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Vista Family Discount Keys Found Not Compatible

Posted by CowboyNeal on Thu Feb 01, 2007 07:54 PM
from the fits-a-different-lock dept.
acousticiris writes "Many (if not all) users who took advantage of Microsoft's Vista Family Discount have been issued invalid installation keys and cannot install Windows Vista Home Premium. Microsoft says, 'There is no expected time period for a fix at this time.' According to the article, the keys are valid for something, just not Windows Vista. Perhaps it's just too simple to issue these folks new keys and send them on their way."
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  • by wesley96 (934306) on Thursday February 01 2007, @07:57PM (#17853094)
    (http://tool-box.info/)
    Ah, whodathunkit? :P Anyway, I have an itchy feeling some cracker might be able to put out a valid serial generator before MS could fix this problem.
    • Re:Paid customers getting the shaft? by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Thursday February 01 2007, @08:01PM
    • by Nutty_Irishman (729030) on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:06PM (#17853206)

      Ah, whodathunkit? :P Anyway, I have an itchy feeling some cracker might be able to put out a valid serial generator before MS could fix this problem.
      Personally I believe in equal opportunity piracy. But, whatever floats your boat...
      [ Parent ]
    • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:08PM (#17853230)
      I have to ask myself what sort of people would subject themselves to this sort of abuse. It has just been getting worse since the days of Windows 95. Every new release of Windows comes with some new anti-piracy hassle, and every time it seems to cause major problems.

      I'd image such people at least somewhat competent when using a computer. Many non-technical computer users don't even know what Vista is, let alone that it has been released, and thus wouldn't be updating their systems so quickly. I'd expect such people would also be aware of how this sort of bullshit gets worse and worse with each release of Windows. Why do they accept being treated like criminals? Why do they accept being treated like nothing more than shit?

      [ Parent ]
      • by fyngyrz (762201) * on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:42PM (#17853558)
        (http://www.ideaspike.com/ | Last Journal: Monday October 22, @04:43AM)

        Also...

        Why would they accept an OS that gets slower with every release? Why would they accept an OS that requires more and more from their hardware investment, eventually requiring replacement (as may be very likely the case with Vista) instead of getting sleeker and slimmer and more efficient? Why would they accept an OS that carries with it the highest threat of adware, viruses, worms, trojans - for whatever reason? When terrible mistakes are made - like activex - why don't they expect the company to fix those mistakes?

        Just wondering. I mean clearly, they do not hold Microsoft to a very high standard. I left the OS a couple of years ago, having had all I was willing to take. But most people around me stick with MS, regardless of what trouble they have.

        Personally, I think part of the answer is application lock-in; people who use some app that they can't get away from, and where the developers force them to upgrade to the next OS because otherwise, the next version or revision of the locked-in app won't work.

        [ Parent ]
      • by whoever57 (658626) on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:08PM (#17853764)
        (Last Journal: Thursday September 30 2004, @01:33AM)

        I have to ask myself what sort of people would subject themselves to this sort of abuse. It has just been getting worse since the days of Windows 95. Every new release of Windows comes with some new anti-piracy hassle, and every time it seems to cause major problems.
        They just don't think there is an alternative. They are so used to Windows that they think a Mac would be difficult to use, and as for Linux: "it's just for hackers and geeks isn't it?"

        To use an old truism: "the devil you know ...."
        [ Parent ]
      • by dutin (890499) on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:13PM (#17853792)
        "Why do they accept being treated like criminals? Why do they accept being treated like nothing more than shit?"

        Don't know if you're in the US, but it's commonplace here now. For example, if you have a head cold and want some plain old Sudafed, you are treated as a possible criminal and have your license scanned or number tracked on paper and you have to sign for it.

