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My horror story with Micosoft's service so far

tony8154

Member
WARNING!! This is going to be a long read...

I first purchased the Surface Pro 3 a few months ago in Hong Kong through Fortress Electronics.

After booting up the device and installing a few windows updates, I noticed a constant clicking sound from the fan as well as the audio constantly making clicking noises, whether or not the device was muted.

I went back the next day to get an exchange. After proving such issues were present, I was provided with a brand new device no questions asked. OK good.

A few months go by of enjoying the awesome form factor and abilities of the device.

There were a few issues with the device.
1. There's no way in hell I could acheive the advertised battery life. For example, I have nothing running in the background, I'd have only OneNote MUI opened with the screen brightness set to 30%, and I'd get 4 hours MAX.
2. the docking station connecting point became faulty and would not charge the surface unless I pressed it down and held it in place. They sent me a new docking station in the mail without having me to return the one that I have. Great service so far.

One day the Surface was in a protective case (like a laptop sleeve) in my backpack. I dropped my back pack that had the device in it. Unfortunately the screen has shattered and now it won't accept any touch input. The mouse pointer was jumping all over the place making the device completely useless. After spending a loooong time trying to open control panel and disabling touch, the device is somewhat fucntional and I can use it as a laptop. (I'm currently typing this up on the Surface) The only issue is that sometimes is takes more than one try to boot it up. Everything is backed up and there are no important files left on this machine, so as of now it's pretty much touch and go.

Since I did not purchase the Microsoft Complete Accident Protection plan, I had to pay my own money to get an exchanged device. Unfortunately the best that I could do was to get a refurbished product. I guess there's no way around this so I did accept the offer. The payment was roughly 400 dollars. OUCH.

Issue #1
When I was instructed to process the exchange order online, Microsoft's website would not accept my card, keeping repeating the error saying that "the address you have provided is invalid" and "this card is no longer valid" WTF does this even mean? My card has not expired as I have been using it and I am still using it till this day (Bank of America debit VISA).

I had to call the service hotline (which takes 10 -15 minutes just to open my case, as they have to ask for my name, serial number, phone number, then send me a verification e-mail to open my case) for them to process the order. After waiting on the phone for more than 45 minutes with constant "please hold sir" they were finally able to process my order.

A few days pass by, as they said it would take a minimum of 3 business days to process my order. In Hong Kong, the only way to receieve an exchange product is by going through a third party company called "Kar Kar" who handles exchange products that aren't all Microsoft. The only way to check if your product is available is for you to call them every day and give them your order number.

Finally they say they product is available so I drop everything and head over to their walk in center (1 hour away)

Once I get there I requested to exam the product before accepting the exchange.

Issue #2
Wow. This is one beat up Surface Pro 3.

1. There are deep gashes on the exterior.
2. There are numerous microscratches on the surface of the product showing no protective measures whatsoever have been used.
3. The scratches on the corners were so deep that the matte silver finish has been completely rubbed off and bare metal was showing.
4. I turned on the machine and almost immediately you can hear the fan clicking and vibrating.
5. They wouldn't let me log on to the machine to check for other errors.
6. Screen bleeding was visible even under bright lights.
7. There's an unusually large gap on the bottom of the device between the bezel and the glass

There was no way in hell I was going to accept this sub par machine. Keep in mind that besides the cracked screen, my device has ZERO scratches. I purchased skins as well as a screen protective film and was installed even before first booting up the device.

I called up Microsoft service to complain about the condition the refurb was in.

The rep just kept on reading the text something like "our refurbished products have been carefully reviewed by our skilled engineers and have been carefully selected to be in a fully funcitonal immaculate condition..."

After complaining over and over that the product was in terrible shape, the best he could offer was to create another order for exchange. Reluctantly I had no other choice but to agree.

Meanwhile, the first rep that I've spoken to finally sends me an e-mail but it said something like "have you been able to recieve the exchange" err.. NO.

A few days go by again, and there is no e-mail or reference number provided. I called Microsoft service once again.

Issue #3
Again after waiting for 10-15 minutes for them to access my case, they rep says there's no record of me requesting another exchange product and it shows that I have recieved the first one.

This is when I start to lose my cool.

So after spending about an hour of explaining from the very begining, he puts me on hold again saying he has to escalate this case to the QA department. Again I'm on hold.

He comes back and says that this case has been escalated to to the QA department and they will contact me withing 3 business days.

Three business days pass by.

I call again to see the progress.

Again waiting 10-15 minutes just to verify who I am.

Issue #4
The rep tells me it shows that I have received the exchange and the case was closed.
WTF.

