Terminated Registered Refurbisher Program

On June 4, 2020, Microsoft announced the termination of the Registered Refurbisher Program (RRP). Details on the replacement program are pending, but this article from E-Scrap News provides a summary of what is currently known (as of 11 June, 2020). Microsoft also provided the following information, when I asked about the process for qualifying as a registered refurbisher under the Third Party Refurbisher Terms:

Per the “June 2020 Update” notification, the RRP program is set for retirement effective October 1, 2020 and Microsoft will not be renewing any RRP agreements, but all current RRP agreements will automatically be extended (not renewed) until October 1, 2020.  If you have an expired account or disabled status account, then we recommend that you retake the renewal test to keep the account current and active.  Otherwise, no further action should be needed on your end (if you need additional help with reactivating your account, please provide your reference / organization ID number so that it can be reactivated upon internal management approval).

As a courtesy, we have also provided the below clarification regarding the TPR MAR program for RRP users.

How RRP Refurbishers Can Become A TPR For A MAR:
 
The “Microsoft Third Party Refurbisher (TPR)”, formerly called “Microsoft Third Party Installer (TPI)”, is a program offered to “Microsoft Registered Refurbishers (RRP)” members by the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher [MAR], such as Blair Technology Group (https://www.blairtg.com/mar-tpi-program/), whereby RRP users can purchase and obtain COA stickers from their MAR in order to refurbish PCs without a DVD license as a TPR Program Partner.  Under the RRP program, RRP Citizenship refurbishers may engage with a third party to identify Eligible Recipients and to deliver refurbished PCs to eligible recipients (see pages 5-6 of the attached RRP Program Agreement document). 

Your RRP Organization should be able to apply for TPR membership under an active and approved MAR pending the MAR’s discretion and approval.  Per our internal team, if your RRP Organization ID account is a TPR Partner for a MAR company (example: Blair Technology Group), then you will have a contractual relationship with the MAR to refurbish PCs with the MAR licenses that the MAR is licensed for.  However, we (RRP Support) are unfamiliar with the specifics of the TPR program and whether or not you would buy the licenses from the MAR as it’s more of a contractual relationship and we primarily manage RRP for small and medium-sized refurbishers who wish to deliver genuine pre-installed Microsoft software licenses to businesses, schools, nonprofit organizations, government programs, and other eligible customers.  We are not very familiar with the specifics of the Third Party Refurbisher (TPR) program for non-MAR distributors whereby larger refurbishers have third parties working on their behalf.

Therefore, please refer to the “MAR Partner Directory FY20_Oct” document and/or to the below list to locate any of your local and active USA MAR Partners to get information on how to become a TPR partner with them as they should be providing you with additional TPR onboarding information to help you become a TRP user for their company. 

Microsoft Authorized OEM Distributor (ODR) / MARs In the USA:
 
https://devicepartner.microsoft.com/en-us/connect/distributor
 

    1. D&H Distribution Company (Harrisburg, PA)
    2. Ingram Micro (Irvine, CA)
    3. MA Labs, Inc. (San Jose, CA)
    4. Software Brokers of America (Miami, FL)
    5. SYNNEX Corporation (Fremont, CA)
    6. Tech Data Product Management Inc. (Clearwater, FL)

 Others from the PDF list include:

  • 203 Trading (Norwalk, CT)
  • 2nd Gear (Albuquerque, NM)
  • Arrow Electronics (Centennial, CO)
  • Blair Technology Group (Covington, KY)
  • CSI Leasing (St. Louis, MO)
  • Global Resale (Austin, TX)
  • IBM
  • Joy Systems (Somerset, NJ)
  • Laptop Experience (Tampa, FL)
  • Metro Business Systems (Stamford, CT)
  • Norris Technologies (Dallas, TX)
  • Pacific OneSource (Simi Valley, CA)
  • Planitroi (Denville, NJ)
  • Sage Sustainable Electronics (Columbus, OH)
  • SH Lee (Wooddale, IL) micomp.com

TPR would be a better option if buying RRP Citizenship products since RRP Citizenship and MAR license prices are almost equal.  Generally speaking, COA stickers are not required for RRP Citizenship licenses but are required for RRP Commercial licenses.  As your inquiry pertains to Refurbisher COA and not to the old/pre-existing COA, the Refurbisher COA will always be needed and required as it’s the new license. You do not need to have an old/pre-existing COA on the PC (from the old license that was used previously) for MAR and RRP Citizenship.  We can confirm that there is no physical media (example: DVD) for MAR like we have for RRP.  MARs have access to the Software Order Center in DOC to download OPKs (OEM Pre-installation Kits, “OPK”) and the MARs would need to provide this to their TPRs.

Please also remember that for the TPR program, no pre-existing COA is required for MAR; however, a pre-existing Windows license is always required (so it can be a digital Product Key that will be replaced by a MAR license, but it cannot be a PC that has never had Windows previously installed on it).  For MAR program itself (not TPR MAR program for RRP), generally a pre-existing COA is required. 

They also provided the following documents: