The Story of the purchase of my Windows 10 Pro

[Purshu_Pro]

On October 10 2016, I decided to purchase a genuine Windows 10 copy. While I was searching for the best deal, our Admin suggested to try eBay where I can get a great deal for price. It was my first level of trust in eBay as it was recommended by our Admin but he also did warn me about fake sellers and instead look for a seller who have some good feedback.

Some how I found a seller from eBay.co.uk who was selling keys for $8 USD and decided to make an order. Before that I raised questions to the seller to confirm whether its genuine and retail copy. The seller took some while to reply but came up with the reply that the license which is sells is genuine and retail. Unfortunately I couldn't make a deal because my Debit Card didnt support international transaction as well as PayPal integration. So with this failure I started peeping through eBay.in an Indian eBay platform where I could find some sellers.

zag521 was the seller who attracted me with his Rs. 1050 offer for a Windows 10 Pro Retail key.

I mailed the seller to confirm from him the details. He replied quick with positive answer. I decided to purchase the product. By the time I ordered, he removed his listings from eBay. I raised a mail for this act and he replied immediately with a new eBay.in product page. Yes it was genuine and purchased the product by making the payment.

After around 30 min, he delivered me the serial Key and the download link. As I had kept my OS freshly installed I inserted the key and activated it successfully. Initially I was happy, but that didnt stop me to know whether my key was Retail or OEM .
To find out myself whether the purchased key was OEM or Retail I ran a command in the command prompt. The command was..

slmgr -dli

I found that that the key was Volume_MAK instead of Retail. I came to know what would Volume MAK keys mean by @BoraMurdar , @Jack and Microsoft Chat Agent.

For your convenience I will post the complete chat between me and Ritwik D of Microsot chat help desk.

Spoiler: Chat Summary

Ritwik D
Microsoft Answer Tech


Ritwik D
Thanks for contacting Microsoft support, my name is Ritwik D.
12:27 am

Me
Hi im Purshotham.
12:27 am

Ritwik D
Hello, Purshotham. How may I help?
12:28 am

Me
Well, i have purchased a Windows 10 key from eBay, it jas been activated successfully. It's a Volume Mak edition. All I wanted to know is, can we transfer the key to different computer if we switch our Pc? I know we can do it in Retail, but im not sure in Volume Edition. Can you let me know about it?
12:28 am

Ritwik D
Purshotham, you can transfer the license to a different PC but there are chances you will see an error saying that this key is already being used on another PC. If so, you will need to contact us and we will connect you to the volume license service center since we do not have the resources that are required to help volume license customers.
12:32 am

Ritwik D
But volume licensing service center will deny support since you do not have a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft.
12:33 am

Ritwik D
That is where you will face the problem.
12:33 am

Me
Thanks for the reply. And what if I wanted to reinstall the Os in the same Pc. That must go well and firm right?
12:35 am

Ritwik D
That is right. That should not cause any problem unless the seller hasn't sold the same key to other people which is very likely. We see such cases everyday.
12:36 am

Me
So how can I determine whether there are other computers bound to the same key?
12:38 am

Ritwik D
Can you tell me how many times you have used the key so far?
12:38 am

Me
Only once. Today I activated it.
12:39 am

Ritwik D
Okay. Give the key to me. Let me check the total number of activations.
12:39 am

Me
Sure. One moment.
12:40 am

Ritwik D
Okay.
12:41 am

Me
xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx
12:41 am

Ritwik D
One minute please.
12:41 am

Me
Sure
12:41 am

Ritwik D
Windows 10 Pro. Has been used twice so far.
12:42 am

Me
So how many devices can be activated by it?
12:43 am

Me
Is it good to dispute charges over the seller?
12:44 am

Ritwik D
Purshotham, honestly, the department that I work in supports consumer products only. I don't have much knowledge about volume licenses. The volume licensing team would be able to address these queries. But like I mentioned earlier, they will deny support if you do not have a volume licensing agreement.
12:45 am

Ritwik D
It is a very good dispute charge.
12:45 am

Ritwik D
These people who sell such keys have MSDN subscriptions. They sign up as Microsoft product developers and avail these keys at huge discounts and sell them to consumers which they are not supposed to do.
12:47 am

After this long chat I decided to claim for a proper key and I mailed the seller. The seller initially tried to dodge my query saying

Ok sir, i think your product have successfully installed, so whether it's volume or retail please keep the license key safe in order to get lifetime updates/reuse. Now please confirm the item is received in bought with PaisaPay section.

