Microsoft Restores Transfer Rights To Office 2013

New submitter gewalker writes "Bowing to significant unfriendly customer feedback regarding its new 'no transfer' license for Office 2013, Microsoft has reconsidered and will now allow Office 2013 licenses to be transferred between computers. Actual license language will not be reflected for a few months for shipped products, but Microsoft will allow transfer of license effective immediately. Calls to customer support will be necessary, as the activation servers won't be updated for a few months."

Great

[dreamchaser]

This is a step in the right direction. Now if only unfriendly customer feedback would get them to retract Metro we'll really be in business.

Seriously though, how obvious was it that there would be a huge negative reaction to the change of licensing terms for Office? As usually, the more MBA's you get involved in things the dumber the collective IQ of an organization gets.

Fucking sleazebags

[NettiWelho]

Trying to chip away customers rights at every chance and backing away only when the blowback gets unbearable, just to wait for another chance.

Re:Great

[Anonymous Coward]

When you have this kind of marketshare you keep pushing to the edge until consumers make you stop. Its all about trying to get away with as much as possible.

Hooray! Now, about the Windows 8 problem...

[mschaffer]

Maybe more rational thinking is returning to the Big M.
Now, if only they would rethink the Windows 8 mess on desktops.

The car analogy?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought some tires for my car and they came with locking lug-nuts. The lug-nuts are weird in that, once fastened, nobody can undo them except for the tire manufacturer. If I want to use the tires on another car, I have to call them and they will allow me to move the tires to a different vehicle.

And I would choose to buy these tires why?

Re:The car analogy?

[Githaron]

Because the only way to guarantee that your tires are 100% compatible with the roads on the way to work is to buy those tires.

Several months?

[Sydin]

I applaud the change itself, but stretching the timeframe to actually having a good system implemented will do Microsoft no good. I hope they're okay with rampant piracy, since it will be more convenient to just pirate a new copy of Office 2013, rather than fumble around with Microsoft's customer support for a day while they double check my name, phone number, social security number, hair color, and genome sequence to make absolutely sure I really am the same one who bought that license in the first place.

Colin Chapman

[ThatsNotPudding]

Seriously though, how obvious was it that there would be a huge negative reaction to the change of licensing terms for Office?

It's like how Colin Chapman designed car frames: keep taking out pieces until it collapses under its own weight. Put the last piece back in. Do something outrageous and walk it back just one step, getting almost all of what you wanted.

Simple Business Sociopathy 101.

Re:a good move

[PRMan]

Then the question becomes: why would i take windows 8?

To get the free copy of Office, of course. Duh!

Companies don't get it

[JasoninKS]

Too many companies just refuse to "get it". Fifteen, heck even 10, years ago you could screw with customers, they'd write in, and that would be the end of it. You may or may not do anything different. But this is a vastly different world now and companies just don't understand that! It use to be that 1 happy customer might tell 3 friends. An unhappy customer would tell 10 friends. But with the internet and social media, 1 happy customer can tell 20 friends, but 1 hacked off customer can tell thousands in an instant! It was one thing if you got 10 letters back in the day, waaay different if you hear thousands of customers ripping on you in hours. And tech companies seem oblivious to the fact that when it comes to technology in today's world, customers often have free or less expensive alternatives that are, fairly often, pretty equal in quality or features.