Salty story ahead

[Frustrated user]

Long salty ass story ass ahead, but TLDR if you’re looking to
- pay for a first hand products
- find that they’re all faulty within the first week
- spent countless hours and agony troubleshooting
- get poor customer service,
- and finally be replaced with second hand set and told to suck it up after a month

During the latest fair, I bought a Surface Pro 6 at 26/6/19, and within a few days of use, the surface pen began to be unusable and a day later, the tablet/laptop itself.

So I spent so many hours troubleshooting, calling the service centre and doing the same process of troubleshoot despite telling them I’ve already done so. And they finally let me do a product exchange.

So the pen was exchanged first, and they gave me a refurbished set. Meaning to say, it’s not new, likely to be a faulty piece that was fixed.

I was like hey fine, but I want my surface pro to be a new set because I didn’t spend my money on a second hand set. I barely used it for days.

They ignored my request, and delivered a refurbished surface pro a few days later.

So I’m like wtf did you even listen to me? I decided to left it unopened in case they use it as another excuse.

After multiple calls and emails, one guy finally said they will forward my request to a higher level, who will contact me in days.

Took them two weeks to reply me, just to tell me that they would neither give me a new set NOR a refund.

Basically what they did was to ask me to suck it up with all the second hand stuffs that I had overpaid for.

Well done Microsoft. I honestly don’t think my request was unreasonable but you guys handled it so poorly. Now I have to resort to ranting like an idiot on a forum which I’ve never done before in the slightest hope that you would rectify this.

 

[Plantje]

That's really a bad experience! People here on the forum are very helpful, but in this case I don't think anyone will be able to help you.

 

[sharpuser]

Indeed a sad, but unusual story, @Frustrated user. Microsoft does not run this forum. We are volunteers whom share enthusiasm for Surface products.

I hope it has a good ending. Thanks for joining up.

 

[Plantje]

Having a device replaced with a refurbished one is normal. I can understand the frustration. You did the decent thing. You might as well have gone to the store within a few days and just get a refund. Most likele "no questions asked"

In which country do you live? Here in the Netherlands at some point I had this many replacement Surface 3s (non pro) that I asked my legal insurance to step in. They decided that it was not worth arguing over and refunded.
And I think in some country a lady once had a class action law suit over an iPhone being replaced with a refurbished one.

 

[MikemanSP4]

I have heard the "horror" stories from others when dealing with MS Support. Each of my experiences have been prompt, professional and all around a good experience. Sadly it seems, when monster sized companies mass produce products - a few bad apples will make it to the shelf and ultimately wind up on our desktops. For instance - I have purchased countless hard drives when building Desktop PC's for the US Government. Faulty hard drives right out of the box is a very frustrating experience and if one doesn't know what they are looking at - it can lead to a huge loss in time while troubleshooting them.

Microsoft, being the giant they have become - is looking for a bottom line profit, so it seems most product support is outsourced (Yayy). Then the support technician is reading from a 1-2-3 A-B-C script to narrow down a faulty device. Very frustrating especially when you have done every step they are insisting that you do....again....

Leading back to the bottom line profitability, naturally replacing a users faulty machine with a Guaranteed "Like New" refurbished machine really squeezes out the money in the long run. Very frustrating for the user especially if the return date has come and gone. I spent €2200 on a brand spanking new machine and had less than 20 hours of use and due to a screen glitch, I had to send it in. Yayyyy - Returned was a refurbished machine -which worked like a charm and it also reset the 2 year warranty time for the product. Initially I was skeptical and frustrated - but as the refurbished machine did the job I paid for - I soon forgot the sting of not getting a brand new machine.

In the above case of 'Frustrated User' - The short end of the stick with both the Pen & PC being faulty....well.....If it weren't for bad luck..... Someone already asked, but I want to ask again - Did you consider returning the entire machine for a complete refund? Had the return date not expired - I would have ran to the nearest MS Store, receipt in hand. Really sorry to hear about your misfortune - I am in no way affiliated with Microsoft - minus giving them loads of my cash. I do however, spend hours on the phone with them sometimes weekly as I am the IT Guy for a mid-sized company. I have found that with MS Support, I catch more flies with honey than vinegar.