Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard - $249

[Kaido]

Making room for Server 2016, I suppose:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Server-2012-Standard/dp/B00GAIMXR4/

Thought it might be a scam (based on the reviews), but I ordered a half dozen licenses & they all came in the same sealed packages as I've gotten them in before, so...sweet deal!

 

[Oyeve]

Nice. In for 4. Save the company loads of moola! Thanks OP!

 

[lupi]

I can get a copy from MS for $10, but not sure what I'd do with it.

 

[Mike64]

Making room for Server 2016, I suppose:

http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Server-2012-Standard/dp/B00GAIMXR4/

Thought it might be a scam (based on the reviews)

Between Amazon's practice of lumping together different products (from myriad sellers) under one product page, and most Amazon reviewers failing to mention the specific seller they bought from, reviews for listings like this are usually all but completely useless...<sigh>

 

[thesmokingman]

lol, 2 cpu lic is 250, 4 cpu lic is 1.5K. :\

 

[alyarb]

I have purchased both legit and counterfeit 2012 R2 Standard from this URL before.

 

[Kaido]

I have purchased both legit and counterfeit 2012 R2 Standard from this URL before.

What did your counterfeit copies look like? Did they have OEM packaging with the stickers & just not activate or what?

One thing that I hate about Amazon how is different sellers can sell under a master brand name & a legitimate product link. Actually, another thing that bugs me is the changing rules of selling. I just bought an appliance off Amazon & didn't realize it wasn't Prime until I got the email that said it was 2-3 weeks out, so I went to cancel it & find a seller who had Prime (because the search listing said it did), but it turns out I had to contact the seller through email to get approval for a cancellation. Which they gave me flack for, despite the order still being in the "processing phase" (which it was stuck in for over a week). Needless to say, I'll never use that seller again, but I'm frustrated that Amazon (1) lets sellers get away with stuff like that, and (2) puts Prime in the search results (and also Sponsored stuff in those results) but then does a little bait & switch with whoever the current seller is. Combined with some of the shipping issues I've been having lately, where free 2-day shipping will sometimes turn into 4 or 5 day shipping due to "processing times" & stuff like that, it's like Amazon is slowly creeping to the crap side of selling products :thumbsdown:

 

[Mike64]

it's like Amazon is slowly creeping to the crap side of selling products :thumbsdown:

I have to question your choice of verb tense.<sigh> Or I guess maybe I should draw a distinction between Amazon as a "seller" per se and what I guess you might call an etailing-host-site (or something along those lines)? I have to say I've had nothing but good experiences dealing with Amazon with respect to actually buying stuff from (or even just shipped by) Amazon. And for that matter, mostly from what I've read, they're pretty good about requiring sellers to abide by their rules and policies (I say "read", because in general I'm loath to buy from third-party sellers there, I haven't needed to turn to Amazon for assistance with problems. The couple of times I have had problems, the sellers actually bent over backwards to correct/adjust things, with no need for my than polite requests on my part.)

But as far as things like lumping myriad, not always even semi-related products under single listings (along with their reviews), very poorly regulating listings themselves, manipulating search results (borderline outrageous, imo), censoring reviews, encouraging overseas sellers not to disclose their location (or at the very least not encouraging/requiring them to do so) and other stuff like that, they have been terrible for quite some time now - if they ever in fact were otherwise. (In another thread, I was defending Prime membership and Prime shipping times a while back, but that had nothing to do with being a fan of the company in general...)

 

[fleshconsumed]

I have purchased both legit and counterfeit 2012 R2 Standard from this URL before.

I'm thinking your orders were probably fulfilled by different Amazon Sellers. Got to pay attentions to that. Amazon doesn't always show the lowest market place price on the landing page, and it also doesn't always show the one with the best ratings. Got to be careful, can't just click buy it button expecting it to come directly from Amazon.

