Support of Surface RT Outside Launch Countries

[Winchester]

Thinking about purchasing Surface RT? And it did not launch in your country (yet)? You should read further.
I purchased mine on a trip to Florida. Then returned back to Czech Republic. After a mnoth the Surface display stopped working. It needs replacement. After spending hours with different support personnel I have discovered following things:

1) Even if there is Microsoft in my country, they will not help me. Support of Surface is limited to the countries where Surface is on the market.
2) I cannot ship it directly to MS USA, because MS Support USA accepts only Surfaces sent from USA. And they return them to USA addresses only.
3) MS Supports surfaces bought in other countries, but you have to send (and receive) it from the country where is Surface launched already.

So I have 3 (bad) options:

1) Wait for MS Surface launch in Czech Republic
2) Ask someone in USA to send it for me.
3) Fly to Florida again

Summary: Surface is a good device, but its worldwide support is rather lukewarm.

 

[ArnoldC]

Hi, I contacted Microsoft support and reported the issue with my Surface RT, and they extended replacement even if i'm in the Philippines, and the device was purchased in Australia. They gave me three countries I can send it for replacement- Australia, Hong Kong and New Zealand. When you go to the properties of your RT, it shows which counties you can get support from.

 

[Rallicat]

This is of course the risk you take if you buy a product from another country that isn't officially supported in your own country.

Microsoft have two choices with Surface - expand the product's availability significantly, or leave it up there as a 'reference design' to spur the rest of the industry on. Whether it is successful in doing so in the market's they have launched in so far, will largely determine whether Microsoft feel the need to expand aggressively, or not.

In the meantime, I'd suggest that if you don't want to take the risk, take a look at some of the excellent Windows RT / Windows 8 tablets that are officially available and supported in your country. Windows RT is what's at the heart of Surface, and whilst other vendors might not have produced anything as well made as the Surface, many of them are still pretty damn good.

 

[bryanz]

Winchester, my advise is that you should have bought the surface in Germany or France, because thanks to European laws, any device or article sold in the European Community, must have 2 years of warranty included and covered in Europe. This means, that you can buy in Germany and if for example you live in Cezch or Spain (as I do) you can ship it to Germany or they will send Fedex or UPS to pick it up.
In fact I bought it through Germany MS Store and they shipped it to Spain.