• Letters to the COW Team

  checking on a website..is it for real?

  Posted by Alan Brown on July 3, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  Hi,

  I hope this isn’t an off topic message. I ran across a website called (ADMIN REMOVED LINK AND SITE NAME) . They claim they have OEM software for download at extremely low prices. It’s the ole “if it sounds to good to be true” thing. Anyone here done business with these guys?

  Thanks
  Alan BRown

  Ron Lindeboom replied 18 years, 2 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Ron Lindeboom

  July 3, 2008 at 4:53 pm

  NO, they are NOT legitimate. Give them your credit card information and watch what happens next…

  A lesson in live and learn will be your real purchase there.

  Best regards,

  Ron Lindeboom

  Remember: Burt Bacharach lied. What the world really needs now is an undo button.
• 

  Tim Wilson

  July 4, 2008 at 10:27 am

  That said, you really can get OEM software for a fraction of the price of the commercial versions. There are some serious drawbacks, chief among them that you can only install them on one motherboard EVER, and no upgrades EVER. In other words, if you ever need a major computer repair (including, for some companies, just changing a hard drive) or want the newest version, you might have been better off buying commercial.

  Microsoft is among the companies who’ve acknowledged that they authorize and provide full support for OEM versions of Vista, with the restrictions above.

  Also note, many of the sites like the one you found refer to software that simply isn’t available in OEM versions. Stick with known vendors like Amazon (you can get OEM Vista there for example), and don’t go with anyone who won’t give you a physical disk.

  Tim

  Tim Wilson
  Associate Director, CreativeCow.net
  Associate Publisher, Creative Cow Magazine!
• 

  Ron Lindeboom

  July 4, 2008 at 11:56 am

  And a final caveat to add to Tim’s list, you can use https://www.dnsstuff.com to track where a server is actually located and how secure a server is, etc.

  And cross-reference them with https://www.resellerratings.com to see if they are listed in infamy there. Many will be.

  When shopping for discounted software, cover your bases as more often than not, it can be a burn. Not always but we have seen it far too often go that way.

  Best regards,

  Ron Lindeboom

  Remember: Burt Bacharach lied. What the world really needs now is an undo button.

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