Once again I have to explain FROM THE VERY BEGINNING of what's been going on. I've had enough of incompetant reps and I ask to speak with her supervisor. After a long wait I get in touch with him.

Once again I have to explain everything because nobody is making additional notes to my case. I ask the supervisor about the rep I talked to 3 days ago that escalated my case.

Issue #5
"Sir there's no record of you speaking to any rep 3 days ago and your case has not been escalated."
....Jesus Christ.

No matter how much I complain he just sounds like a broken record repeating "sir I understand your frustration, but we are trying the best we can do to serve blah blah blah"

I'm sure you'd all understand but I'm absolutely furious with their service at this point. It's been two weeks since I first issued the service order and absolutely nothing has been resolved.

So while I speak with him I ask him what kind of guarantee he can provide me that the refurbished product will be in a better condition. He gives me the same line "all of our refurbished products have been carefully examined blah blah blah"

I tell him enough with this BS. Are you going to physically look at the machine to guarantee me that the product is good condition? If not, what are you going to do? Do you understand how much time and money I'm wasting trying to get this resolved? Who's going to be responsible for that?

Rep: "sir at this time we don't have any compensation plans"

...

Issue #6
He tries to create another order but says that I have not paid for the order and that I have been refunded for my previous charges.

That's odd. I check my bank account. No refund. I explain.

He says "can you prove that you have been charged? You need to contact your bank and resolve that"

Me: "I'm not going to make an international call for something that's your problem and not mine"
(I'm currently in Hong Kong and my bank is in the States)

After being put on hold again, he comes back and says my order has been completed and should wait another 3 business days. I should receive an e-mail with the work order number.

Issue #7
3 days, no e-mail. I call again.

Issue #8
I talk to a rep and ask to speak with the supervisor directly. I get in touch with him. He says the order has not been processed because you have not paid for the order.

W.
T.
F.

He suggests that I just charge my card again and wait for the refund to happen. ABSOLUTELY NOT.
I ask him why didn't you tell me this before? Did this take 3 business days for you to figure this out?

Rep: "sir I was just about to call you"

SURE.

I tell him "you know what, seriously you guys are wasting my time with this. What is stopping me from just getting a refund? Why should I deal with this any more?"

He then says if it's a refund you want then we are going to have to escalate your case to the Microsoft Service center in the States.

OK fine. I'll just get a refund and buy back new.

We proceed with updating the case so I'm told to deal with Microsoft US instead.

2 and a half weeks and nothing accomplished.

He says it's going to take 1-2 business days for them to contact me via e-mail.

I hang up.

After 3 days, this is the BS response I get back from Microsoft:

Greetings from Microsoft Surface Support!


First of all, let me extend my appreciation for the understanding you have provided when we were dealing with your concern. We have thoroughly studied the situation and had this result to convey.


· We from Microsoft Surface Support will provide all assistance regarding issues with the device. Ultimately, processing Exchange should everything fail with the troubleshooting steps.

· Exchange would mean an In-Warranty or Out-of Warranty

· The authorized entity to process refund is from the Point of Purchase as the payment was taken by them. It is of course limited to its Guidelines and Policies.


With the aforementioned, we will be pleased to help you with the troubleshooting steps to help fix the issues encountered with the device. If it is the refund that you wish to have for the Surface, it will be best to contact the store where you purchased your device. They are in the best position to assist you with your request for return and refund.


Again, thank you for your understanding and patience.


Best regards,

Microsoft Surface support


can someone please enlighten me with what the hell this e-mail is even saying?

I respond immediately:

What does this e-mail mean? There's absolutely no solution provided in this automated response whatsoever.

What is the next step?
How will you provide an exchange?
How are you planning to provide a refund?

Pushing matters around from service rep to service rep is very irresponsible. You are probably the 5th or 6th service rep that I've been pushed to.

If you tell me to just contact the place where I purchased the product, of course they're not going to provide a refund. Have you even read my case? Do you even know when the product was purchased? Do you know any store in this world that would provide a refund to a damaged product that has been purchased months ago? This matter is becoming beyond frustrating.
Try again.

So that is what I've been dealing with for the past 3 weeks now. Sigh.

Thanks for reading my rant. Any suggestions are welcome.
 
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tony8154

Member
Quick update.

I called Microsoft's service center number in HK as they have just sent me another e-mail with just a reference number.

I asked what this number is for and they said it's the reference number as my case has been escalated. Unforutnately they are not able to provide me with a refund and the best they can do is try to provide me with a better conditioned refurb.

It's not that simple though.

Within 1-2 business days the "refund team" is going to contact me to try to refund me the original charge for the refurb that I have paid for, then charge me again for the second refurb. Why they won't just foward that charge and not have a refund team contact me is beyond my knowledge. With regards to international bank transactions ($12.xx USD), I have no idea if I will be refunded that as well. So 1-2 business days for the refund team to call me back, then another 3 business days for the refurb to be ready for pickup.

