October was a difficult month for various reasons and on the 24th it got worse.
Suddenly Word/Excel/PowerPoint and my Office365 email stopped working. I could still access MicrosoftOnline.com but nothing worked.
Checking licences showed an active PowerAutomate license was active, but that was it.
The checking expired licenses and there was the E3 developer license. Checking with support “oh you were emailed that the E3 developer licenses were going to be expired” - obviously that email went to Junk.
The only way to keep access was to upgrade to a business account. Turns out Business basic gives access to online tools and you keep email but no desktop apps. So you need Business Pro … that’s a big jump but for someone that relies on desktop apps, Microsoft basically holds a gun to your head. No choice if you want to keep using them.
So bang - credit card and 1 year’s subscription.
The E3 subscription was nice (arranged by an old Microsoft account manager when at Demon Internet in the 90’s) and it was active from 2015 so it’s really been a long time coming. 11 years of free service wasn’t bad.
But all good things have to end and eventually Microsoft get their dues.
