I've got one scratch on my Surface which was totally my own fault, and very gutting! It's been on holiday with me and survived... tbh I've not got the tiniest mark anywhere else, maybe I'm very lucky? Man, I thought I was OCD until I joined up here lol. To the OP, it's obviously heartbreaking when something like this happens to your new device, but honestly I wouldn't bother returning it if it were me, it's no where near bad enough for that.
You'll only end up scratching the new one as well! These things happen unfortunately. This is why I know I can never own a brand new car lol, I'd be paranoid as hell. What else do you spend thousands on and leave it outside!?
In the practical sense, I highly doubt OP can return/exchange it simply because that's pure cosmetic damage under the warranty and not even the known manufacturing flaw; people have had problems exchanging for the manufacturing flaw over the phone/online because it's still classified as cosmetic, yet had more success at actual MS stores, but I don't believe OP would be successful even with that option because again, it's not the manufacturing flaw.
Agree about the new car bit--I usually see those "fancy" cars parked far away at the edges/corners of store parking lots to avoid dings, but if they do get a scratch, I imagine the owner is rich enough to get it fixed.
As for scratching it up again, that's where a skin comes in.
The rubber nib idea is great FYI, well done for a creative solution.
Unsure how this thread became a flame war to one person here, but its a valid concern and issue for the coating, and varies of course depending on usage, batch of product, and handling. Lets keep this constructive
It's just beman39. His posting style is basement-gamer and he's one of the most hardcore defenders of Surface on this board, much like Apple fanboys.
Thing is, I think hardware is of higher importance than software issues (firmware and bugs) because the latter is fixable, though it may take time and require a workaround. There's no fixing hardware imperfections ever, and use cases are going to vary a whole lot, but it's perfectly reasonable to assume the Surface should be
tough as a premium product. Not like a Panasonic Toughbook/Let's Note, but it's still a valid concern because the build quality is supposed to be competitive with iStuff, which is the entire point of going to magnesium/Gorilla glass in the first place. MS could have just as easily gone with a plastic shell like every other Win tablet on the market. Did the OP unknowingly abuse his Surface? Possible, but no one would ever think that of their own usage.
@OP: At this point, I don't believe you'll be successful in returning for that type of cosmetic damage, so you could resell and buy new if you
really wanted to (too much effort for anyone to go through over that type of damage) or just buy a full skin set like Stickerboy and use it now.
