I'm in the USA. Have 2 pre-orders placed 9/24 (both for 256GB). Supposed to have shipped Oct 21, but order status online for both still say "In process". Just got an email a few hours ago for one of the orders, stating:
"Unfortunately, we were unable to ship your pre-order xxxxxxxxxxx because your credit card company could not authorize your order for purchase. We have not canceled your order, and continue to hold your Surface for you.
In order to complete your order to purchase your Surface, you will need to provide another credit card for authorization between Friday, October 25th and Sunday, October 27th. We will email you by the end of the week with a link to update your payment information. If we don't hear from you in this window, we can no longer hold your order, but you can place another for future delivery.
We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. If you have any questions, please call us at 877-696-7786 so we can help."
I checked my CC online but did not see any attempted or pending charges from Microsoft, strange. So I called the above number and the Indian woman who answered said the CC-declined problem is happening to *everyone* and they're getting a lot of calls from customers, but that she can't do anything and I just have to wait for the email to update the order payment. Strangely she said I don't even have to use a different CC, I can just re-enter the same CC to be re-submitted again?? At least she kept saying that I won't lose my place in line, we'll see if that's true...
What's going on here, did Microsoft switch to some new 3rd-party (or off-shore) order billing company that's causing all these problems?