That'll be week 4 FYI.
 
What a pity.

I know that MS HK doesn't have it own services and instead outsources its "warranty" services to a "collection centre" which usually deals with coupon deals and such, and the "hotline" is a call centre probably NOT in HK, but didn't expect it to be this bad.

Please keep us informed how it goes.
 

Nucleon

Member
This is awful, I live in London and I've had amazing customer support, any time I had a problem, I would just go to chat with them on the support website, I got 2 sets of replacement nibs after wearing them down (I draw a lot, I even told them I had a matte screen protector and they said that's fine) and I even got a replacement charger after I told them the charger I got seemed to stop working for no reason whatsoever, I even got to replace my first SP3 because there was a rough spot in the gorilla glass that couldn't be seen (the screen was perfectly shiny), but it was about a small circle about the size of a centimetre that felt rough every time the pen glided over that spot - they completely replaced my machine at the store, no questions asked as soon as I demonstrated the issue.

I really recommend the online live chats, they might take a while to connect, but with them, you also get transcripts emailed to you, you can explain everything to them in full detail and it's all recorded on their systems and they can even check your chat history to see problems you've had before - every time I've used the live chat, I've had my problems solved and given them 10/10 stars for resolved issues every time.
 
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tony8154

Member
What a pity.

I know that MS HK doesn't have it own services and instead outsources its "warranty" services to a "collection centre" which usually deals with coupon deals and such, and the "hotline" is a call centre probably NOT in HK, but didn't expect it to be this bad.

Please keep us informed how it goes.
Yeah i asked them and the call center is based in the Philippines.
 
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tony8154

Member
This is awful, I live in London and I've had amazing customer support, any time I had a problem, I would just go to chat with them on the support website, I got 2 sets of replacement nibs after wearing them down (I draw a lot, I even told them I had a matte screen protector and they said that's fine) and I even got a replacement charger after I told them the charger I got seemed to stop working for no reason whatsoever, I even got to replace my first SP3 because there was a rough spot in the gorilla glass that couldn't be seen (the screen was perfectly shiny), but it was about a small circle about the size of a centimetre that felt rough every time the pen glided over that spot - they completely replaced my machine at the store, no questions asked as soon as I demonstrated the issue.

I really recommend the online live chats, they might take a while to connect, but with them, you also get transcripts emailed to you, you can explain everything to them in full detail and it's all recorded on their systems and they can even check your chat history to see problems you've had before - every time I've used the live chat, I've had my problems solved and given them 10/10 stars for resolved issues every time.
I called about the worn down pen tip because i write a lot too. They told me to take a picture and email them proof. Lol. And it took 3 business days for them to send ONE TIP. I couldn't wait and just went out and bought another pen.

In Korea I called again about pen tips. It was at my door in two days and they sent three.
 
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tony8154

Member
Man, this is bad. I suggest you write also at http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface and http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfpro3?tab=Threads to spread the word. Maybe someone higher up will catch up on this and make some changes.
Thanks for the suggestions. As soon as i get home I'll post on both sites. As for the microsoft site, i saw them deal with the iPhone's OneDrive app, and considering the thread is years old and it still hasnt been resolved, I have little faith in them.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
I called about the worn down pen tip because i write a lot too. They told me to take a picture and email them proof. Lol. And it took 3 business days for them to send ONE TIP. I couldn't wait and just went out and bought another pen.

In Korea I called again about pen tips. It was at my door in two days and they sent three.

Wow. That's a real contrast in service to what we've been getting in Europe etc. I'm also in London, and first i started a chat saying my pen side buttons had stopped working. No proof requested, no request to return the old pen (which started working fine again a few days later) and a new pen was in the post. Also had an issue with my charger very occasionally not charging until i wigggled the magnetic plug. No request for proof or to return the charger, new one in the post. Spare pen and charger absolutely free no questions asked.
 

ynohtna

Member
think it's always tough when a third party is involved... lots of pushing the paper around and pointing fingers.
 

hughlle

Super Moderator
Staff member
think it's always tough when a third party is involved... lots of pushing the paper around and pointing fingers.

I always do what i can to avoid anything but contact with the manufacturer. Even reputable shops can prove a pain as many of you may have experienced (getting an RMA on some 10 year old memory was a PITA until I just emailed Corsair directy). MS really shouldn't just farm it out though, if they're going to sell to a certain market they should support it themselves.

That said though, all that paper pushing, well it can sometimes possibly work to your advantage; I might just have a free S3 in the post :D
 
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