Microsoft Store was pretty nice to coworker who dropped Surface RT

[onlysublime]

My coworker, who's had the Surface RT for a little over a month, dropped his Surface RT in the worst possible way (landing on the corner tip which for iPhone users, you know that's the best way to shatter the glass). It was the 64 GB model. He had bought it from Best Buy.

So he went to the Microsoft Store, told them what happened. They let him get the insurance and get a new Surface RT. Not bad considering he bought the machine from Best Buy and didn't buy any insurance at the time. I didn't even know places let you buy the insurance AFTER you break the machine and from another store too.

 

[Laura Knotek]

That was great the Microsoft Store went above and beyond what they really were obligated to do.

It sounds like they've made themselves a loyal customer, though, based upon their customer service. Most likely, he's going to tell his family, friends, neighbours, just like he already told you. That's a smart move, since it should gain more customers for Microsoft.

 

[anon(123856)]

I also have a friend that has had great luck with them as well. I sent her there so she could play with some of the new 8.1 laptops and get a feel for what she wanted. They were so nice and helpful to her that she returned some stuff she had bought at Best Buy and bought everything from them. A laptop, all in one printer, Office and some other stuff. I'm going to start using them as well the next time I need something. MS is using the same business model as Apple, but that's ok. The one thing I liked about Apple was the store experience.

 

[onlysublime]

Yeah, the MS Store has been pretty great to me as well. Last time, I had a boot problem with my Surface Pro 2 (silly me, I forgot to make the recovery USB drive so I couldn't even get to the recovery tools in Windows to save me). They gave me a couple drinks (picked water and Diet Coke) while the guy worked on it for 15 minutes. Didn't lose any files. No charge for anything. Walked out the door very happy.

First thing I did when I got home was make a recovery drive... :evil:

Much better experience than my dad with his iPad 2 and the Apple store where he was way way down on the list and had to make an appointment for days later. I'm sure Microsoft wished their stores were as crowded as Apple's. But for me as an individual, I like to get taken care of and pampered and not just be another person trying to grab someone or having to make an appointment.

If I ever get a store-bought PC (instead of building myself), it'll be from a Microsoft Store because I like the fact that it comes clean with only Windows. Not stupid Norton, McAfee, and dozens of programs or trials I'll never use.

 

[Guzzler3]

I am fortunate to have a local Microsoft Store also. I have used them a couple of times when I get stuck (which isn't very often) and they have been very good to me.

Example 1: I bought my Lumia 810 from the MS Store and was having issues with reading various microSD cards. The first thing they did was just exchange the 810. We experimented with the microSD cards that I brought, to determine that it wasn't the phone, but the various quality of said cards. The tech even went over to the shelf and pulled down a brand new Kingston microSD for testing (which worked perfectly). After he offered to sell me the card for 50% off, because "it's an open/returned product now." (I should have taken the offer, but was short on funds at the time).

Example 2: People love giving me their old computer stuff for free tech support. I got a completely dead ASUS Ultra book from someone that had bought it from the Microsoft Store. It was way out of warranty, and they didn't want to deal with shipping, time without it, etc. So since they already bought a replacement, and I had helped them in the past, I got the dead computer.

Turns out the Ultrabook had gotten to hot and didn't do a thermal shutdown (bad bios version). With some tinkering around I got it to come back to life, except for the SSD. I searched and searched online for a replacement (non standard SSD), but either came back as out of stock, or crazy expensive.

The original owner left the receipt from MS in the box. On a whim I took the Ultrabook up to the MS store and explained the entire story and asked what they could do. They said they would take a look at it and call if they could find a replacement SSD. Two days later, they called saying they could get a new SSD and the price was over 4 times cheaper than what I was able to find online (MS SSD $225, everywhere else at the time $800-$900). Of course I said YES (I actually had some extra $ at the time, WoooHooo!!!). Two days later they called and said I could pick up the Ultrabook. They didn't charge labor, and they even installed a valid copy of Windows 7 for me.

Example 3: I got my Surface RT from someone that had moved up to the PRO when it came out (I had done a lot of support for them in getting them used to W8 and they were grateful). Way out of warranty, not purchased from MS but BestBuy, I dropped and cracked the screen. It was so bad that even trying override the cursor control with the trackpad didn't work. They tried to do the prorated warranty, but the system didn't allow it. I looked around on how I could get the parts and try to do the screen replacement myself. Decided it was out of my league, skill set, to do so. Got a quote from MS for them to repair. Saved up for it.

Just happened a friend was visiting that just gotten the Surface 2, and wanted to go the MS store and take their free W8 class. I decided to go with and take my Surface and see if they would ship it for me (thinking, if they have others to ship, they might include this one on a bulk discount). Sure enough they said "Yea, good idea! We have a shipment going out tonight and we'll include this one." Filled out the repair order, and such and waited for my friend to finish her class.

A week later the Surface RT comes back. Not repaired, but REPLACED. I won't even say what they charged me, but let's just say "THEY WERE VERY, VERY, NICE TO ME!!"

After all of this, I am perfectly willing to save longer, for more money, so I can buy my stuff from the Microsoft store.