Office 2013 - Need to Activate WITHOUT creating MS Account!

Microsoft has to have your customers email address so they can market to your customers and cut you out of the loop. This is why you are referred to as a "Valuable Partner" . You have been trained now, with the branding iron, so you will not make the same mistake again and register under your own email address or an alias for your customer.

You can go to https://signup.live.com and create an account using the customers real email address ie: ******@warnerbros.com so you do not need a bogus hotmail/skype/outlook/live address.

The problem for we "Valued Partners" is that I believe a validation email is sent to that address and action needs to be taken to activate the account and product. They want the names of the first born, favorite author, childhood hero, name of your prom date, size of your underwear or other information, along with age, ****, phone number or other demographic and personal tracking information. We're often doing this work at the clients desk, then we have to go fetch them to respond to this address, and answer the foolish questions, which cost valuable time and money.

We buy Office 2013 Home and Business for $219, and have to sell it for $219. The profit margin is zero. After we install it, it ends up being a negative profit. We end up losing money every time we upgrade a SOHO client. We only have 12 working hours in a day, and its silly to have to 'spend' 20 minutes with every activation.

Yes, we could TRY to sell them open license, the same product for $100 or more extra, but this is SOHO, and all they want to do is go back to work (and find out all the buttons have been changed and the ribbon button hidden by default). If we stick around, it end up costing another 30 minutes to tweek the install so they can at least find the new ribbon with the mixed-up shortcuts.

MS should really send some scouts out in the field to try to make a living selling this stuff and get some real world feedback from the techs in the trenches, and the poor end-users who are subject to an endless shuffling of menu items and feature removals, like MS Picture manager..... but that is another rant.

MS just don't care what we think or how much of a pain in the A** this is for IT. We roll out MANY VLK's, and those are a cinch, but for the smaller clients, they do NOT want Office365.  In fact, anything cloud is a big deal in Canada, due to HIPPA, PIPPA, FIPPA, you name it, It technically illegal to setup any health care or doctors on Office 365 due to servers located on US soil, just as doctors here cannot use Gmail, Hotmail etc.

MS have turned this into such a colossal PITA, and as a result we made a singular account initially to process these installs, but now we have issues with confusing who's who with the account keys and also issues with clients randomly de-activating during the work day and having to call in for a remote help desk support session to re-activate.

As a result I have been referring more small clients to Open Office and WLM.

Never was an employee of MS, just another user trying to help others.

Been using MS products for a really long time and so may be inclined to be a little biased. Never had the fortune of working with apple products for a long time.

I am sure if you ask your customers to call and ask MS to reassociate them, they would.

At least I have heard them do so, so ask your customers to call and check, if they refuse at least get them to speak to a supervisor.

Actually, Elemantal, I have spent hours on the phone with M/$ for this very purpose (of using my account to install client copies of Office without realizing they are there forever and my clients are SOL if they need them without my input!) and trying to get those licenses "reassociated" with their account.  Finally had a rep who said the *only* answer was to de-activate the dozen licenses at 4different sites, get M/$ to refund the money (good luck with that one), then re-purchase all new licenses.  Then go to the various locations and uninstall Office and reinstall with the new licenses under, of course, newly created M/$ accounts for each user.

Yeah, that's simple.

Your answers always seem to be pro-M/$.  Must be an employee with the task of playing the role of "come on, M/$'s not that bad, gang."

Same problem - MS Office 2013 installation for small businesses NOT a manageable task.  I have spent more that 8 hours trying to get a copy of Office 2013 and Access 2013 installed an operational on a customer PC and I am still not finished.  I cannot correct mistakes I made associating the software with an inappropriate MS account and support calls are basically telling me that is impossible.  A better approach needs to be rolled out quickly or it will not be feasible for me to sell this product.

Please confirm If you have an "Office 2013 ???" bundle, or an "Office 365 ???" bundle?

