Demo unit

[Vicolodo]

Hello,
I found a retailer that sells the surface 3 at discounted price.
The model is marked as:
H9P-00004 - MICROSOF - SURFACE 3 64GB DEMO UNIT, H9P-00004
What is it?
The retailer told me that it is new, and sealed.
But what is a demo unit?
Is it a true surface 3?
Thank you !

 

[leeshor]

Welcome to the forum

That sound a tad fishy. It's possible it could have been intended to be used on the retail floor and they never did or didn't have room. But there are a lot of places claiming to be selling demo units. Like I said, sounds fishy.

 

[Vicolodo]

Thank you very much.
The rating of the seller is good,
i have read somewhere that the demo units are sold by microsoft in limited number at half price to the retailers. They are intended for internal use, or can be sold for promotion of the product and advertising..
I am tempted to buy it...

 

[leeshor]

The thing that concerns me is the resellers that are actually advertising them for sale. For the most part they are not your typical resellers. I would get in touch with Microsoft to see if someone can confirm that those units will come with a warranty.

With that said, what you are saying may be true.

 

[Vicolodo]

Thank you very much.
I would like to ask to microsoft?
Do you know where i can ask this question?
Is there a microsoft support online for this kind of questions that can give an early response?
Thanks!

 

[leeshor]

You may want to start here Microsoft Surface support | Surface help and how-to | Surface setup and troubleshooting

 

[Vicolodo]

Hello, thank you.
I contacted microsoft support on chat, they suggested me not to buy these units,
and buy only directly from microsoft or microsoft certified reseller...
But perhaps this is the obvious answer of the call center...

 

[leeshor]

As I mentioned, the places selling those are not mainstream. I might go as far as to say they kook suspicious. I wouldn't do it myself just for that reason.

 

[Vicolodo]

Thank you,
i understand...
You are right, but the difference on price is high:
In the main streams here in Italy, the surface 3 base version (without keyboard and pen) can be found at about 550-600USD
Instead in this online shop, i can buy it for about 380USD
Taking the risk, i can save about 200USD...

 

[Girevik]

If it's legit it may well be worth the risk, but be aware that as leeshor points it almost certainly won't be covered my Microsoft's warranty. Only you can decide if it is worth the risk to you or not.

 

[Vicolodo]

Thank you
The seller told me that all the items he sells are covered by the italian legal warranty, that is two years...
He also told me that he has not a physical shop with warehouse, but he sells this things that does get from others...
Yes, i am worried about the Microsoft guarantee... i wonder if legal italian warranty is enought....

 

[Girevik]

I have no idea what the "legal Italian" warranty might be. Who would perform the repairs if you had an issue? I can't imagine the Italian government would have the authority to force Microsoft to perform repairs on a unit they explicitly say is not covered under warranty.

What he explains is typically how "grey market" dealers work. They get the items from places other than the manufacturer and are therefore not bound by the price standards set by them. But the trade off is that the manufacturer does not honor the warranty. Often times the vendor offers their own warranty, but are not always reliable in following up on them. I have bought such items in the past, but it all depends on how trustworthy you find the vendor.

One way to look at it, I suppose, is that since you could save $200 on the unit that's $200 you could spend out of pocket on a repair and still break even.