Can't RMA my Surface due to order still "In process"

[noodlebomb]

Hello everybody,

thought I'd chime in as well on the WPCentral about my new Surface as I've been following this forum quite a lot recently. Hope those who received their Surface are enjoying it and for those whom are still waiting, hope you get yours soon!

I received my Surface a couple of days ago and am loving it, absolutely great device and runs really really well once the updates have been applied. But unfortunately, I found dead pixels on my unit and therefore decided to ring up the Microsoft Store and start up the RMA process for an exchange. I'm not entirely sure what the pixel policy is but having read the legal lines on the website, it reads that you're able to request an exchange within 14 days of delivery if you're not happy with the quality of your purchased item. They'll investigate the item you sent back and if it meets the requirements for a refund/exchange they will do so accordingly.

So rang up. But unfortunately once I got through to a customer service representative, she informed me I wasn't able to put this into action as the order was still "In process". My only choice now is to wait now until my order status has been changed and call again then. I hope they'll sort out the issues soon for everybody in terms of shipping or if you are in a similar position as I am. Got about a week and a half left so I hope they update all orders that have in fact been completed (whether succesfully or cancelled).

I've read that some people have had dead pixels but had theirs exchanged in a physical MS Store, without any complaints from the store. Considering we don't have the physical stores in the UK, is there anybody not in the US who tried to exchange their Surface for a new one due to dead pixels? And if so, I assume they would've told you the same as what they told me. If not, how did you manage to request an exchange succesfully?

 

[Sonic77]

Try again... they have a full refund policy here, just ask for a refund and order again if you want?

 

[noodlebomb]

Try again... they have a full refund policy here, just ask for a refund and order again if you want?

Yeah could've done but I'd expect it would be even more hassle as it's about getting the refund as well (money hasn't even been taken off my account for that matter)

Update on this: Spoke on the tech chat via https://myservice.surface.com/en-GB/pages/welcome.aspx with a very helpful representative. She informed me that I could raise a Warranty Exchange via the site irrespective of status on the Microsoft Store order as I had the device registered under my Microsoft account.

When doing so, you're presented with two exchange options: Advance and normal. With Advance, they'll send you a new unit first and then you send the current one back, with normal it's the other way around (and drop it off at UPS yourself). The caveat with Advance is that if they do not receive the current one within 15 days of receiving the new one, they will charge you the around 366 pounds (ie the price for a 64GB unit without touch cover).

Also the wording used for Advance and normal is a bit odd:
- Advance they mention that they "will send you a new Surface"
- Normal they state that your Surface will be exchanged with "a comparable device"
Sounded a bit dodgy so I asked the representative and she said that it would be a like for like change (ie a new unit and not replacing the screen in the current one). I hope so, considering MS don't have any other tablets..

There were no options to describe the issue I had during the process, apart from selecting a category related to the problem (Display, Sound, etc). So I'll add a note in the box to indicate I have dead pixels on the screen as they can be hard to miss at first (they might see the unit and say "nothing wrong with it"). After that you'll just end up staring at them..

So, will be wiping my data and packing it up without accessories to be sent off next week Monday. Their repair centre is in Coventry so, they'll probably contact another department to send out the new unit.

Will have to be without Surface for a short while and re-install everything again on the new unit. But that's small potatoes really. I rather have that this goes without any problems and my new unit will be without any issues.

To be continued..

 

[Mayur]

I got mine 64gb Surface on Monday, 29 Oct 2012, but it has what seems to be a graphic card problem, all photos and videos are very bloatchy and looked like taken with very low res camera. Refreshing and Resetting did not work..

Tuesday, 30 Oct 2012, I phoned MS Store and without any fuss, they offered me "Advance Exchange". They said they will keep a hold (but not charged) on my CC for ?366+VAT(?439.20) until I return faulty Surface back to them in 15 days.

Thursday, 1 Nov 2012, I received replacement unit, Brand new in the box. but only unit and nothing else, keeping my old power supply and touch cover. Inside the box, there are some instructions on how to pack faulty unit back in the same box and return address lable (COVENTRY). (also, I was told on the phone that I can call UPS to come and pick up return box from my place and I do not have to go and drop it off to their depot)

Monday, 5 Nov 2012, I will be calling UPS to come and collect the return box. I have made a note of tracking number on the return address label, let see how this goes...

Note: btw, while all this was happening my original order on my account was still showing "In Progress"...

 

[noodlebomb]

I got mine 64gb Surface on Monday, 29 Oct 2012, but it has what seems to be a graphic card problem, all photos and videos are very bloatchy and looked like taken with very low res camera. Refreshing and Resetting did not work..

Tuesday, 30 Oct 2012, I phoned MS Store and without any fuss, they offered me "Advance Exchange". They said they will keep a hold (but not charged) on my CC for ?366+VAT(?439.20) until I return faulty Surface back to them in 15 days.

Thursday, 1 Nov 2012, I received replacement unit, Brand new in the box. but only unit and nothing else, keeping my old power supply and touch cover. Inside the box, there are some instructions on how to pack faulty unit back in the same box and return address lable (COVENTRY). (also, I was told on the phone that I can call UPS to come and pick up return box from my place and I do not have to go and drop it off to their depot)

Monday, 5 Nov 2012, I will be calling UPS to come and collect the return box. I have made a note of tracking number on the return address label, let see how this goes...

Hey Mayur,

Hope your new unit is living up to your expectations!
What was the status of your Surface order on the MS Store website, still "In Process" or was it completed already?

Person I spoke to said I had no choice but to wait until the status changed on the website, hence I proceeded to seek some clarification on the support site and continued from there. There seems to be a slight disconnect between teams (MS Store and Support team) which is slightly confusing and disappointing in the sense that the level of service differs. Who knows though, for all I know I could've spoken to someone else on the MS Store team who would initiate an exchange irrespective of order status.

I went for regular exchange instead as all the recent issues with the store site made me a bit nervous going for advance, but seems to be going good for you so far which is good to hear. Dropped my unit off on Saturday at UPS, so will be checking the support site pretty frequently this week heh. I'm hoping to have a new unit again within a couple of weeks, I'm missing my new gadget! Noticed that I spent a very little amount of time on my laptop when I had my Surface. And most of the people whom I showed it to (most of them owning iPads were genuinely surprised with it from a build quality point of view and the OS).

Guess I'll have have to do with Halo 4 this week.. without Smartglass

 

[Mayur]

Hi noodlebomb,

New unit is absolutely perfect, loving it.

Status on my account was still showing “In Progress” until Thursday, the day I received my replacement unit. When I checked it again on Friday, it was showing “Completed”.

Support team I spoke to last Tuesday did not seem to care about what status my original order was in, as long as I had faulty Surface to return to them within 15 days (also, guy on the phone told me that they were part of xBox support team…!!!). I find your situation little strange as why does it matter what your account was showing when you already have your Surface delivered to you. I would have argued that - it is not my problem if MS system is little slow to update and the fact of the matter is that I have Surface in my hand and it is faulty.

Anyway, I wish you best of luck and hope everything works out for you. I am sure they will despatch replacement unit as soon as they have received your faulty unit and soon you will be playing Halo 4 with Smartglass, like me

 

[Mayur]

*deleted - double post

 

[noodlebomb]

Hi noodlebomb,

New unit is absolutely perfect, loving it.

Status on my account was still showing “In Progress” until Thursday, the day I received my replacement unit. When I checked it again on Friday, it was showing “Completed”.

Support team I spoke to last Tuesday did not seem to care about what status my original order was in, as long as I had faulty Surface to return to them within 15 days (also, guy on the phone told me that they were part of xBox support team…!!!). I find your situation little strange as why does it matter what your account was showing when you already have your Surface delivered to you. I would have argued that - it is not my problem if MS system is little slow to update and the fact of the matter is that I have Surface in my hand and it is faulty.

Anyway, I wish you best of luck and hope everything works out for you. I am sure they will despatch replacement unit as soon as they have received your faulty unit and soon you will be playing Halo 4 with Smartglass, like me

Cheers mate, good to hear your new Surface is in top condition!

Checked my status on Saturday and it was still showing as "In Progress", though today it finally changed to "Complete". Figures! Ah well, seems that they (either raising it via the MS Store Sales team or following the automated process on the support site) both lead to the same thing. Indeed I could've argued but it sounded like it was a standard response she was giving. I was thinking to myself "Ugh, I won't be going anywhere with this" so decided it probably wasn't worth the effort making a fuss about it. Interesting to hear that they're also part of the Xbox support team though, who knows what else the Xbox and Surface team share

Ah well, my "old" unit's on its way. Just checked the UPS site and it should be at the repair center tomorrow end of business day. Enjoy Halo 4, I reckon it's going to be pretty awesome!

