Problem with engineer not completing job

iain_k

Hi everyone.

My Gran paid someone who advertised locally to provide and install Microsoft Office onto her computer.

The job was advertised as £25 to do the job which included installation with an estimated hours work.

The engineer added the program, however he did not add the 25 digit access key to register it.

We have contacted him and he says he will only come out again if she pays him another £25 for another hour of his time even though it is his fault.

He will also not provide us with in key to do it ourselves.

Please can anyone help on our rights in this mater and if there is anything we can do ?

Many thanks
Iain

juliescot

What exactly did he advertise?

Local trading standards may be interested if he is running a scam where to install and active a product are two different things

They may also be interested to know how he can install a legitimate copy for £25. (even the current student version is about £100)
Did he leave her the discs?

iain_k

juliescot wrote: »

What exactly did he advertise?

Local trading standards may be interested if he is running a scam where to install and active a product are two different things

Hi

The ad said he would come in and install the product onto her computer.

There was nothing saying there there were any seperate requiremennts for activation.

The program is one he provided, but she would not have wanted the program installed if she was unable to use it.

should he advise it he was not going to complete the full process ?


Many thanks
Iain

juliescot

Has she got the discs?

Do you have a copy of the ad?

You could call him up and ask him to do the job for you, as quoted in the ad, and get him to tell you exactly what he intends to do.


I suspect he is at it.

iain_k

Unfortunatelly I do not have a copy of the ad, but I i can get that from her.

the discs are his and all he did is load them onto her computer.

I think that is a good idea about phoning him up to see what exactlly he is offering.

I just feel she has lost out on £25 and on her pension I am not sure she should be paying him another £25 to do a job I feal is incomplete from the 1st time.

neilmcl

Unfortunately, I think your gran has just wasted £25 of her money on an illegal copy of Microsoft Office and she shouldn't even entertain the idea of paying any more money to this man. As a previous poster suggested, get a copy of the advert and inform Trading Standards.

juliescot

neilmcl wrote: »

Unfortunately, I think your gran has just wasted £25 of her money on an illegal copy of Microsoft Office and she shouldn't even entertain the idea of paying any more money to this man. As a previous poster suggested, get a copy of the advert and inform Trading Standards.

Agreed.

Depends how you want to play it now.
Report him
Threaten to report him unless he activates the product - even if he does you may still have a problem as the WGA tool is likely to tell you that your software is not genuine.

http://www.microsoft.com/howtotell/reports/report.aspx?displaylang=en

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Yourrightsandresponsibilities/DG_10015892


For a free alternative she could download and install OpenOffice

No licence, no activation key and nothing to pay

pendulum

iain_k wrote: »

We have contacted him and he says he will only come out again if she pays him another £25 for another hour of his time

I think you have misunderstood the service he was offering. The £25 you paid him is his labour fee to come and install the software. If he comes and you don't actually have a paid-for version of the software for him to install, he provides and installs a trial version, or a version where you must enter a key before you can use it at all.

So in fact, he HAS provided and installed MS Office. All you need to do now is enter your key (or follow the on-screen instructions to buy one, if you do not have one). There's no way your £25 could possibly have included a legit MS Office license in the price, as that's just completely unrealistic (a license alone costs more than £25). But £25 for him to come to your home and spend an hour installing the software so that it is all ready and just waiting for a key to be entered is actually a reasonable price.

I would very much like to see the original advert, but I have to say that I would not be expecting him to come and install a legit copy of Office on my machine for £25. I would either expect him to install a trial version for that money or a pirate copy. It seems he's installed a trial version (or one that requires you to enter/buy a key before it can be used at all) which is probably legal. All you need to do now is follow the onscreen instructions to buy a key.

tbw

pendulum wrote: »

I think you have misunderstood the service he was offering. The £25 you paid him is his labour fee to come and install the software. If he comes and you don't actually have a paid-for version of the software for him to install, he provides and installs a trial version, or a version where you must enter a key before you can use it at all.

So in fact, he HAS provided and installed MS Office. All you need to do now is enter your key (or follow the on-screen instructions to buy one, if you do not have one). There's no way your £25 could possibly have included a legit MS Office license in the price, as that's just completely unrealistic (a license alone costs more than £25). But £25 for him to come to your home and spend an hour installing the software so that it is all ready and just waiting for a key to be entered is actually a reasonable price.

I would very much like to see the original advert, but I have to say that I would not be expecting him to come and install a legit copy of Office on my machine for £25. I would either expect him to install a trial version for that money or a pirate copy. It seems he's installed a trial version (or one that requires you to enter/buy a key before it can be used at all) which is probably legal. All you need to do now is follow the onscreen instructions to buy a key.

There is a fine line beween misunderstanding and being led up the garden path! More savvy people might well realise this but the guy is clearly trading on lack of knowledge in vulnerable people who don't have much PC know how. If anyone has bought a copy of Office then it hardly needs an engineers specialist knbowledge to install it - come on, even I managed it on 3 separate computers!!! The old dear thought she was getting a service - and she was clearly sadly mislead. Report the B***** and get him stopped from doing it to anyone else!

DVardysShadow

pendulum wrote: »

I think you have misunderstood the service he was offering. The £25 you paid him is his labour fee to come and install the software. If he comes and you don't actually have a paid-for version of the software for him to install, he provides and installs a trial version, or a version where you must enter a key before you can use it at all.

So in fact, he HAS provided and installed MS Office. All you need to do now is enter your key (or follow the on-screen instructions to buy one, if you do not have one). There's no way your £25 could possibly have included a legit MS Office license in the price, as that's just completely unrealistic (a license alone costs more than £25). But £25 for him to come to your home and spend an hour installing the software so that it is all ready and just waiting for a key to be entered is actually a reasonable price.

I would very much like to see the original advert, but I have to say that I would not be expecting him to come and install a legit copy of Office on my machine for £25. I would either expect him to install a trial version for that money or a pirate copy. It seems he's installed a trial version (or one that requires you to enter/buy a key before it can be used at all) which is probably legal. All you need to do now is follow the onscreen instructions to buy a key.

I do agree to a point. You have explained his position were he to be challenged. But there is an element of deception in that this was not made fully clear. It seems though he is offering to install a key for £25, which is where he stops scamming the customer and presumably starts scamming microsoft

juliescot

pendulum wrote: »

I think you have misunderstood the service he was offering. The £25 you paid him is his labour fee to come and install the software. If he comes and you don't actually have a paid-for version of the software for him to install, he provides and installs a trial version, or a version where you must enter a key before you can use it at all.

So in fact, he HAS provided and installed MS Office. All you need to do now is enter your key (or follow the on-screen instructions to buy one, if you do not have one). There's no way your £25 could possibly have included a legit MS Office license in the price, as that's just completely unrealistic (a license alone costs more than £25). But £25 for him to come to your home and spend an hour installing the software so that it is all ready and just waiting for a key to be entered is actually a reasonable price.

I would very much like to see the original advert, but I have to say that I would not be expecting him to come and install a legit copy of Office on my machine for £25. I would either expect him to install a trial version for that money or a pirate copy. It seems he's installed a trial version (or one that requires you to enter/buy a key before it can be used at all) which is probably legal. All you need to do now is follow the onscreen instructions to buy a key.

Personally I doubt that, but like you I would like to see the original advert.