Surface Ordering Problems?

[hypokondriak]

Is anyone else having problems pre-ordering their Surface 2 / Pro 2? I called about 10 minutes after the pre-orders opened up yesterday and I have still yet to get an order through. The service from Microsoft Store has been terrible too - more than I care to get in here. It's been one of my most awful purchase attempts of recent history.

My card is with Capital One, I'm not sure if it is limited to them, but as of close of business today Microsoft is still unable to get a payment to go through. Capital One has confirmed with me it is something on Microsoft's side. I got a new Microsoft Store supervisor on the phone tonight and apparently there are so many tickets the escalation team hasn't even opened my ticket, which of course means it's been un-owned two business days now. I asked the supervisor if this is a big problem with other customers and he said "real big."

This thing is such a mess and I'm getting such awful service from Supervisor level I have to think it is so big they can't keep above water right now. If this isn't the case Microsoft is a long way away from top tier sales and service. I have to laugh to myself because I'm a SP1 user and looking to buy into their ecosystem again with the SP2....people like me / us are few and far between so you think they'd fight like heck for us. Nope.

 

[olimjj]

I am not trying in any way to discredit or negate your experience, but I ordered an accessory from the store yesterday and have received confirmation today. I would suggest you check the accuracy of your online personal information if you have not already done so. Mine had my name as X-Box...... go figure

 

[hypokondriak]

I appreciate you trying to help, but we covered all of that yesterday on my first call and even created a brand new account for good measure. The Microsoft Store supervisor I spoke with did tell me it's a problem that has nothing to do with me and as mentioned above that it is "big." I've spoke with Capital One fraud / customer service and they have told me it is on Microsoft's side not their side.

I doubt their whole store is down. It probably depends on the card and even the bank backing the card I'm sure.

 

[olimjj]

Hope you get a just and quick solution. If you are successful then congrats with the new SP2

 

[minimojoman]

IMO Microsoft customer support is extremely lacking, I agree with you. I purchased a 200$ refurbished 64gb RT from an ebayer (he sold 2300 of these) I received it brand new sealed in a microsoft box. It had a problem straight out the box so I called customer service for a replacement and they told me that the surface was registered to someone else and "he didnt understand why a case was still open with it, because it shouldnt be" but they couldnt clear the surface and allow me to register it, meaning that I cannot get a replacement. I talked to the superviser who explained to me numerous times that because it was registered to another account I could not register it. But the problem was on the Microsoft side and their tech case hadnt been closed. I am upset that I have to return it to the ebay owner and microsoft cant take ownership of their obvious mistake.

Kind of turns me off to buying a sp2, and I also have the sp1.... mehh

 

[oion]

It took me several tries on four browsers and many login attempts before my pre-order would go through. I kept getting error pages. Then when it finally let me login to my MS account, I couldn't update my payment info. Finally worked on Opera Mobile on my phone, go figure.

I thought I saw a PayPal logo as a payment option... That may be better?

 

[dellaster]

I thought I saw a PayPal logo as a payment option... That may be better?

I was trying PayPal at first until I noticed that it was credit card only for pre-orders.

I think all the web errors were on their end. I started with and eventually completed my order with Metro IE after trying desktop IE a couple of times with the same errors.

 

[Rallicat]

I haven't yet tried to pre-order, but my experience when pre-ordering and buying my Surface RT /last/ year was pretty poor.

Let's set the context. Microsoft /don't/ operate the online store themselves, they outsource that to Digital River. The store phone service is in turn outsourced by Digital River to someone else .. in Romania I believe.

First, my main Windows Live account which initially worked fine for logging into the store, then suddenly stopped working. No problem using my Live ID elsewhere on other Microsoft sites, but for the Microsoft Store? No joy. Presumably Microsoft have a 'federated' login service setup with Digital River, which for my account in some way broke down. So, I ended up having to set up a new account to make my order. This was after several frustrating phone calls to the store helpline where they repeatedly refused to accept that it wasn't a forgotten password!

When I did get my pre-order through, we then had the debacle of Microsoft initially saying the product would be delivered by the release date, then stated it would be /sent/ on the release date, and then essentially missed both of those dates by a wide margin. Again, various frustrated phone calls to the helpline did little to help matters, although in the end I did get a £50 voucher.

Now, the set-up might be different in other countries (I'm in the UK), but my experience was very poor. I appreciate others may have got through this without a hitch, but if the OPs experience is anything to go by, Digital River haven't gotten any better, which is disappointing.

Last year I tried to make formal complaints - but Digital River's representatives never actually processed those complaint, always telling me they'd get back to me - but never did.

If it wasn't for the fact that I still have that £50 voucher, ready and valid for me to use to make my Surface 2 purchase a little cheaper, I'd be steering well clear of the store - I'll let you all know how I get on!

 

[shazada]

I had the same issue, my Credit Card linked to the account was an old one and expired. The stupid website didn't even notice me that.

I eventually called the service desk which figured that one out for me, so I updated my credit card through account.live.com and everything was working . got the confirmation within 1,5 hrs.

 

[Nuspieds]

For me, the pre-ordering process was smooth up until I hit the "Complete Order" button, after which I was sent to some sort of Account Management page, where I could view my order history, change account info, etc.

I didn't receive any confirmation or thank you. Nothing.

Not wanting to take the chance of ordering twice, I decided to call MS and wait time was long, so I chose the call-me-back option. Within 15 minutes, I did get a call and the Customer Service agent searched, found my order and confirmed that it did indeed go through. He also mentioned that the email confirmation should be coming shortly and, sure enough, it did.

For me, that's good support when I needed it. Since the website didn't crash (i.e., 404), I figured that it must have taken my order, so that's why I called to confirm and I'm glad I was able to reach a live person to investigate and provide that confirmation.

 

[CrippsCorner]

I had problems ordering my SP1... in fact I even got a call from the fraud team at HSBC to make sure it was me using my card! Took a couple of hours but got there eventually.