Saw a similar story on the Surface books, except they are supposed to expedite the Surface Books (just not the Surface pro 4s), so not only did they pull this scam on Surface Book Pre-orders, but also on Surface Pro 4 Preorders, (The failed Bank Transaction scam) there are a lot of disappointed and angry customers out there for SP4 and Surface books.
My search for the holy grail (SP4) began November 1st went online to the MS Store and preordered a Surface pro 4, still have the receipt ship date was 20NOV2015.
My Follow up: November 19 started contacting the MS Online Store Customer Service (This was in the evening after work, started questioning them about shipping, got a canned answer "Please allow 3 to 7 business days to process, wait for your email notifying you of shipping". Over the next couple of days whether by chat or phone I contacted them and got the same answer.
November 23rd: (Scam day) Got an email on my home email account at 1PM, didn't see it until I got home at 5PM, emailed stated they had cancelled my order because of some purchase authorization issue. Previously I had noticed they had a charge sitting as pending ($149 two year extended warranty, nothing on the $1,799 I7 256GB SSD, 16GB Ram Surface Pro 4). I got a second email form MS five hours after the cancel email stating they were sorry about the delay in my pre-order and were expediting my shipment. Logged in my MS account and saw they had cancelled my order. Pretty Good deal the MS Store Online team send an email in the middle of the work day to my home email address and conveniently cancel the order because of a fictitious bank authorization issue, even though I had been in contact multiple times in what I thought was Customer Service for the MS Online Store. This was the ultimate joke on me, I will explain in a minute.
Back to the saga of buying a Surface Product : I contacted the local MS Store and preordered again and here is the strange part they actually were able to process my order with the bank with no problem, the only catch is there is no concept of: we are sorry, we will expedite your delivery nothing, I start all over with a Pre-Order delivery date of December 18th 2015.
Speaking of the failed bank transaction: I contacted my Bank and had their Fraud department check (Fraud Department keeps track of problematic charges) and they told me Microsoft had never finished the $149 transaction and Microsoft never attempted to charge the $1,799. So this was a lie, and either because they didn't have enough stock or someone needed to hook up a buddy my November 20th Pre-order was cancelled and I was put on the bottom of the list to start over.
Now back to the afterhours MS Online Store Customer (at least I hope the day shift is better). So during my many conversations and numerous hours speaking with Microsoft Online Store Representatives from November 19th through November 23rd, I find out it was truly a waste of time, they have absolutely no ability to access your order information. What's worse is they do not tell you that, they kind of play the used car dealer game, they get your information, place you on hold several times, tell you to contact accounting of course this is after being bounced to other supposed reps and giving your information over and over. On the 23rd where this all come to light was they played musical reps, put me on hold (made a mistake put the phone down and I could hear them talking and laughing) I finally had had enough and started asking the Rep for some information about my order it was that point where they finally admitted they could not even access my account information
I hung up at that point. The next item on my agenda was to provide a negative review on what was clearly the worst customer service I have seen in my life. The MS Online Store shields itself from any reviews on its store (which is actually a group out of Washington State. As a matter of Fact Microsoft totally shields itself from this group. I know because I wanted to file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and found out two things Microsoft is not a BBB Accredited company and if you wanted to file a complaint about Microsoft's online store you would be forwarded towards the hack group in Washington state. So in reality I assume it will be the same for the surface book you should not rely on Microsoft's online store's customer service.
November 26, 2015: I checked with Best Buy for the Surface Pro 4 I7 256 GB SSD w/16GB Ram and found out they have a Preorder-Date of 04 DEC2015 (14Days before Microsoft Store.
November 27, 2015: Talked to Best Buy and found out to my amazement Several Stores had at least two Surface Pro Four 256 GB SSD, 16GB Ram I7 processor in stock, drove 30 miles to check it out, sure enough the Best Buy Sales Person told me they had two, went into the back, brought it out and handed it to me, started ringing it up and it wouldn't ring up, yet another disappointment, because of a fictitious pre-order date they couldn't sell from their inventory. At this point I am pretty much fed up with Microsoft, which is sad, I have been a tech and customer since windows 3.1 and now have Windows 10 on all my laptops and pcs and I am an MCSE, have loaded several hundred computers and Servers/Laptops/Tablets/SP3 and desktops with Windows OS . I am now wondering with all the misdirection and lies how will the support for their product be? At least with Surface pro they are now on the fourth generation, Surface Book is 1st gen......
I would have been okay with this if they had simply let me know we are sorry the response to our product has overwhelmed our inventory, your pre-order had to be moved to..... Instead they come up with a fictitious story about problems with processing your bank, cancel my order on short notice with one email , and I have to start all over. I truly hope you have better luck. Out of all of this I must say through my personal experience and I have all the emails to prove it. 1st: Do not buy any products from Microsoft Online Store (use a vendor), and 2nd: If you did don't count on any resolution or real assistance from their online Sales Customer Service, especially after normal business hours.