Condition of Replacement Units

[efinimazda]

I'm truly glad to hear you were happy with your exchange.



Maybe Microsoft finally got too many complaints about 8.1 not being installed on its refurbished replacements to ignore. Would you care to share images of the stickers on the box? I'll do the same and it will be interesting to compare notes. If you do, scrub out any identifying numbers/addresses etc on the stickers. I've already posted this pic on another thread:

View attachment 2748

Wish I had have taken some pics of the condition of the refurb replacement; from memory I didn't. Microsoft asked me to take pics of the cosmetic damage to 'help' their future customer service provisions. I failed to see how it would do so, given I had already offered tonnes of help and they ignored all of it, plus I'd already read threads on this forum from a year ago with the same complaints, so I refused. I asked if it would 'help' taking a photo of the Windows button which was also faulty but the guy couldn't give me a response to that one. Yeah, I was being petty, but I was fed up.

I read on this forum that someone received a package that was labeled 'Repaired' but my package has no such markings, just the serial # and shipping label.

There were no stickers or stamps anywhere on the device either. Inside the box was a padded white plastic bag with the 'Surface' logo in blue. The device was also wrapped in the original clear plastic that my brand new surface came in.
Is this normal?

 

[Hmmmm]

Check out my pic which is the repaired/refurb replacement. I'm not saying every country's will look like that - heck it might only be the way they look in Australia. Mine was also shipped in a padded white bag with a blue Surface sticker and the clear plastic. But my replacement had clearly had previous use - scratches and a nice chip in the paintwork.

If it comes in a brown box chances are it's probably a refurb. Some people with early problems reported receiving replacements in the fancy retail boxes - which are definitely brand newies. There may be cases - it has been suggested if units are overstock etc they may still be brand new even if shipped in the small pain brown cardboard box, but my question to this would be, if you had a stack of brand spankers sitting in the back of a store or at Microsoft HQ, for example, which have never even been opened, why would you then remove it from the fancy packaging and shove it in a tiny brown box? That only hurts its resale value. And what do you do with all those pens?....

If the unit cosmetics are pristine and show no signs of wear/use, you may be lucky and received a perfectly new device. Check the build date too, which provides another indication. If it was built early, it's almost definitely been in someone's hands before yours. Try the battery test I suggested in here (or maybe it was in a different thread).

I'd love to know the ratio of brand spankers to refurbs for each country that are sent out as replacements these days. I'm not absolutely sure, but going off the stickers on the brown box I believe the replacement I received did not originate from Australia. Which, if that is the case, is a bit of a cheek on Microsoft's behalf when I'm not allowed to buy a Surface Pro in the US, bring it to Australia and then demand I be covered by the local warranty if something (probably haha) goes wrong. Nope, I'd have to ship it off at my own cost to the USA to be covered by warranty.

 

[efinimazda]

Check out my pic which is the repaired/refurb replacement. I'm not saying every country's will look like that - heck it might only be the way they look in Australia. Mine was also shipped in a padded white bag with a blue Surface sticker and the clear plastic. But my replacement had clearly had previous use - scratches and a nice chip in the paintwork.

If it comes in a brown box chances are it's probably a refurb. Some people with early problems reported receiving replacements in the fancy retail boxes - which are definitely brand newies. There may be cases - it has been suggested if units are overstock etc they may still be brand new even if shipped in the small pain brown cardboard box, but my question to this would be, if you had a stack of brand spankers sitting in the back of a store or at Microsoft HQ, for example, which have never even been opened, why would you then remove it from the fancy packaging and shove it in a tiny brown box? That only hurts its resale value. And what do you do with all those pens?....

If the unit cosmetics are pristine and show no signs of wear/use, you may be lucky and received a perfectly new device. Check the build date too, which provides another indication. If it was built early, it's almost definitely been in someone's hands before yours. Try the battery test I suggested in here (or maybe it was in a different thread).

I'd love to know the ratio of brand spankers to refurbs for each country that are sent out as replacements these days. I'm not absolutely sure, but going off the stickers on the brown box I believe the replacement I received did not originate from Australia. Which, if that is the case, is a bit of a cheek on Microsoft's behalf when I'm not allowed to buy a Surface Pro in the US, bring it to Australia and then demand I be covered by the local warranty if something (probably haha) goes wrong. Nope, I'd have to ship it off at my own cost to the USA to be covered by warranty.

Where can I find the build date? I'm almost certain that my replacement is a refurb seeing how there were 2 small scuffs near the charging port and typecover attachment area but I'm still curious when the build date was... In addition, my original surface had a serial # of 0187xxx and is now 008xxx so it is likely to be an older unit even though I purchased my Surface 2 months after release.

I will report the battery health once I figure out how to find it.

 

[Hmmmm]

A useful site to find the week number is:
For 2012: http://www.epochconverter.com/date-and-time/weeknumbers-by-year.php?year=2012
For 2013: http://www.epochconverter.com/date-and-time/weeknumbers-by-year.php?year=2013
For 2014: http://www.epochconverter.com/date-and-time/weeknumbers-by-year.php?year=2014

I will try find the battery thing

 

[Hmmmm]

This was the site for the battery info:
http://jaxbot.me/articles/surface-pro-2-battery-report-after-3-months
Run

powercfg /batteryreport

in the command prompt. Somewhere in the window that opens is information advising the total length of time the battery has been used for. From memory it related to the length of time it had been online or something like that. I'll have to dig around and find a screen shot of that - I'm almost certain I took some ss at the time. Deduct how long you have used it for, of course. If I have got mixed up and I'm thinking of a different test, I will update this post, but I know the battery report provided some very good info regarding its previous use.

The above web link is quite informational, the kid done good. Surprise, surprise, though - he no longer uses the Surface Pro.

 

[efinimazda]

This was the site for the battery info:
http://jaxbot.me/articles/surface-pro-2-battery-report-after-3-months
Run

powercfg /batteryreport

in the command prompt. Somewhere in the window that opens is information advising the total length of time the battery has been used for. From memory it related to the length of time it had been online or something like that. I'll have to dig around and find a screen shot of that - I'm almost certain I took some ss at the time. Deduct how long you have used it for, of course. If I have got mixed up and I'm thinking of a different test, I will update this post, but I know the battery report provided some very good info regarding its previous use.

The above web link is quite informational, the kid done good. Surprise, surprise, though - he no longer uses the Surface Pro.

I appreciate the links and the pic. I learned that my replacement surface was built 1329, 17 weeks newer than my first SP1.

When I looked over the battery report there was no history before the day I received it. I'm not sure if Microsoft wiped the history or I somehow received a new replacement.

 

[efinimazda]

I just chatted with a surface rep regarding the battery history of replacement units and was told that the devices are reset which includes the battery history

Did your replacement include history from from before you got the device?

 

[daveyp]

View attachment 2828
A useful site to find the week number is:
For 2012: http://www.epochconverter.com/date-and-time/weeknumbers-by-year.php?year=2012
For 2013: http://www.epochconverter.com/date-and-time/weeknumbers-by-year.php?year=2013
For 2014: http://www.epochconverter.com/date-and-time/weeknumbers-by-year.php?year=2014

I will try find the battery thing

Just FYI, Your barcode is still scannable. To block out barcodes. you need to disguise/remove some of the vertical bars.