Kinguin Confirmed Reliability

[Pkai]

Hey guys, previously, i was asking about the reliability of Windows 10 keys on Kinguin website and two people replied to don't trust them. However, i have contacted kinguin about these keys and they said that all of the merchants are verified and that the keys provided are working fine. Could it be that they now have a better credibility regarding the keys ? What do you guys think? Please don't tell me to buy windows 7 and to upgrade to 10 since it is not possible in my country and neither can buy it online.

[stealth80]

It's a grey area, but it's completely legal. Some people just can't see past the grey and are almost obsessed with proving that its bad. Of course there will be people that have had a bad experience, I generally buy quite a few things from G2A/Kinguin and will continue to do so whilst it is legal. I had an issue with one key on G2A and I received a replacement within a couple of hours. My wifes Windows 8 came from there as well without any issues.

 

Someone will reply to this now saying how it is legal but wrong blah, blah, blah, but so is drinking one beer and driving and I bet a tonne of people do it, its legal, but not right!

[Cracklingice]

The thing with Kinguin and the like is that resold keys are not considered legitimate by MS. period.  Even if it's a perfectly legit key, free from credit fraud, from an honest seller; keys are not considered valid if resold.
Then you have the issue of some sellers not providing legit keys or legit keys that were obtained thru fraud.

[minibois]

The only negative thing I heard about Kinguin keys is that they (sometimes?) are MSDN keys. Keys that developers can get for free, but are not retail keys/only can be used during the duration of the MSDN subscription (some schools have free MSDN accounts for their students, so the keys would be legit until the study ends)

 

This is only from what I have heard. Their keys might work fine now, as they said, but you don't know what Microsoft does in the future.

[aisle9]

Here's the deal with Kinguin: the keys you buy there are MSDN keys. They're issued to developers by Micrsoft for use designing and testing applications on the Windows platform. Some of those developers resell those Windows licenses, which are completely valid and functional, on sites like Kinguin for 30% of what Microsoft asks for a full OEM copy. When you buy a key off of Kinguin, it's gray market. It is a legitimate, valid Windows license, but it's being provided by someone without the rights to provide it.

 

Will the key not work? Possibly. I've used quite a few Kinguin keys, and twice I've had to jump through hoops on the phone and with a technician online to activate them. I have yet to have a Kinguin key just not work at all, but from what I've heard, if that does happen, be prepared to fight Kinguin to get your "guarantee" honored as hard as you'd fight Raidmax to get your mail-in rebate. There's also the possibility that Microsoft, down the line, identifies a handful of developers that are reselling keys and cancels all the licenses issued to that person's MSDN account. In that case, you're boned, because Kinguin isn't going to refund you if the key worked for a while then stopped.

 

If you want to be 100% certain that you're not going to waste $30 on a Kinguin key that either doesn't work from the start or stops working entirely down the line, your only option is to pay the full price for a license from Microsoft directly. If you're willing to stomach the risk, go for it. I've got one PC that's been on a Kinguin Windows 10 key since the day I built it last January, and it hasn't had any issues at all.

[Cracklingice]

3 minutes ago, Minibois said:

The only negative thing I heard about Kinguin keys is that they (sometimes?) are MSDN keys. Keys that developers can get for free, but are not retail keys/only can be used during the duration of the MSDN subscription (some schools have free MSDN accounts for their students, so the keys would be legit until the study ends)

 

This is only from what I have heard. Their keys might work fine now, as they said, but you don't know what Microsoft does in the future.

slmgr /dlv
 

in the command prompt should say if it's oem, retail, evaluation (and possibly even msdn)

[Cracklingice]

3 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Here's the deal with Kinguin: the keys you buy there are MSDN keys. They're issued to developers by Micrsoft for use designing and testing applications on the Windows platform. Some of those developers resell those Windows licenses, which are completely valid and functional, on sites like Kinguin for 30% of what Microsoft asks for a full OEM copy. When you buy a key off of Kinguin, it's gray market. It is a legitimate, valid Windows license, but it's being provided by someone without the rights to provide it

For anyone that has actually had their license deactivated, is it as simple as providing a new one?  I mean what all happens?  

[The Belgian Waffle]

16 minutes ago, Pkai said:

i have contacted kinguin about these keys and they said that all of the merchants are verified and that the keys provided are working fine.

Come on, are you kidding me? Do you really expect them to tell you the truth if their business is very "smoke and mirrors"?

Do you really expect them to tell you that their keys come from stolen credit cards or illegitimate keys? 

[Pkai]

7 minutes ago, The Belgian Waffle said:

Come on, are you kidding me? Do you really expect them to tell you the truth if their business is very "smoke and mirrors"?

Do you really expect them to tell you that their keys come from stolen credit cards or illegitimate keys? 

 

19 minutes ago, Cracklingice said:

The thing with Kinguin and the like is that resold keys are not considered legitimate by MS. period.  Even if it's a perfectly legit key, free from credit fraud, from an honest seller; keys are not considered valid if resold.
Then you have the issue of some sellers not providing legit keys or legit keys that were obtained thru fraud.

Fyi, i spoke with microsoft before even contacting Kinguin and they said that the website is legitimate and i can try to buy the keys from there. 

[Pkai]

Thank you all for your opinions. Much appreciated.

[aisle9]

3 minutes ago, Pkai said:

 

Fyi, i spoke with microsoft before even contacting Kinguin and they said that the website is legitimate and i can try to buy the keys from there. 

