OEM vs retail

P

Pop

I'm not having any problems, butI should probably go to MS
or Gateway with this, but ... thought I'd check here for the
benefit of experience first.
My system was supplied with:
-- Office preinstalled
-- Office CDs which do not have "for new PC only" on them.

So, if I lose a CD or whatever is possible, would I go to
Gateway, or to MS for help? I can see this being a
wonderful "not my job" arguement. Sorry, sometimes I'm TOO
proactive! But never thought of these issues before.

Regards,

Pop
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
C

Chris Schatte

Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
B

Brucefl

Well if it comes with the particular system, why go out and buy it. I have
never had problems with my OEM versions from gateway, which go back to 97.

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go thru a
Click to expand...
vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off the shelf? There are so
many posts on (oem installation of Office) problems, and most people are
suprised that they have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost
cd's/product key codes, etc...
 
P

Pop

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go
Click to expand...
thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off
the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of
Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they
have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product
key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
--
use the Office Online web based newsreader here:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
In Office System 2003 applications:
Help/Assistance Pane/open Communities
Click to expand...

Well, in my case at least, I knew enough to be certain the
the actual CD's came with the system when I bought it; XP,
Office, etc.. In fact, that's the reason I bought from
Gateway instead of Dell: GW let me customize the way I
wanted to and to not have to pay for the crap I didn't want.
That it was installed seemed, and still does, a great
convenience as long as it came with the actual CDs, which it
did. The CD's are in no way tied to the hardware - nothing
was activated - and as planned I"ve been able to move it
around as I wished.

But, back to my question: It's not very important to me
what you would personally do or what your opinion of what I
did happens to me. I'm more in whether you can anwer my
question. Can you? If not, I'm not sure why you responded?
Pop
 
P

Pop

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go
Click to expand...
thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off
the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of
Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they
have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product
key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
--
use the Office Online web based newsreader here:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
In Office System 2003 applications:
Help/Assistance Pane/open Communities
Click to expand...

Well, in my case at least, I knew enough to be certain the
the actual CD's came with the system when I bought it; XP,
Office, etc.. In fact, that's the reason I bought from
Gateway instead of Dell: GW let me customize the way I
wanted to and to not have to pay for the crap I didn't want.
That it was installed seemed, and still does, a great
convenience as long as it came with the actual CDs, which it
did. The CD's are in no way tied to the hardware - nothing
was activated - and as planned I"ve been able to move it
around as I wished.

But, back to my question: It's not very important to me
what you would personally do or what your opinion of what I
did happens to me. I'm more in whether you can anwer my
question. Can you? If not, I'm not sure why you responded?
Pop
 
P

Pop

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go
Click to expand...
thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off
the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of
Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they
have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product
key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
--
use the Office Online web based newsreader here:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
In Office System 2003 applications:
Help/Assistance Pane/open Communities
Click to expand...

Well, in my case at least, I knew enough to be certain the
the actual CD's came with the system when I bought it; XP,
Office, etc.. In fact, that's the reason I bought from
Gateway instead of Dell: GW let me customize the way I
wanted to and to not have to pay for the crap I didn't want.
That it was installed seemed, and still does, a great
convenience as long as it came with the actual CDs, which it
did. The CD's are in no way tied to the hardware - nothing
was activated - and as planned I"ve been able to move it
around as I wished.

But, back to my question: It's not very important to me
what you would personally do or what your opinion of what I
did happens to me. I'm more in whether you can anwer my
question. Can you? If not, I'm not sure why you responded?
Pop
 
P

Pop

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go
Click to expand...
thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off
the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of
Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they
have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product
key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
--
use the Office Online web based newsreader here:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
In Office System 2003 applications:
Help/Assistance Pane/open Communities
Click to expand...

Well, in my case at least, I knew enough to be certain the
the actual CD's came with the system when I bought it; XP,
Office, etc.. In fact, that's the reason I bought from
Gateway instead of Dell: GW let me customize the way I
wanted to and to not have to pay for the crap I didn't want.
That it was installed seemed, and still does, a great
convenience as long as it came with the actual CDs, which it
did. The CD's are in no way tied to the hardware - nothing
was activated - and as planned I"ve been able to move it
around as I wished.

But, back to my question: It's not very important to me
what you would personally do or what your opinion of what I
did happens to me. I'm more in whether you can anwer my
question. Can you? If not, I'm not sure why you responded?
Pop
 
P

Pop

Chris Schatte said:
Pop,
Personally, I would never buy Office pre-installed. Why go
Click to expand...
thru a vendor/manufacturer to get a product you can buy off
the shelf? There are so many posts on (oem installation of
Office) problems, and most people are suprised that they
have to contact the manufacturer for help. Lost cd's/product
key codes, etc...
for further reference, do a search on the Office groups for oem.

Chris Schatte
--
use the Office Online web based newsreader here:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx
In Office System 2003 applications:
Help/Assistance Pane/open Communities
Click to expand...

Well, in my case at least, I knew enough to be certain the
the actual CD's came with the system when I bought it; XP,
Office, etc.. In fact, that's the reason I bought from
Gateway instead of Dell: GW let me customize the way I
wanted to and to not have to pay for the crap I didn't want.
That it was installed seemed, and still does, a great
convenience as long as it came with the actual CDs, which it
did. The CD's are in no way tied to the hardware - nothing
was activated - and as planned I"ve been able to move it
around as I wished.

But, back to my question: It's not very important to me
what you would personally do or what your opinion of what I
did happens to me. I'm more in whether you can anwer my
question. Can you? If not, I'm not sure why you responded?
Pop
 

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