UPDATE: I got a response from Microsoft with a solution (see below), apparently this is a global issue – I can’t believe its been ongoing for two weeks.  Seriously guys – never heard of beta testing?

So it appears there’s a another bug in the Microsoft Office 365 platform – this time with the checkout process.  I have had three customers in the past week, unable to complete the checkout in Office 365 to sign up to the service unless they purchase at least one of each of the following optional add-ons:

Customer Lockbox

Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery

Delve Analytics

Users forced to buy optional add-ons

I reported this error via Twitter to the Office 365 team last week but no change (I figured so many people would be up-in-arms about it, it would be fixed immediately).

Price Difference

Due to it being an annual agreement, this means users are being charged £166.92 per year instead of £30 per year – that’s quite a price difference:

The Solution

After the first step, do not click anywhere on the page (as is the habit of many to ‘deselect’ the form box).

Delete the zeros in the boxes (leaving the fields blank) and click directly on the checkout button.

If the you clear the boxes and click the mouse anywhere except the “check out” button, the cart reloads and the fields are repopulated with zeros.