 

[Mayur]

oh, well...spoke too soon. Replacement unit I received last Thursday only worked until last night.

Word crashed, would not respond to any touch commands. I had no choice but to close Desktop to come out of it, manged to close Desktop and came back to Metro without any problem. I thought it would be good idea to shut down the Surface and re-start it to clear any errors....BIG MISTAKE.

On re-start it is now stuck on "Surface" logo screen and it just would not load Windows anymore...tried evrything but no luck. Can't even access "Advance Option" section to reset or re-start from factory image.

Called MS Support, same experience (and same Xbox team..!!!) - no hassle, no fuss. Gave them serial number of the new Surface, strangley it was not yet registered on my account, understandable as we know how slow MS ordering system updates are. But it did not cause any problem.

They are sending out 3rd unit, this time I have been assured that engineer will fully test new unit on mybehalf before sending out. Not sure what this means, but here we go again...I hope third time is the charm (pun intended).

 

[noodlebomb]

oh, well...spoke too soon. Replacement unit I received last Thursday only worked until last night.

Word crashed, would not respond to any touch commands. I had no choice but to close Desktop to come out of it, manged to close Desktop and came back to Metro without any problem. I thought it would be good idea to shut down the Surface and re-start it to clear any errors....BIG MISTAKE.

On re-start it is now stuck on "Surface" logo screen and it just would not load Windows anymore...tried evrything but no luck. Can't even access "Advance Option" section to reset or re-start from factory image.

Called MS Support, same experience (and same Xbox team..!!!) - no hassle, no fuss. Gave them serial number of the new Surface, strangley it was not yet registered on my account, understandable as we know how slow MS ordering system updates are. But it did not cause any problem.

They are sending out 3rd unit, this time I have been assured that engineer will fully test new unit on mybehalf before sending out. Not sure what this means, but here we go again...I hope third time is the charm (pun intended).

Sorry to hear that mate, I hope third one is indeed the one for you. Though I hope I won't be in the same situation of course

At least, with the addition of purchase history, cloud synching of settings and Windows Easy Transfer it's pretty straightforward setting up your replacement unit. That is of course, if you're able at all to create the back up in case of the last one which clearly you're not. Hopefully the turn-around time for your next (and hopefully) last unit will be as fast as the first time you exchanged it.

Just checked my own exchange request and they received it yesterday, estimated completion date: Jan 1, 0001 .. Where's Doc Brown and his time machine And also I didn't get my pre-order copy of Halo 4 yesterday, bah.. I'm still positive I'll get my new Surface soon and my copy of Halo!

 

[Mayur]

Thanks mate, I hope too that this is the one for me otherwise I am turning to the dark side ...just joking, never.

Lucky for me that I have homeserver and nothing important was copied or installed on the Surface, few important documents were copied but there are on Sky Drive so no problem there. My main concern is that I have not managed to wipe clean this unit and it has some of my personal details, including passwords. But I have been assured that it is MS Support policy to wipe clean all machines on arrival, so there is that.

I am sure your replacement unit will be perfect and you wouldn't be in the same situation as me. I am sure this is costing lot of money (and reputation) to MS and they need to improve their quality control, otherwise at this rate, they wouldn't be making any money at all. This is the first time in MS history that they have created a buzz for their product (bar win95) which is equal to their competitor on some level, they must keep up this momentum going forward if they want to be relevant in this ever changing industry.

estimated completion date: Jan 1, 0001 - lol...I am speechless.

 

[noodlebomb]

Who knows, if you're that unfortunate you might end up swapping units until the Pro is out Hope not though, that would be very very unfortunate!

In regards to data, it's correct that they are required to wipe data when they receive a device. It even states it on the Surface support site. Then again, you always get people that like to have a little sniff in your files eh, something which happens all too often (seen it in companies I used to work). If you're really concerned, you could always reset your passwords. It's a pain, but better be safe than sorry!

Finally got my copy of Halo, I kind of doubt it'll keep me busy until Jan 1, 0001 though!

Good luck!