        Actually, I tend to feel like I'm being treated like a criminal unless I've been robbed.
        [ Parent ]
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by ForestGrump (Score:2) Thursday February 01 2007, @09:39PM
      • by TropicalCoder (898500) on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:48PM (#17854148)
        (http://www.tropicalcoder.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday July 25, @02:09PM)

        I just posted this in the topic about Window's new DRM patents, and realized after that that discussion is already dead. Seems everyone jumped into the discussion about the guy who gave up on Linux after 10 years, and now there has been almost a dozen discussions since then. I just want to make a point I feel really strongly about. I don't think there is anything really wrong with this if you are up front about it. At the risk of being marked off topic, here I go with my little rant...

        While many of you Linux user don't seem to be too worried about this, I think you should be. As pointed out by others, it will have a detrimental effect right across the board. No more dual boot with Windows and Linux. No Wine, no more popular drivers for Linux because of the DRM, no virtual machines that run Linux without paying a Windows tax, and in the end, it will get harder every day to find a computer that will even run Linux.

        As a Window's programmer since 3.1, I am seeing a nightmare scenario staring me in the face. I can see the day coming when a person can no longer develop software on their own computer, because it will only run in some kind of sandbox, if at all, unless you buy a special developer's license. Of course I too will finally defect to Linux long before that happens, if that is still an option.

        I'm am seriously disturbed by the vision I am seeing in all I have read tonight - but I am too tired to articulate it all - it's late at night where I am at the moment and it's been a long day. It's like someone said - the frog in the pot thing - the public has to wake up to this DRM business before it's too late.

        Before I go - there is one more thing I want to get off my chest here. One might hope and pray that it will be stopped by anti-trust laws before it goes too far, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Why did the courts not press for a breakup of Microsoft? I think they were leaned on by the US government - for a reason I have not seen articulated before. The fact is that Microsoft is a US corporation, one of America's finest. It brings in big bucks to the good ol' US of A. So from a local perspective, among fellow Americans, Microsoft's monopolistic practices are scandalous, but if an American - especially a Congressman - looks at it from a nationalistic perspective, it's good for America. In fact, the worse it becomes (the monopolistic practices) the better it is for USA. Bill Gates' age old dream of world domination happens to coincide with America's dream of world domination. That's why we can't count on the US courts to put a stop to this.

        Wow - I didn't think I was going to say all these things. It's like suddenly I see where all this is going now, and it's real scary.

        [ Parent ]
        • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by utlemming (Score:2) Thursday February 01 2007, @10:33PM
        • Not just MS, it's DRM, too. (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Kadin2048 (468275) <slashdot@kadin.xoxy@net> on Friday February 02 2007, @03:49AM (#17856228)
          (http://kadin.sdf-us.org/ | Last Journal: Tuesday October 16, @01:46PM)
          Before I go - there is one more thing I want to get off my chest here. One might hope and pray that it will be stopped by anti-trust laws before it goes too far, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. Why did the courts not press for a breakup of Microsoft? I think they were leaned on by the US government - for a reason I have not seen articulated before. The fact is that Microsoft is a US corporation, one of America's finest. It brings in big bucks to the good ol' US of A. So from a local perspective, among fellow Americans, Microsoft's monopolistic practices are scandalous, but if an American - especially a Congressman - looks at it from a nationalistic perspective, it's good for America. In fact, the worse it becomes (the monopolistic practices) the better it is for USA. Bill Gates' age old dream of world domination happens to coincide with America's dream of world domination. That's why we can't count on the US courts to put a stop to this.

          I think you hit the nail on the head. But you need to look beyond Microsoft. The U.S. Government is -- or fancies itself, anyway -- much bigger than even the largest corporations. They're going to protect Microsoft, because they see MS as a modern U.S. Steel or General Motors; it's a huge part of the national industry.

