The repair company I used on my laptop last year refused to reload my Windows /OFfice saying that the number was a famous pirated number, and that by entering the number in Google or Microsoft (I forget which now), it would tell you whether it was "real" or not.
I had to borrow my dad's number, which fortunately went through as kosher. I was totally confused by the whole thing, I bought the laptop second hand, it never occured to me to ask if the software was legal or not...
And why didn't they tell me they couldn't reload it BEFORE they took it off and repaired it??? The repairman said it wouldn't be legal for him to put it back on, even though the machine had ARRIVED there with it.