Vista Family Discount Key Problems

[Puffnstuff]

Well after I installed my ultimate retail I was poking around microsoft and came across the family discount plan. It allows the purchaser of the ultimate retail to buy two copies of home premium for $49.99 each so I did it. Well the keys that ms sent me are not valid. I called and spoke to two customer service reps and I still have two invalid keys although they tell me to wait and call back in 36 hours because they should have updated information by then. I'm very disappointed in how ms is handling this. I wanted to know if anybody else has used the family discount and if they are having the same problem with their keys? Thanks.

 

[SunnyD]

:laugh:

Sorry, I'm not laughing at you... I'm laughing at Microsoft. :laugh:

 

[nweaver]

rolling out a new program for a new OS, and you are pissed because there are a few bumps?

 

[blurredvision]

I'm going to take advantage of the discount plan, but now I'm going to wait a few days .

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: nweaver
rolling out a new program for a new OS, and you are pissed because there are a few bumps?

where does he say anything about being pissed ?

If it was me, I'd be pissed. :moon:

 

[Brian48]

Wow. I went ahead and jumped on that deal myself last night. Haven't had a chance to try out the keys that they sent me yet though. I guess I'll know better tonight when I try it.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well if you read what I wrote I said that I was disappointed. The cs rep should've been able to give me new keys on the spot that would work or force the system to accept the keys that ms provided. That is pretty simple seeing that ms didn't wait to charge my cc for it. The first cs rep I spoke to admitted that they were having server problems and I can understand that. They should've emailed everyone who purchased through the discount plan that they were having problems so people would already be aware that they were working on it.

 

[Brian48]

Well, it doesn't look like they've solved their server issues if that's indeed the problem. Both keys that I purchased last night do not work. The phone line was shut down for the night when I called, so I emailed about it.

 

[blurredvision]

I read elsewhere that a 3rd party handles the billing and dispersement of keys for this program, and they are having major issues with this right now. Again, I'll say that I've read this elsewhere, but it seems that this company has acknowledged that NONE of the keys that have been purchased so far will work. Not sure why the billing is still online (for me anyway), but it should be fixed ASAP.

 

[John]

http://neowin.net/index.php?act=view&id=37734

 

[VisionxOrb]

Im just curious what the circumstances of your install was because from what I gather the home premium keys they give you are upgrade keys so If you were trying this as a clean install instead of running from say inside windows xp then they would fail. If theres somthing else going on then I guess MS botched this up.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well it doesn't matter because one of the systems I was upgrading was running xp pro x64 which requires a clean install. Both versions of windows that I was upgrading were activated. The problem here is that none of the keys that were purchased through the family discount plan work period.

 

[Brian48]

I spoke to a MS rep this morning. This apparantly has become very widespread. Unfortunately, they said they will not send out any notification when this issue has been resolved. I will have to keep checking back (WTF?).

 

[BahbRF]

I just sent out an email complaining about this, and here's what I got back

"Microsoft is fully aware of the issue and is currently working on having emails resent to you with a new product key(s). We anticipate that the emails will start going out to you within the next 3 - 5 business days. We do appreciate your patience in this matter. "

 

[Gunther]

I am really pissed about this. I found out about this after I bought a key and tried to use it. I am surprised they didn't test this before opening it up to the public. If they know there is a problem they should take the family discount page down until they fix it, instead they are just getting more people who want to buy legit vista keys and don't know about this problem screwed until they decide to fix the key generation system.

 

[blurredvision]

I agree with you Gunther, they should take the page down. This is what boggles my mind.

 

[Brian48]

I actually emailed them 2 days ago about that and recommended that they take the site down. This is what I today, but I don't see anything different. The site seems to still be there and they are still taking people's money.

Hello,

Here is an update on your concern regarding the Vista Family Discount offer Web site:

The problem related to the Windows Vista Family Discount has been rectified. During the process of correcting this problem the direct link from the Windows Vista site was removed. Please re-try to access the Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc...vista/buyorupgrade/familydiscount.mspx

Should you have additional concerns, please do not hesitate to e-mail us again.

Thank you,

Alvin
Microsoft Online Customer Service Representative

 

[Puffnstuff]

I emailed them again this morning and they sent me a response saying that I should get new keys in 3-5 days. I also checked the family discount site a little while ago and it will not accept new orders now so they are addressing the problem. We should all get ultimate keys for this bs plus coupons for other ms products.

 

[Puffnstuff]

Well I received new keys this morning and while both are good now I have a new problem. The x64 upgrade machine accepted the keys just fine but the xp pro upgrade did not. It says that a clean install cannot be done with that license agreement forcing us to restart from the beginning again. Thank you MS for taking such good care of your legitimate paying user base.

 

[wirednuts]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
Well I received new keys this morning and while both are good now I have a new problem. The x64 upgrade machine accepted the keys just fine but the xp pro upgrade did not. It says that a clean install cannot be done with that license agreement forcing us to restart from the beginning again. Thank you MS for taking such good care of your legitimate paying user base.

that kinda sucks man. i would just install vista without the key first then install it again once your in the desktop, it will install clean then. MS has got to get thier ****** together, i think they spent dec/january having a few too many celebratory cocktails

 

[Puffnstuff]

Wired that is exactly what I did the first time. I installed without using the key and when I tried to upgrade from within vista it wouldn't do it however we did it all over again today and it finally worked. Now both of my upgrade machines are running fine and I'm a happier man for it.

 

[TazExprez]

I have a question regarding the upgrade keys that you get for $50.00. Are they the retail upgrade, or the OEM upgrade? Thanks for any help.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Puffnstuff
Well after I installed my ultimate retail I was poking around microsoft and came across the family discount plan. It allows the purchaser of the ultimate retail to buy two copies of home premium for $49.99 each so I did it. Well the keys that ms sent me are not valid. I called and spoke to two customer service reps and I still have two invalid keys although they tell me to wait and call back in 36 hours because they should have updated information by then. I'm very disappointed in how ms is handling this. I wanted to know if anybody else has used the family discount and if they are having the same problem with their keys? Thanks.

Tech checks his schedule to see when his next day off is...
Tech: Call back in 36 hours and we should have updated information by then.

jk

 

[Brian48]

Originally posted by: TazExprez
I have a question regarding the upgrade keys that you get for $50.00. Are they the retail upgrade, or the OEM upgrade? Thanks for any help.

Neither, I think. They don't actually say. All they do is email you a key and you use the same DVD install disk as the Ultimate Ed.

 

[Puffnstuff]

The selling point for these keys was that they save you over 60% versus buying it in the store so it was marketed as a retail upgrade to whatever qualifying windows version you were running. In my case in machine was plain xp pro and the other was xp pro x64 and both were upgraded to home premium. I never had to divulge my xp keys to ms so they'll both reactivate if need be. Now if ms would only release sp1 to correct all of the bugs that are manifesting themselves right how.