          Moreover, DRM in general is going to be pushed heavily by the USG, for the "national interest." Even though it will punish consumers here, it's a way of protecting one of the only things that the U.S. exports anymore: "intellectual property." We don't make stuff anymore; we "manufacture" IP. DRM is a way, in the minds of some folks in DC, of protecting that whole category of exports, and maintaining our dominance in one area, at least. Without DRM, the whole idea of commoditizing and selling "IP" on a retail-like market doesn't work; if you can't tie down information to physical artifacts, or make it behave conservatively (even though information is naturally nonconservative), then it's devilishly hard to sell multiple times. And if you can't take one Hollywood blockbuster and sell it 100 million times over, like it's some sort of aspirin tablet that you're turning out, how do you keep the economy going, when nobody wants to buy anything else we make here anymore?
          [ Parent ]
        • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by julesh (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @06:52AM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by iminplaya (Score:1) Thursday February 01 2007, @09:58PM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by erroneus (Score:1) Thursday February 01 2007, @10:08PM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by StarvingSE (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @12:20AM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by bazorg (Score:1) Friday February 02 2007, @04:37AM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by RAMMS+EIN (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @05:14AM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by sjwest (Score:1) Friday February 02 2007, @07:47AM
      • Re:Why would they subject themselves to this? by bokmann (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @08:42AM
    • Re:Paid customers getting the shaft? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:08PM (#17853760)
      'Kay, this is from MacSlash [macslash.org], so obviously it has a bit of Mac slant to it. However, the story seems to check out and what's worse is the account how Microsoft handles the problem. What a horrible company.

      MS has a Family Program, where if you buy a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate (the high end version), you can then also purchase up two two licenses of Windows Vista Home Premium at $50 each for additional machines in your home using a special web site. This is only offered for those who purchase their copy of Vista Ultimate through a retail channel.

      I purchased the Ultimate copy via Amazon for my Macbook Pro at work ($400) and then when I got home, I purchased one additional license ($50) for Home Premium through the Microsoft web site for my iMac at home. That's $450 that I gave Microsoft.

      The online sale went fine and I was issued a license key for my second machine. The problem was that the key didn't work. I re-entered and double-checked it at length with no luck. Time to go to support. In the email I received it had a web link to follow if you need help, so I clicked. It goes to a non-existant page at microsoft.com, and still does today.

      So, next I called the toll-free number in the email. It turns out that this is a Microsoft number, but for a different project. The person who answered my call was unusually candid with me. The poor people working at that number were not equipped for the deluge of calls they were receiving. They were not even supposed to be getting these calls. They had not been trained themselves on how to use Vista yet and had no idea what to do to remedy the problem. He told me that they've been getting "thousands" of calls all day long for this very same issue and that he can confirm for me that the keys being generated by the web site are not working for anyone.

      He said all he could do was to take my name and number, which he wrote down on physical paper to deliver to his supervisor (I thought Microsoft had email, silly me). He said they were trying to get the attention of someone "higher in the food chain" to do something about it - or at least shut down the offending web page that's issuing the invalid keys. He told me he hoped that someone would get back to me "within a few days" and that he's very sorry but has nothing more to offer.

      Microsoft does not offer refunds for purchases made through their web site and they are sticking to that policy, leaving users like me who already paid them hundreds of dollars with no recourse and unable to affect the remedy to this horrible situation.

      On the very day that an OS is released that's been in development for half a decade, the least I expect is that their ordering systems are working correctly and their staff is properly prepared.

      This has one again reinforced my impression of Microsoft as being an unresponsive company that makes crap software.
      and a follow up from another poster:

      Last night, I received an email from MS Support. The person sending it was telling me that she is taking "ownership" of my case and provided me her direct email address. Finally, I thought, I'm getting somewhere.

      Having heard nothing more, this morning I sent her an email asking for the status of my case. No response yet. I sent another around lunchtime, still no response. So, this afternoon, I phoned them back at the number given to me in the email last night.

      I was horrifed to find out that MS claims my case is closed and resolved! They transferred me to someone who could open my case back up for me, and then back to Customer Service. Being unable to help me, Customer Service transferred me to Tech Support.

