreciation products are all eligible for the Tech Guarantee.

It’s possible the Technology Guarantee rules are different for other countries however in all the Microsoft country sites we’ve looked at they all point back to the ‘office.com/techg’ pages that seem to apply globally.

It’s worth keeping in mind that retailers and Microsoft have a self-interest in steering customers to the more expensive version of a product. Perhaps in this case some staff have noticed the low-price opportunity for customers and are getting a bit over-zealous?

This isn’t the first time that what Microsoft says is different from their written policies. In this case we think we’re on solid ground. If Microsoft wanted to change their written and published policy now, customers would be entitled to complain about a retrospective change in the rules.

If you’ve been told Office 2007 version upgrades DON’T qualify for Office 2010 – we’ve love to hear from you with details – what phone number you called / store etc plus an approx. date and time would be very useful in following up with Microsoft.