Install Office 2016 OEM without Live account

I skipped a bunch of pages here, not sure if this has been brought up.  My customers typically don't buy OEM licenses so I haven't had to deal with this before now.  I also haven't dealt with any batches of new W10 systems as every batch purchase up to this point the customer has opted for Windows 7.

A customer bought 5 Windows 10 HP desktops, didn't tell me they also purchased OEM Office 2016.

I fire up the first one on my workbench, skip through all the startup crap, pull all the preinstalled garbage they're not going to use, install the programs that they use, configure, generalize, and image they first system over to the other 4 systems.

Onsite I set up the first computer, join it to the domain, log in as a domain user, have huge issues due to the fact that Windows 10 handles the Default user profile in such a way that the method I used tanked all kinds of functions (don't get me started on this...  I've spent about 25 hours reading forums and experimenting, trying to get the process nailed down for setting up a default user configuration that doesn't require SysPrep and/or scripting.  This has been super easy with minor changes since XP came out...  But that's another looooong thread I'm participating in...)  Part of what was screwed up was Office, which I mentioned to the customer and that's when they told me they had purchased OEM Office 2016.

There's no key cards with the systems.

Call HP, they tell me that key cards aren't sent anymore, instead they somehow at the factory enable the system for an OEM license and you're supposed to activate the license on your Microsoft account during the initial startup of the system.

I tell them that's not possible, the systems have been imaged and I can't run the "Initial Boot Up Process" they keep insisting I need to do.

Eventually after speaking to 3 support people, a manager, and the salesperson who placed the order for my customer, they had no solution at all and they refunded the cost of Office.

How is this OK?

How is this OK?

As we have been saying throughout this entire thread, this is not OK (I understand that you didn't want to read through all this). With Dell, in my experience, they give a keycard. That solves their problem of "What if you have to replace the drive or reimage?" HP opts for the worst possible solution, IMO. Glad the customer got their money back. While we don't always have the option, we need to be diligent to explain the situation to our clients and bill for consultation time since our advice will save them a lot of money in the long run. And if they don't ask us first, then we politely suggest that the next time they consult us before making the purchase and then tell them why they need to get their money back and be sure to bill them for the time we take straightening out their mess.

I hear a lot of people complaining about all the extra time it is taking to correct their problems. Make sure you bill your clients for the time.  It is not your fault. You were not the cause of the problems, issues, and messes that MS and HP have created.  I know it's hard, but try not to get upset and just bill for your time. 

I had an attorney customer once purchase a PC from HP directly. There were some problems that were HP's fault and it took me a few hours to straighten it out. He sued HP in small claims court for my time (and probably his as well). HP never showed up to court and he won the default settlement. They didn't pay. He waited a few years while interest accrued. Then he went back to court and forced them to pay and he was happy.  Just saying...

FYI - Dell is not supplying product keys either now - nice that they did not include any notifications or info on that as well

digging ditches or shovelling snow - at least not deal with M$ crap

How is this OK?

Very simple, it is making beau-coup bucks for MS. 365 is a cash-cow.

The "magic" icons with the hidden product keys built in are a recent innovation.  It is also being used by builders to provide a "free" subscription to 365 Personal on SOME consumer computers. And they too "forget" to inform users how it works. We see lots of consumer questions about this.

On the Office side, fundamentally MS is doing everything it possibly can to make one time payment licenses infeasible for business.  For MS Office it is now all about 365 and managing Office through the business "Admin Portal" site.  Deploying 365 through the portal is relatively easy. That is how MS expects it to be done now. Imaging computers does not seem to be something MS considers for business users any more.

At least you got your customer's money back. I've seen other similar comments where I doubt that has been the outcome.

And as has been suggested, I agree that you should bill your customers for all of the time you spent. Let them see the cost of supporting MS.

thank you, it's about the best option I can thing of with this s&^t

OpenOffice, Thunderbird, Google Apps - LOVE!!!!!

btw, I am a woman, I can dig ditches I was the 'DITCH ****'

when I was in college

these days, pretty sure I can run a backhoe