Never ending Surface Book saga

[Spyros Kafetzis]

Hi to all, this is my first post here though I've been browsing the forums since my SP Pro 3 days.

I'm going to vent a little, so please bear with my me while I tell my story.
I'm currently on my 3rd surface book, which I've had for less than 2 hours, and it's also going back.

This is a timeline of events:
- Ordered a i5 8 / 256 / dGPU book on Oct 30th.
- After using it for 41 days, it froze and never turned on again.
- MS wanted to replace it with a refurb, escalated the case and I got a brand new book.
- 2nd book arrived on Jan 19th. Whenever the clipboard is detached, it was making a ticking noise from the lower left hand corner.
- MS wanted to give a refund. However I got the 1st book on sale and the refund would not cover the cost of a new one.
- Case escalated once again. MS decided to offer me a discount that would cover the cost difference for a new book.
- 3rd book arrived on Feb 3rd. Two yellow streaks on the left edge mar the beautiful screen.

Now I'm at a loss for words. Do I request a refund and put this ordeal behind me? Or should I stick around and wait if my 4th (!) Surface Book would be the one?

Right now I'm leaning towards the former. I've been trying for 3 months to get a 100% flawless product.
Each return trip takes about a week here in Europe, and escalation another couple of days on top of that. So to get a new one I'm looking at around 15 calendar days as a best case scenario.
How I envy US customers who can just walk into a store and get a replacement!

I love the design, the form factor and the performance, but I have considerable doubts regarding the reliability of (any) Surface Book, at least for professional use, which is my case. Seriously, is there no QA at all for Surface Books?

All the way, kudos to MS UK support stuff, they've been fantastic! If it wasn't for them, I'd have already waved goodbye to the Surface brand as a whole.

By the way, all of the flawed books were form 2016 week 40-46 batch, if its of any significance.

 

[sharpuser]

Thanks for telling this Forum about your story, @Spyros Kafetzis . Interesting that all the Surface Books were from the same six weeks of 2016. I'm wondering what's going on with that.

The Surface Book is a wonderful device, as you stated, due to form factor and performance, the hinge, and the features. I love it so much, I have a 512GB and a 1TB, and travel the world with one. Good that MS UK support is hanging with you. I hope this is sorted for you, soon.

Be sure to let us know. We'd like to put a SOLVED tag on this thread.

 

[tanipat.pilco]

i love this device, i used to own 2015 512gb model with no issue at all for nearly 6 months. i sell it 2 weeks ago because i decided to upgrade to 2016 Surface book with performance base 1TB. I order from USA (live in Thailand). Unfortunately i receive it yesterday and upon open to boot screen with "Surface" logo on Black screen it caught me a shock. There 2 area (2cm radius large) contains of a lot of red/purple dot and bright pixels. It is very unacceptable for usd3300 devices and it is very difficult in my country to do any claim for new one, i contact microsoft and they accept the exchange for new one, anyhow i have to spend more than usd400 to deliver back and forth from USA. I really feel bad about their QA, but customer service wise they do not hesitate to issue ticket for me which is great. Anyhow need to see when the new one arrive if it still have problem then i may be could not bare the situation to deliver back and forth again cause it is blow away of transportation fee for just receive the new one again, sigh.....


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