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Why Russell Holly returned his Microsoft Surface Pro - A Cautionary Tale

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app103:
Plenty of companies would have handled this by making him package it up in it's original packaging, ship it back to them at his expense (possibly to somewhere in China), include a check to cover shipping it back to him, tacked on something like a battery replacement fee, then do nothing but replace the battery and ship it back to him (never addressing the actual reason why he sent it back)...just to repeat the process when it still had issues. Total fees would be an amount to make you think twice about even bothering to send it back the first time.

I can't tell you the number of items I have purchased over the years that ended up in the trash because of support like this...things like headphones that cost me $6.99 and would have cost in excess of $15 to have the company replace them, while still under warranty.


And the battery example was how Sharp handled a defective watch, which I shipped back to them twice because it ran incredibly fast, each time paying return shipping costs and a battery replacement fee, and each time all they did was replace the battery and send it back to me. (The only reason why I didn't return the watch to place of purchase was because it was permanently out of stock, all I would have got was a refund, and I really wanted that cool looking watch)

wraith808:
I guess I'm just old fashioned enough to feel that if you're a company with the resources and budget Microsoft can bring to bear on product development, it's not unreasonable to expect a device that works as advertised - and have a company that is willing and able to stand behind it.
-40hz (March 04, 2013, 09:21 AM)
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But they were.  And they did.  There was a problem with a couple of CS reps, and all the person could say was I'm sorry about the issue, because they weren't those people.  They also did help him that same night, though just with a refund.  And he even said from research that it appeared to be an isolated issue.

It wasn't that the hardware wasn't bad.  It wasn't that it didn't work for him.  It wasn't that he didn't like it.

It was that he had a bad experience with CS.

If he had prefaced the article with that, and/or put that in the title, I'd not have a problem with it.  But it's a tech site, complaining about CS, and not being overly up front about that fact in the title or at the beginning of the article.

That's my problem with it.

f0dder:
Big computer companies need to "Think Different." And well before their customers start answering the question "Where do you want to go today" by saying "Far away from you!"-40hz (March 04, 2013, 09:21 AM)
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...and then there's the companies that make you want to "Do Much Evil". Like, after the umpteenth Just Another Vulnerability Alert.

If he had prefaced the article with that, and/or put that in the title, I'd not have a problem with it.  But it's a tech site, complaining about CS, and not being overly up front about that fact in the title or at the beginning of the article.

That's my problem with it.
-wraith808 (March 04, 2013, 10:09 AM)
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:Thmbsup:

Deozaan:
Yeah, I don't get it either. He really liked the Surface, but it had a rare problem of not recognizing the keyboard, so he was going to return it and get a new one. It sucks, but it happens. I've had to return hardware that was DoA or otherwise faulty. That didn't make me decide to never again buy from that manufacturer.

If I have awful customer service, then sure, I might switch vendors. If I have an awful CS experience with NewEgg, I might decide to order from Amazon in the future. Speaking of online purchasing, why not just order his Surface online like a sane person and not have to deal with traveling 30 minutes or an hour to go to a brick & mortar Microsoft store? I understand why it can be nice to support local business by going to your local brick and mortar store, but it's not like you're supporting "local business" anyway when going to a Microsoft store.

Aside: I didn't even know that Microsoft Stores existed. I have no idea how close the nearest one is to where I live.

4wd:
I have no idea how close the nearest one is to where I live.-Deozaan (March 05, 2013, 11:36 AM)
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It wouldn't matter anyway, it's closed.

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