For some, the ‘Ultimate Steal’ really is a steal – they get nothing for their money.
John L is just the latest to write to us on this topic:
“You have mentioned several times that MS Office Ultimate can be bought for $59.95 by qualified college students (‘Stealing’ Office 2007 – with Microsoft’s permission). I think this is an illusory deal.
I enrolled at a college, which is listed on their pre-approved list of colleges which do not offer a .edu email address. In Feb. 2010, I applied for the “Ultimate Steal”, sending them a scan of my student ID card, as requested.
I have heard nothing from them since applying over 90 days ago. The 3d party outfit handling this “deal”, digitalriver.com, has not responded to my inquiry. Have you heard complaints like this from other students?
Thanks for your terrific products.
“
Actually we have heard from other readers who can’t get their ‘Ultimate Steal’ copy of Microsoft Office. The common factor is that they don’t have an .edu email address to verify their student status.
The Ultimate Steal is a low cost offer for Office only for college/university students – details here.
If you have an .edu email address (or equivalent in other countries) then purchases seem to go through fairly quickly. But without an .edu address the verification process is more complicated and difficult – that complication seems to delay processing.
Microsoft doesn’t directly run this scheme, it has been delegated to Digital River.
If you made a purchase and followed the purchase rules exactly but didn’t get a Product Key then you need to follow up with Digital River. For US customers that’s studentoffice.us@digitalriver.com – include all the details of your purchase; date, time, name, college, email address etc and be polite.
Keep in mind the real possibility that the product key email may have been sent to you and accidently placed in your ‘Junk e-mail’ folder or deleted. Check your Deleted Items and Junk Email folders for missing messages before complaining about any missing order email (not just from Microsoft).
As a last resort, if you get no satisfaction from the merchant, you can complain to your credit card company and ask for the charge to be reversed since you’ve paid for goods and not received them.
Office 2010 Upgrade?
In John L’s case, if he gets the software it will be interesting to see what effective date they put on the purchase. He ordered in Feb 2010 but purchases after 5 March 2010 qualify for a free Office 2010 upgrade under the Technology Guarantee.
If Microsoft/Digital River stick to the original payment date then John will not qualify for the upgrade. However, if they have delayed the fulfillment of the purchase for so long (over 90 days since payment) then John would be entitled to ask for the purchase to be dated on the day of fulfillment (hopefully in June 2010) and thus qualify for the Technology Guarantee.
It’s worth asking.
