Microsoft has no shame about dropping ads into paid Microsoft Office apps when there’s a way for the company to make even a little more money.
We’ve received reports of the Word 365 or PowerPoint 365 side-pane opening to show this ad because the customer has turned off automatic renewal (aka recurring billing).
It’s bad enough that Copilot is popping up in documents and sheets but now there’s ‘reminders’ appearing because the customer has not chosen the most profitable option for Microsoft.
“Recurring Billing” is Microsoft’s name for automatic Microsoft 365 renewals. Auto renewals are very profitable for Microsoft because they get to charge full price direct (no retailer taking a cut).
And the company can plan their future cash flow by tracking the recurring billing dates.
Uninterrupted Benefits?
The line about “Uninterrupted Benefits” from recurring billing is stretching the truth quite a bit.
If a Microsoft 365 plan gets near or past expiry there’s plenty of warnings including emails and in-app notices.
The software will keep working for at least a few days because there’s a ‘grace period’ after the Microsoft 365 expiry date.
Speaking of “Uninterrupted benefits”, perhaps Microsoft should focus instead on “uninterrupted work”, letting paying customers use the software without self-serving interruptions.
Why ‘recurring billing’?
Why does Microsoft use the term ‘recurring billing’? Because their market research showed that it was more acceptable by customers compared to ‘automatic’ as in ‘automatic renewal’ or ‘automatic billing’.
It’s similar to the reason why Microsoft uses the term ‘subscription’ rather than ‘rental’ which is what Microsoft 365 really is.
Keep Microsoft 365 automatic charging off
Lots of people cancel the expensive ‘recurring billing’ and instead buy the same but cheaper Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plans from other retailers.
You might be offered some extra free months of Microsoft 365 just for threatening to cancel recurring billing.
Office Watch has been banging on about this trick for years, saving our readers a LOT of money.
Get two free months of Microsoft 365 Family or Personal
Beware Microsoft 365 buying traps from Amazon, Best Buy and more