I doubt that you were actually speaking with Microsoft. If you were, you spoke with someone who was fired upon hanging up.

[Pkai]

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

I doubt that you were actually speaking with Microsoft. If you were, you spoke with someone who was fired upon hanging up.

He was a live chat agent. 

[Cracklingice]

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

I doubt that you were actually speaking with Microsoft. If you were, you spoke with someone who was fired upon hanging up.

I don't know.  The website itself is legitimate.  The action of reselling keys generally isn't.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Pkai said:

He was a live chat agent. 

Live chat agents are clueless.

[Pkai]

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

Live chat agents are clueless.

Then it is microsoft's fault.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Pkai said:

Then it is microsoft's fault.

Good luck explaining that to them if they do deactivate your key.

 

Look, I use Kinguin keys and aside from a couple of headaches getting them activated, I've never had an issue, but I'm very aware that at some point, MS could kill my license. But, I mean, at some point, MS could decide that a major Windows 10 update will require purchasing a new license for everyone, so I don't really see it as a huge risk.

 

If MS does deactivate your key for some reason, there are things you can say that would make the typical minimum wage front line customer service rep hit the "reactivate" button for you. "You guys told me that site was legit, so it's your fault," is not one of them.

[Pkai]

9 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

Good luck explaining that to them if they do deactivate your key.

 

Look, I use Kinguin keys and aside from a couple of headaches getting them activated, I've never had an issue, but I'm very aware that at some point, MS could kill my license. But, I mean, at some point, MS could decide that a major Windows 10 update will require purchasing a new license for everyone, so I don't really see it as a huge risk.

 

If MS does deactivate your key for some reason, there are things you can say that would make the typical minimum wage front line customer service rep hit the "reactivate" button for you. "You guys told me that site was legit, so it's your fault," is not one of them.

Ok thank you for the info. I will see what i can do. 

[Blake]

4 hours ago, stealth80 said:

It's a grey area, but it's completely legal.

You are completely wrong. It's not a criminal act (on your part, unless it can be proven you intentionally stole stolen property, but this depends on laws in your area).

 

But it is a civil wrong, as you will be in breach of the EULA/T&C's. Now for individuals, no-one cares enough to audit you. so you'll probs be fine/worst case would be the key being deactivated, then you'd call ms to get it re-activated and they'd tell you to f'k off.

 

This is why everyone says if it is for a business, make sure you get legit licensing as getting audited actually happens. like all the time.

 

 

[stealth80]

4 hours ago, Blake said:

You are completely wrong. It's not a criminal act (on your part, unless it can be proven you intentionally stole stolen property, but this depends on laws in your area).

 

But it is a civil wrong, as you will be in breach of the EULA/T&C's. Now for individuals, no-one cares enough to audit you. so you'll probs be fine/worst case would be the key being deactivated, then you'd call ms to get it re-activated and they'd tell you to f'k off.

 

This is why everyone says if it is for a business, make sure you get legit licensing as getting audited actually happens. like all the time.

 

 

So how am I wrong? Is it illegal? No. In that case you are wrong

[Blake]

39 minutes ago, stealth80 said:

So how am I wrong? Is it illegal? No. In that case you are wrong

wow, learn to read. never said that it was illegal, just said that is was a civil issue. Heck you could even argue that this is circumventing DRM, which you guessed it, is illegal (depending on where you are). It's not a grey area. A grey area is where there is doubt, or there is no precedence on the topic, which in not the case here. It's is considered a type of theft, it's just that the costs to enforce on it far in exceed the returns when looking at individual users. This is why you don't hear of Joe Blow down the street being audited.

 

It all being said it depends on the law in your area.

 

so to answers op's question, my answer is the same as it has always been, if this is for a company, get legit keys. if not, who cares.

[Pkai]

7 hours ago, Blake said:

wow, learn to read. never said that it was illegal, just said that is was a civil issue. Heck you could even argue that this is circumventing DRM, which you guessed it, is illegal (depending on where you are). It's not a grey area. A grey area is where there is doubt, or there is no precedence on the topic, which in not the case here. It's is considered a type of theft, it's just that the costs to enforce on it far in exceed the returns when looking at individual users. This is why you don't hear of Joe Blow down the street being audited.

 

It all being said it depends on the law in your area.

 

so to answers op's question, my answer is the same as it has always been, if this is for a company, get legit keys. if not, who cares.

It is for personal use. Thank you for your info!

[stealth80]

11 hours ago, Blake said:

wow, learn to read. never said that it was illegal, just said that is was a civil issue. Heck you could even argue that this is circumventing DRM, which you guessed it, is illegal (depending on where you are). It's not a grey area. A grey area is where there is doubt, or there is no precedence on the topic, which in not the case here. It's is considered a type of theft, it's just that the costs to enforce on it far in exceed the returns when looking at individual users. This is why you don't hear of Joe Blow down the street being audited.

 

It all being said it depends on the law in your area.

 

so to answers op's question, my answer is the same as it has always been, if this is for a company, get legit keys. if not, who cares.

No you said -

 

16 hours ago, Blake said:

You are completely wrong. SNIP

 

 

I said it isn't illegal, you said i'm completely wrong - the rest I said was a grey area and "Someone will reply to this now saying how it is legal but wrong blah, blah, blah, but so is drinking one beer and driving and I bet a tonne of people do it, its legal, but not right!"

 

Its not illegal and until it is, it is a grey area, like drinking one pint and driving