The "solution" is you have to call MS Support, then ask/INSIST! to speak to a supervisor. The front line support person CANNOT help with this problem.  You need to ask for them to issue you a new Product Key and cancel the current one. Then you can activate again using the customer email account. It is not easy finding someone who will do it for you, but there have been a number of people who have had this done for them.

Actually, for business users in mid sized companies (larger than 25 users) you should be looking at buying a volume license. Then you can use the Office admin portal to manage allocating (and deallocating) Office licenes to specific users. Sorry I don't have experience with this new approach. Here are some links where you can read about it.

Office 365 2013 for Business

Office 365 for Business - 1 license 5 users?

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_365hp-office_install/office-365-for-small-business-usersdevices/3185ba8f-7916-4f7b-98cb-a0d2b7a27381

One user posted this reply. Personally I find it hard to accept, but this is what they were told …

<snip>

I called Microsoft in my country and they said: yes, for 1 license of Office 365 5 people from the same company and in the same building can work on 5 different devices.

I think it's a very good deal!

</snip>

buy 365- Moving to Office 365? Dig deep into your options first

http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/moving-office-365-dig-deep-your-options-first-233663

Four Office 2013 features address security configuration, authorization - IRM

http://searchenterprisedesktop.techtarget.com/feature/Four-Office-2013-features-address-security-configuration-authorization

Microsoft Office 2013 makes it easier than ever for users to access their documents when and where they need them. But Microsoft wasn't thinking only about end users when it released the latest version of its application suite. The company also took into account the needs of IT professionals who must deploy Office across the enterprise. Office 2013 features include plenty of bells and whistles to make administrators happy, particularly when it comes to security.

In fact, Microsoft has tackled a number of important areas to make Office a safer environment for enterprise workers. Security configurations have been updated and authentication has been enhanced. Functionality that supports trusted publishers, digital signatures and encrypted document recovery has also received a makeover. The latest version Office even includes new and improved Protected View and Information Rights Management (IRM) features.

2013 02 27- Hands-on with the new Office 365 business plans

http://www.zdnet.com/hands-on-with-the-new-office-365-business-plans-7000011894/

2013 02 27- MS launches updated Office 365 for business users

http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-launches-updated-office-365-for-business-users-7000011896/

2013 02 27- Office 365: Business users’ top questions (and answers)

http://www.zdnet.com/microsofts-office-365-business-users-top-questions-and-answers-7000011908/

2013 02 05- Top Office 365 questions answered

http://blogs.office.com/b/office\_blog/archive/2013/02/05/faqs-top-office-365-questions-and-answers.aspx

What is the difference between Office 365 and Office 2013?

Which should I get: Office 365 Home Premium or a traditional Office 2013 edition?

Does Office 365 only work in the browser? Do I have to be online?

Can I use Office 365 Home Premium on my Mac?

What happens if I cancel my subscription? Do I lose all my content?

Can I work from home if I have Office 365 Home Premium?

How will it help save me time?

BPOS or Office 365 Bandwidth needs determination: A Refresher

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner\_ts2team/archive/2011/01/10/bpos-or-office-365-bandwidth-needs-determination-a-refresher.aspx

Decoded: Microsoft’s puzzling Office 365 rollout

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2029437/decoded-microsofts-puzzling-office-365-roll-out.html

http://images.techhive.com/images/article/2013/02/office365\_chart5-100027184-orig.jpg

In addition MS is keeping the old 365 programs:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/business/compare-office-for-business-plans-FX102918419.aspx

2013 03 14- Apparently, Microsoft takes this Office 365 (Small Business) support thing seriously

http://www.zdnet.com/apparently-microsoft-takes-this-office-365-support-thing-seriously-7000012613/?s\_cid=e019

<snip> I cannot over-emphasize how important good support is, especially when you can no longer lay your own hands on the server. I also can’t over-emphasize how impressed I’ve become with Microsoft’s support for Office 365. </snip>