"USB-eLicenser number already registered by another user"

I purchase Cubase 7.5 via ebay auction, I installed it, I plugged in the USB-eLicenser and attempted to register and activate it to my Steinberg acount, I received the message:

“This eLicenser number has already been registered by another user.”

Might this happen if the Seller did not unregister it from my account prior to selling it? Is there anyone within Steinberg I can provide the license code to who can investigate?

The soft-eLicenser appears to be fine, but the separate USB-eLicenser number is reporting the above error. I have the original box and all its original contents including the USB-elicenser and serial keys. I am wondering what would be my options for rectifying this circumstance beyond contacting the Seller which I already have?

Any advice would be really very welcome as I wish to get back to my work in Cubase asap.

That is most likely exactly the case. Steinberg will tell you there is nothing they can do until the previous owner de-registers it.
Let’s just hope the previous owner doesn’t report the USB eLicenser lost or stolen. If it were me, I would first contact the previous owner. If they won’t cooperate, I would contact eBay and have them rescind the payment until the previous owner de-registers it.
HTH
J.L.

Thank you for the advice jaslan. I have now contacted the seller and told him he needs to de-register the license key from his Steinberg account. I also told him if he does not do this immediately upon receipt of my message, I will report the sale with eBay as fraudulent and request that PayPal reverse the payment.

His feedback is 100% so it’s very likely he simply hasn’t de-registered the license key.

I’m not concerned at all about him reporting the item stolen because there’s a trail of messages between us on ebay which would show he is lying. As well as that there’s the also record of my payment on Paypal, and ebay actually has the postage tracking number he used when he posted the item to me. So there’s no concern about him reporting anything :slight_smile:

The real concern is that he actually did post a photo on ebay which showed all the license keys in plain view of anyone!! So any thief could have simply copied down the license key into the eLicenser Control Centre and registered it… in THAT case, I imagine I will DEFINITELY have to contact Steinberg to report the license key stolen so they can remove it from the thiefs account?

I wanted to contact Steinberg directly about this, but apparently Steinberg do not offer email support to Australian users!? I was a bit put-off to find that out. Instead I imagine I must contact Steinberg’s authorized Australian distributor which is Yamaha Music.

This has been such a run-around! Ugh@!

Ok, so turns out the guy hasn’t de-registered it from Steinberg and he doesn’t know how to… so it’s the least sinister explanation of any really. I’ve offered to direct him through de-registering so should hopefully be all good from here on in. Thanks for your advice and assistance jaslan :slight_smile:

So how did you make out on this issue?
I had a similar situation where I purchased a computer with software and the elicenser still in the usb slot. I made the purchase via an apartment property manager where someone had just abandoned their apartment for quite a while and was nowhere to be found. They left everything behind when they left.
I attempted to activate the elicenser on my account and got the same message you received.
I had another elicenser already registered in my name so I just ended up transferring the software over to my already activated elicenser by doing a drag and drop then ran the maintenance routine. Now the software shows up under my products on MySteinberg account. Problem solved.