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Microsoft Offering Refunds for Some iPad Office 365 Users

On the heels of its announcement that it is expanding the capabilities of Office for iPad and iPhone at no cost, Microsoft has launched a refund program for qualifying iPad Office 365 users.

VentureBeat first reported on the refund offer on Friday. The offer is described in an obscure Office 365 Web page describing subscription changes for Office 365 Home or Personal users. It's unclear where else Microsoft might have announced it.

The refund offer likely emerged because of Microsoft's announcement on Thursday that it was adding document creation and editing capabilities for iPad and iPhone users of Office for free. Essentially, Microsoft is allowing consumer iPad and iPhone users to use Office at no cost, except for certain advanced features that require an Office 365 subscription.

The free-use permission doesn't apply to using Office for commercial purposes, though. That still requires an Office 365 subscription.

Microsoft began offering iPad access to its Office 365 Home and Personal subscribers on March 27, 2014, according to its refund page description. Subscribers can cancel their Home or Personal Office 365 subscriptions and apply for a rebate based on the time period between the cancellation date and the subscription end date.

The rebate offer comes with some caveats. If the subscription was purchased through the iPad, then the user has to contact Apple iTunes Store support to try to get a rebate. If the subscription was purchased from Microsoft or a non-Apple-affiliated reseller, then Microsoft offers a pro-rated rebate, with qualifications. For instance, the subscription had to have been activated before Nov. 6, 2014 (which is the date Microsoft announced free document creation and editing capabilities). In addition, the rebate request has to arrive by Jan. 31, 2015 at latest.

The deal applies to those who paid for Office 365 Home or Personal subscriptions to use Excel, Word and PowerPoint on iPads.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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