I yelled at his answer and demanded for a new Retail key and I also explained him what Retail Keys actually mean. So he replied.

Hello sir thank you explanation of keys difference now i understand and i am ready to give you the retail key but can you tell me the exact which version are you installed like Windows 10 Pro or Windows Pro 10 N or Windows 10 Pro KN and also x86 or x64.

I stated him clearly that I have Windows 10 Pro.He then sent me another Key. Now I changed the key in my computer and checked it genuine status. I was activated and it was a Retail Key.

So friends there is lot of Hoax in the internet but always question and doubt everything in the internet unless you get the right answer.

Thankyou

 

[shmu26]

I am amazed that guy coughed up a valid key in the end. Good for you!

 

[ttto]

I have never been tricked yet. I only buy stuff in Amazon. I bought a Norton box years ago on ebay and it was ok. I'm glad that you finally got your Windows license

 

[SHvFl]

I am amazed that guy coughed up a valid key in the end. Good for you!

It's not exactly scams. At least some of those. They just abuse the system.

It's a similar idea as G2A for games if you know it.

 

[Venustus]

A friend was scammed out of $5000AUD on ebay!!

 

[Svoll]

Quite a story and happy to hear that it has a good ending, Thanks for sharing! I don't really trust eBay for licenses and keys, too risky, Glad your purchase worked out.

@venustus Sorry to hear (read) that! Did Ebay revert the charges? 100% Buyer Protection in effect?

 

[Venustus]

@venustus Sorry to hear (read) that! Did Ebay revert the charges? 100% Buyer Protection in effect?

Thanks!
I don't recall the specifics but he did not get the money back!
I don't know why.
He was running a part time online pet accessory business at the time.
Since then he has been more careful with online transactions,although you can never be too carefull!!

 

[Purshu_Pro]

Well I trusted the eBay Guarantee system and took all the risks.
So always the best way is look for sellers feedback given by previous customers. If no feedback, u must invest on your luck.

 

[frogboy]

A great read, thanks for the share. I am very pleased it worked out for you in the end.

 

[nclr11111]

$8 for a genuine win 10 Pro retail key?? Damn! Point me to that seller please!!

 

[Cats-4_Owners-2]

Thank you for sharing your tale, Purshu_Pro. I admired how you pursued, and finally received what the ebay seller initially promised for your purchase.
I noticed how "pursue" and Purshu_Pro appear to be spelled similarly, but you, my friend, are the Real Deal!

 

[Deleted member 2913]

ebay.in - India online shopping - I haven't done shopping with this site yet.

I have done shopping with Flipkart & Amazon India And experience was good.
Flipkart has Flipkart Advantage seller i.e you will see Flipkart Advantage seller badge with sellers name.
Similarly Amazon India has Amazon Fulfilled seller.
Guess certain conditions have to be met So kinda trusted sellers And I always look for the sellers with badge And had good experience everytime.

ebay.in have such thing like badge sellers?

 

[viktik]

I recently bought it from here. it's cheap and it works.
Windows 10 Professional OEM Key | Buy on Kinguin

 

[Purshu_Pro]

ebay.in have such thing like badge sellers?

I'm not sure about that because that was my first purchase and I knew only few rules before my purchase. The vital one was look for sellers feedback by the customers so that u can atleast if he is being there for some while. Indeed have seen some wearing as "Top rated seller" badges.

 

[jogs]

Remember two things:
1. What's too good to be true is most probably not true.
2. Whatever online shopping site says about money back guarantee, you will have to work hard to get your money back. Though money goes out from you easily its return is a very tough act.