I have read that it must be returned to the place of purchase.
I do know that Staples would exchange for a brand new one but I don't have one to send back to staples.
Well the crap still flows from MS. I was told last Monday that my surface was shipped and that tonight I was going to get a call from MS support to check to see if everything was working ok. WELL I never hot a new surface yet and it still hasn't shipped as MS stated to me twice this week. I never got an email with the FedEx tracking number as I was told by Microsoft.