Microsoft 365 Billing Screwup Refund Is Another Screwup
About a year ago, Microsoft announced price increases for its “365” (not “Office”) product, while adding the Copilot feature. What it failed to mention was that users had the option of continuing on the old plan at the old price, without the Copilot feature -- which a lot of users didn’t want anyway. Some users went to cancel their plan, and at that point they would have been presented with the option to continue on the old plan. The rest would have felt they had no option but to pay the higher price. This is all deceptive behaviour which is against the law in both Australia and NZ, and presumably other civilized countries as well. Microsoft has decided to revert the price increase and offer a refund to users in both countries. Unfortunately, users in NZ don’t seem able to claim this -- the whole mechanism seems set up solely to cater to customers in Australia. Also it seems to only be available for certain plans and not others, and customers may still end up paying more anyway. Meanwhile, Australia’s anticompetition watchdog, the ACCC, is pressing ahead with its lawsuit against Microsoft. The company has also received a warning from NZ’s Commerce Commission. <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/microsoft-365-refund-fails-to-head-off-59m-lawsuit-customers-making-claims-hit-glitches/AMIWLXAHYZCB5EXWTIHZCZP4II/>
On Fri, 7 Nov 2025 10:22:18 +1300, I wrote:
Microsoft has decided to revert the price increase and offer a refund to users in both countries. Unfortunately, users in NZ don’t seem able to claim this -- the whole mechanism seems set up solely to cater to customers in Australia. Also it seems to only be available for certain plans and not others, and customers may still end up paying more anyway.
After several attempts, NZ users (some of them, at least) are reporting that they are now able to claim their refunds. But there is a new clause in the fine print that say that reverting to this “Classic” edition of Microsoft 365 means they “May not receive new feature updates”. <https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/after-three-days-of-blunders-microsoft-delivers-on-365-refund-but-some-of-the-fineprint-still-annoys-readers/WEHJ6UWQHBHYTAFUZTUFOR5KKI/>
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Lawrence D'Oliveiro