 

[Kaido]

I'm thinking your orders were probably fulfilled by different Amazon Sellers. Got to pay attentions to that. Amazon doesn't always show the lowest market place price on the landing page, and it also doesn't always show the one with the best ratings. Got to be careful, can't just click buy it button expecting it to come directly from Amazon.

imo that's wrong. Total jerk move. They need to explicitly state who the seller is, not hide it under a larger brand name (i.e. "Sold by Microsoft" in big letters, "Fulfilled by Acme" in tiny print). Like alyarb said, he's purchased both legit & fake copies through that same link. Completely bogus.

 

[Lil'John]

flesh has it... it isn't Amazon's fault people don't pay attention to WHO is selling it OR look at their cart before checking out. It isn't Amazon's responsibility to make the seller show up in 42 sized font that is red and flashing.

The data is there for people who take one second to check.

And yes, I recently had that issue by NOT paying attention. I thought I was buying from Amazon(2 day shipping) and actually ended up with something from Maine that took 2 weeks.

As for this offer, thank you for the heads up. It is VERY timely as I'm setting up a 2012 server.

 

[BenJeremy]

I'd guess that the seller had a bunch of gray-market licenses (when the Chinese CD stamping plant runs a few extra thousand beyond the contract) - and Microsoft caught wind, and blacklisted the keys.

Technically, not "counterfeit" - but not legal. Computer "shows" in the 90s used to be filled with that sort of stuff.

 

[alyarb]

What did your counterfeit copies look like? Did they have OEM packaging with the stickers & just not activate or what?

One thing that I hate about Amazon how is different sellers can sell under a master brand name & a legitimate product link. Actually, another thing that bugs me is the changing rules of selling. I just bought an appliance off Amazon & didn't realize it wasn't Prime until I got the email that said it was 2-3 weeks out, so I went to cancel it & find a seller who had Prime (because the search listing said it did), but it turns out I had to contact the seller through email to get approval for a cancellation. Which they gave me flack for, despite the order still being in the "processing phase" (which it was stuck in for over a week). Needless to say, I'll never use that seller again, but I'm frustrated that Amazon (1) lets sellers get away with stuff like that, and (2) puts Prime in the search results (and also Sponsored stuff in those results) but then does a little bait & switch with whoever the current seller is. Combined with some of the shipping issues I've been having lately, where free 2-day shipping will sometimes turn into 4 or 5 day shipping due to "processing times" & stuff like that, it's like Amazon is slowly creeping to the crap side of selling products :thumbsdown:

They were convincing, but the fonts were not right. Text, particularly on the product key sticker that should have been done by a thermal printer looked more like laser toner. I do have photos but no clue where they are. Also on the back of the envelope containing the DVD, it just said "microsoft" in all lower-case Trebuchet-like font, rather than the proper logotype:
http://www.brandingmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/microsoftlogotransparent-01.png


The server would not activate unless you did the phone activation wizard. Hyper-V guests, which typically activated automatically with the host license, would also fail activation. I got a refund, used another copy from Newegg or Synnex and everything started working how you would expect.

I don't make the purchases personally, but I am the one chiseling dried hardened shit bits from the fan blades when the product doesn't work. You decide the value of your time and how you want to spend that time. If you see Server Standard marked down by over 50%, proceed with skepticism. Don't assume they are "making room" for 2016. Any version of Server Standard is ~550-650.

Amazon URLs are by product. When Amazon is out of stock, the most popular marketplace seller takes its place. You fellas have fun with that, I'm running a business and my clients demand servers running genuine software to be delivered by an agreed-upon date. My staff need reliable URLs to use for procurement where we have more assurance that the same exact genuine product is being purchased each time.

 

[Kaido]

They were convincing, but the fonts were not right. Text, particularly on the product key sticker that should have been done by a thermal printer looked more like laser toner. I do have photos but no clue where they are. Also on the back of the envelope containing the DVD, it just said "microsoft" in all lower-case Trebuchet-like font, rather than the proper logotype:

Awesome writeup, thanks for the info :thumbsup: I haven't had any experience with Amazon selling gray-market stuff, which is why the price really surprised me - same URL I always order from, just a big price-drop. I have a couple of licenses going in Wednesday, and I have some old stock of the official packaging, so I'll compare them to see & also see if they activate.