Microsoft lists a Microsoft 365 Canadian military discount in its own legal Terms and Conditions, sitting right beside the well known US Military Appreciation Subscription. There is just one problem. Nobody can actually buy it. CANEX, the Canadian Forces Exchange System named directly in Microsoft’s terms, says it has no such deal and has never sold Microsoft 365 to members. So is this a real offer hiding in plain sight, or wording left behind by years of corporate inertia? Here is what we found.
There’s been a Canadian version of the Military Appreciation Discount for as long as Office Watch can remember. But the Canadian organization doesn’t know anything about the offer, even though it is named directly in Microsoft’s own terms.
The Microsoft 365 Terms and Conditions have a mention of a “Canadian Forces subscription”, just under the US “Military Appreciation Subscription”.
As best Peter can recall, this or a similar arrangement has been in the Microsoft T&C’s for many years, if not decades, alongside the offer for US Military.
The US Military Appreciation Subscription (previously “Edition”) is easy to get for anyone entitled to it. See Microsoft 365 Military Discounts: Year Round Deals for US Forces.
But the situation above the 49th parallel is a mystery. No one seems to know about the Microsoft 365 deal for Canadian Forces. There’s no known way to buy the product mentioned in Microsoft’s own legal terms, not even the organization specifically mentioned by Microsoft!
CANEX (Canadian Forces Exchange System) denies all knowledge of the Microsoft 365 offer saying:
“we have no discount offer with Microsoft through this CF One membership program. In addition, they [the CANEX team] are not aware of any Microsoft Office subscriptions ever being sold or offered via our retail arm at CANEX.ca.”
How to get the “CANEX” offer for Canadian Military
There is no way to make use of this Microsoft offer, unless there’s some secret outlet. It appears to only exist in Microsoft’s Terms and Conditions but not currently implemented.
Since there’s no way to buy the Canadian Forces Subscription, we can’t report on prices or terms.
Some Canadian military might qualify under the separate “Workplace Discount Program” which applies to many organizations that have Microsoft Volume Licenses. But that’s a separate thing and probably not as widely available as the “CANEX” offer mentioned above (e.g. not for retired personnel or widows).
What happened?
Our best guess … there was a “CANEX” arrangement with Microsoft, many, many years ago, maybe back into last century. The fulfillment path for the offer lapsed but the wording in Microsoft’s terms has been kept in place by corporate inertia.
There’s no way that the T&C’s wording would have been added originally without some arrangement between Microsoft and the Canadian organization. In particular, the term “CANEX Authorized Patron” would not have come from the imagination of the Microsoft legal team. We’re told it’s not a term used by CANEX now, but maybe it was in the past?
What’s next?
Hopefully, CANEX and Microsoft will get together and sort this out. What happened years ago isn’t as important as fixing this problem now.
- Either tell people how to get the offer, if it exists at all.
- Or make a “Canadian Forces Subscription” available.
Our many Canadian friends might politely ask CANEX and Microsoft Canada to do something. It would be a shame if this arrangement was allowed to disappear because two companies can’t come to an agreement.
Microsoft 365 Military Discounts: Year Round Deals for US Forces
Pay less for Microsoft 365 with the Workplace Discount Program