      After explaining the whole story from scratch again, t
      [ Parent ]
    • Keys work on Ultimate (Score:5, Interesting)

      by gcnaddict (841664) <gcnaddict.gmail@com> on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:11PM (#17853784)
      (http://www.gcnaddict.com/)
      I tried this out as a test. The family plan activated Ultimate Edition just fine, though I think Microsoft might invalidate it (ew, WGA) once they read this post.
      [ Parent ]
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • family values (Score:5, Funny)

    by rigelstar (243170) on Thursday February 01 2007, @07:57PM (#17853100)
    Microsoft has begun its war against the american family. Grab your pitchforks and join the final battle!
  • Well... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Overzeetop (214511) on Thursday February 01 2007, @07:59PM (#17853114)
    (Last Journal: Thursday December 09 2004, @09:25AM)
    that should keep the number of Vista zombie machines in check for a while.
    • Re:Well... by cyphercell (Score:1) Thursday February 01 2007, @08:27PM
  • Wait.... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Senes (928228) on Thursday February 01 2007, @07:59PM (#17853122)
    This was in beta and development for HOW long before it spawned a whirlwind of chaos on release? Looks like the MS priority of "Avoiding bad publicity" isn't working out for them.
    • Re:Wait.... by romland (Score:1) Thursday February 01 2007, @08:11PM
    • Re:Wait.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by vought (160908) on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:32PM (#17853464)
      It's plain to us non-apologists that Microsoft is in need of new, more focussed management. By trying to address so many different markets at once, they're letting their core businesses suffer - and I predict that we will see the same with Apple within five years for the same reasons - although not to the same degree. It happened to HP and IBM.

      "Stick to what you're good at" - something companies know they must do, but can't, because of growth pressure.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:Wait.... by am 2k (Score:3) Thursday February 01 2007, @11:28PM
        • Re:Wait.... by hackstraw (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @09:25AM
          • Re:Wait.... by am 2k (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @09:45AM
    • Family Plan wasn't in beta. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by gcnaddict (841664) <gcnaddict.gmail@com> on Thursday February 01 2007, @09:13PM (#17853796)
      (http://www.gcnaddict.com/)
      Take it from me, I came up with the idea (August 22nd in the Windows Anytime Upgrade beta chat. I won Best Suggestion for it). They never beta tested this. It was a surprise to me when it was actually implemented.
      [ Parent ]
  • by codepunk (167897) on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:00PM (#17853136)
    (http://www.codepunk.com/)
    The people this has happened to ought to call MS and thank them for saving them from a pointless
    upgrade.
  • Unacceptable (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mfh (56) on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:01PM (#17853148)
    (http://put-your-mone...r-mouth-is.com/blog/ | Last Journal: Monday January 29 2007, @02:44PM)

    'There is no expected time period for a fix at this time.'
    This is an unacceptable response. As someone who sells PCs, I am looking at Apple wondering when they will get off their asses and start selling MacOS for PC machines, so I can simply stop selling Windows crap.
  • Oh no... (Score:5, Funny)

    by tktk (540564) on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:02PM (#17853172)
    The keys are valid for some other product. The four words I dread to hear:

    Microsoft Bob for Vista.

  • Simple? (Score:1)

    by Dark Kenshin (764678) on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:04PM (#17853192)
    (Last Journal: Tuesday February 13 2007, @06:49PM)

    Yes, it's simple, but maybe Microsoft just doesn't like families. Or it's a big conspiracy to lure all the people with false claims and hacked keys to come in and "get a new one".

    Or maybe they just don't know how to handle problems like always. Either way, it sucks for all the people who got the keys. Hopefully they'll get some kind of compensation for the hassle.

    • Re:Simple? by fireboy1919 (Score:2) Thursday February 01 2007, @08:19PM
    • Re:Simple? by PornMaster (Score:2) Thursday February 01 2007, @08:30PM
    • Re:Simple? by spagetti_code (Score:2) Thursday February 01 2007, @09:57PM
      • Re:Simple? by tftp (Score:2) Friday February 02 2007, @01:04AM
  • This is exactly the reason (Score:5, Insightful)

    by geekoid (135745) <dadinportland@noSpaM.yahoo.com> on Thursday February 01 2007, @08:08PM (#17853234)
    (http://slashdot.org/ | Last Jour