Renewing MAPS subscription

[HCHTech]

So I get a cheery email from Microsoft this morning stating that the price of my MAPS subscription will be going up 10% as of 8/1. Ok, when does my subscription renew again.....a quick check shows 8/31/19. Wonderful.

The email doesn't have a renewal link, but there is a link for "Get More Details". So I click that hoping to find out I can renew early and postpone the price increase for another year.

Clicking that takes you to a login screen, of course, and upon logging in, I get the "We're Moving to the Partner Center" page. No real choice but the big button to "Move your account now". Hmm, what if I don't really want to dive into that now.....ah, there it is - a tiny little "Renew" link up at the top.

I click on that link, and it takes me to the "We're now moving your account to the Partner Center" page. Sigh.

Then, it prompts for a login.....again. Ok, I do that, then I get to fill out a form - 'Tell us about your company'. Ugh. Ok, I do that....then it takes me to a 'verify your domain' page, where it prompts me to add a TXT record to my domain's DNS. Oh, man, I'm sorry I even started this.

Ok, dig up the credentials for my web hoster, put in the damned TXT record, go back to the patiently waiting MS page, click on the Verify button....huzzah, it works...and forwards me to the Partner Center. Yea.

Except....nothing about MAPS to be found. No "Renew Now" link. I dig through the various menus until I finally find "Benefits" - Oh, yeah, why didn't I think of that. Under Benefits, it lists my various MAPS subscriptions - Azure, Office365, etc., along with when they expire: 8/31/19. Everything except a "Renew now" link. I try looking under my account, nothing. Dig around a little bit more, then give up. Whatever that 10% is, I've already blown that much time trying to figure out how to give them some of my hard-earned money.

So most of the day goes by and I get back to this task. I go to the partner page again to look around. It asks me to log in again, of course, and this time, I get a new prompt..."Let's get you signed up". I agree to the EULA or whatever and the next page warns me that "Your company already has an account. Manage your membership in the Parner Center." Clicking that link takes me back to the dashboard where I started. I think I'll consider all of this over a couple of scotches and just let the thing auto-renew on 8/31.

So...how was your day?

 

[Markverhyden]

@HCHTech I almost spit out a mouthful of water on my laptop when I saw this. Kind of embarrassing to say this but this is a regular event with me when I try to log in to do something.

I had two different accounts because one was left over from when they had the old Technet. Which meant I had two tenant ID's. Surprise, surprise. So, after wanking around for an hour or two I finally submitted a ticket for them to call me. I'll not bother you with the other miseries I inflicted on myself.

From what I remember if you have auto renew on you can't bypass things anymore. Such as turn it off and then buy a new one as renewal. The online help articles imply you can sign in to login.live.com to do things. When you drill through that you still end up with the Partner Center thing.

Log into partner.microsoft.com. Go to dashboard then membership offers on the left. You'll see the offers. Which include Silver and Gold of course. You'll see your MAP.

 

[Sky-Knight]

It was $475 last year, so it'll be $550 this year... still cheaper than the 5 E3 seats it gets me, much less everything else.

Feels like a kick in the teeth though.

 

[timeshifter]

@HCHTech the description of your experience gives me that deja vu feeling. Sounds exactly like the last few times I tried to look into MAPS. What a bleeping nightmare.

 

[HCHTech]

It was $475 last year, so it'll be $550 this year..

I guess, I'm not that lucky - I paid $550 last year in August, so I'm expecting $605 this time. Still a good deal, but I clearly did NOT appreciate those couple of years I got it for half-price enough.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@HCHTech, check your invoice. $475 was the base price, anything above that is sales tax. I also paid $550 last year, because again... taxes.

But the 10% increase is going to be based on the sales price, not the tax included price. Which presumably makes the new MAPS price $525 (because I expect them to round 522.50 up), PLUS tax. So yeah we'll be around $600 total.

Which is still less than the cost of 5 seats of E3 it comes with, much less everything else it provides. I can't operate without it, so nothing for it but to suck it up and drive on.

 

[HCHTech]

Ok, @Sky-Knight , you made me look. My invoice last year was for $508.25, which, as you surmised, was $475 plus sales tax (7% for me) of $33.25. So, this year, it should be $522.50 plus sales tax of $36.58, or $559.08.

I knew it was over $500 last year, but obviously didn't remember the details. Anyway, I'm not going to waste any more time trying to save the $50.83. I wish they hadn't even sent me that email now - haha.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@HCHTech, you and me both...

 

[timeshifter]

Which is still less than the cost of 5 seats of E3 it comes with, much less everything else it provides. I can't operate without it,

I presume it’s you and at least 4 employees? I can see how it’s cost effective for you. I’m a one man business, so the value’s not there for me.

 

[Sky-Knight]

@timeshifter, nope I'm a 1 man shop. Two if you count my wife doing the accounting.

But MAPS provides me the 365 resources I need ($100 / month of credit on Azure), on top of the 365 E3 subs, and all the stuff I need to license and build my own server to operate my lab.

I don't know how anyone can say they property support MS platforms without the MAPS worth of stuff to play with. We learn by doing after all, and if you don't have these products to tinker with... you aren't learning them.

But I suppose if you aren't supporting 365 environments or servers... yeah it's benefit is minimal.

That reminds me I need to download Server 2019 so I can upgrade my server...

 

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

@timeshifter, nope I'm a 1 man shop. Two if you count my wife doing the accounting.

But MAPS provides me the 365 resources I need ($100 / month of credit on Azure), on top of the 365 E3 subs, and all the stuff I need to license and build my own server to operate my lab.

I don't know how anyone can say they property support MS platforms without the MAPS worth of stuff to play with. We learn by doing after all, and if you don't have these products to tinker with... you aren't learning them.

But I suppose if you aren't supporting 365 environments or servers... yeah it's benefit is minimal.

That reminds me I need to download Server 2019 so I can upgrade my server...

Yep, pretty much the same. We use the Windows 10 licenses, multiple server licenses and 2 of the E3 licenses. I definitely get my monies worth.

 

[Markverhyden]

I started out with the old Technet first. It was a little cheaper and included pretty much everything that M$ had made over the years. But no O365. So I even had DOS, W3.11, etc, etc. But they shut that down do the massive abuse by the community. I miss the old stuff but have saved enough, with the keys, that if I need something I have it.

MAPS is well worth the price. The E3 licenses, the Azure allowance, all the product licenses. Now if they just made it so I don't have to wank around for hours every time I need to do something it would be close to perfect. Certainly far better than anything Apple offers.

 

[AndrewFergus]

We made the move to Silver last year so we can collect a commission on the 365 licenses we sell. Our distributor DickerData paid for our first year of Silver. We now get 25 E5 licenses which with 6 staff is better than Action Pack + 1 license of Business Premium that we were paying for. Along with all the Server licenses for our trial lab & Azure to run our ESET MSP Server from.

Heres the good part - last 12 months: Incentive earned this period $1,235.30 NZD
As we can keep increasing the 365 licenses under our management we will be able to cover the entire cost with the commission: $1,900 NZD

 

[fencepost]

Two notes from discussions seen elsewhere:

• You may not be able to renew until ~30 days before your subscription is due to expire, or I've seen other comments that you either have to let it autorenew or let it expire then renew in the 30 day grace period. Either way, stuck.
• The requirements for Silver and Gold apparently are changing and not in good ways. I believe Silver was 4 new accounts/year? Now it's 10, and it has to be an ADDITIONAL 10 so if you lose one you now need 11 new .