Watch Where You Buy Microsoft Office for Mac From

So some of our Mac users have been asking about upgrading to the new 08 version of Mac Office.  They were telling me the upgrade price was $228 and standalone was $380 ... and that was even off the discounted Willow Creek Association site.

I couldn't believe it could be that high considering Microsoft's great charity pricing so I went to look for myself.  Sure enough $228 and $380!!!  We even have our own GCC Apple webstore so I checked their too ... same pricing ... what the?

I fired off a quote request to my Dell rep.  He came back with an initial quote of $52!  So I shoot an email to our Apple enterprise rep, BTW he's a great dude, asking what's up.  After a while he sent back this reply ...

"Unfortunately, Apple doesn't offer the [MS] charity licenses. I hate to say this, trust me, but go to Dell!"

So the moral of the story?  ALWAYS make sure you are getting charity pricing for your Microsoft software ... even the mac stuff!!

This is not to slam the WCA site ... they get their pricing from Apple and thus are helpless.  Nor is this a slam on Apple ... though it's disappointing they aren't offering charity pricing.

For MS charity pricing you might try: CDW, Zones, Insight, CCB ... but honestly in my experience Dell consistently beats everyone else on software pricing.

My buddy David has a lengthy post about charity pricing well worth the read if you're new to purchasing charity licenses.

Comments

[David Russell]

I can also confirm that CDW offers the highly discounted charity rate on Office 08 for Mac. I believe our price was also $52.

[Scott Miller]

Got mine from Dell for $55. The difficulty that I encountered was about a one month delay from the time the product was released until Dell got the Charitable SKUs in. That may be more of an issue with Microsoft than with Dell though. Anyone else see this same delay? Either way, I'd rather wait than pay full price!

[Derek Schwab]

We just went through the exact same thing. People were pointing out to me the "Cheap" $228 price on the WCA site, but I was able to get it for $52 through the MS open licensing.

[Stephen]

Can you say Software Assurance? Our upgrade was free. :)