Microsoft store purchase has been a very bad experience

Community Bar Sport
1

So far Microsoft store has disappointed me quite a lot regarding a recent purchase. And there is no customer feedback on their store website so I felt I should warn others not to purchase from them somehow so here we go:

I purchased a laptop from microsoft online store, which took me about 2 hours in the process. Their website was worse than most online stores around 2000. The website kept giving non-human-readable errors during Black Friday event, making me to think that they are really not prepared to do anything serious in retail. Most other sites I visited during the same time worked fine.

Their system is very bugged, insisted on taking my nickname from MSN messenger and used it as my name in my store purchase. I had to go into my outlook account to change this name and now my outlook has my full name, thanks to blasted MS store. I don't want to use full name in an email or online chat but alas MS wants only one name for everything so why not?!

Then after the 2 hours I was not able to get my payment done because the ms site poked at my credit card three times with $1 purchase, making my credit card company deny the real purchase, first time I ever see denial of purchase like this from an online store. Maybe just because their sites are so bugged and slow. I had to use an iphone to purchase the laptop, since no PC browsers could get pass log-in.

So I finally got my laptop and this happened: one screen corner has the plastic split apart along the seam and the screen is warped, so both screen corners are visibly bent up when the screen is closed, with only the middle portion touch the keyboard portion. The box has one corner crushed in.

So I decided to call customer service for exchange. That took 40 minutes wait (they have a call back feature I used so I didn't hold my phone for that period) and then 30 more minutes explaining to someone that doesn't know enough English or tech for the job. For the entire time I heard loud echo of my own voice, making it impossible to talk. The girl did nothing or actually said nothing back when I told her I heard my echo. Maybe she didn't understand the word "echo". And after three direct requests "turn up volume" she finally turned up volume for me to hear her. I'd say she had a thick accent. I can understand most people with her type of accent (Indian) but not her and neither does she understand me. She promised a return authorization and shipping label, well, only return authorization arrived in my email, no shipping labels.

So I called again after a few hours, same type of experience, accent that I can't understand and not so much conversation. Promised same thing only this time I will receive a phone call, which I yet have to receive and nothing.

I should have noticed that MS store site has no customer review on any items. You simply can't enter a review anywhere. Is this normal for a website only one or two years of age? Absolutely NOT! There is also no email address to write complaints to, just a phone number that you can call but they won't understand you and sounding very iffy with their answers and always says don't worry. They don't have a question "why you want to return it?" I had to ask them to ask me! I will not purchase anything from MS store or MS anymore.

My MS optical mouse from 2001 lasted 6-7 years, but 6-7 years after that mouse died, my new laptop doesn't even have a visually satisfactory screen to begin with. This is very low, Microsoft!

2

I, on the other hand as a success story, am very happy with my recently purchased Lenovo 15.6" laptop.
Lenovo also supplies all the computers that students at RPI are required to have, pre-imaged with all the engineering applications needed for classes.

This was a MS brand laptop you purchased? Not a re-brand of some other manufacturer's laptop?

3

It's a Dell inspiron 15z. I purchased 3 inspiron 15 last year, all lower trim than this one I got, all without split seams or warped LCDs. Maybe the cold winter has proven too much for these glued-together plastic things that become almost useless in 4 years. The computer was freezing cold when I got it. I should probably check it now that it's been in room temperature for a couple days.

I finally got the return label but no word on exchange. Of course the computer has gone out of stock already. I may have to take it to Dell if I want to keep my deal price. Go with glue?

I'm gonna start
My last purchase of two lenovos have been not so good. One with design-flawed Nvidia GPU that crapped out after 3.5 year (0.5 year beyond an extended warranty I purchased). Some companies extended warranty due to the GPU but not lenovo. I spent countless time to figure out what went wrong (computer not useable), and spent $120+tax to get it fixed after learning out numerous people experienced the same thing. They lost a bunch of screws in the repair process now the laptop is about dead (harddrive strange sound). The other lenovo is not too good either. I think this idea pad product line is a Chinese-invented line, unlike the thinkpad original line. It has hardware incompatibility issues with many things I can use on other laptops and can't do 8GB ram correctly. It will grind down to a stop if I put 8GB although it does recognize 8GB. Anyway, I'm done with lenovo. They have taken the IBM product lines and trashed them into cheapo. You may get a good luck but enjoy it while it lasts. FYI, lenovo is a Chinese brand that used to be good with customer service because their machines break too often.

I've purchased 5 dell laptops, one 4-5 years ago, still working, then 3 within the last year (no problem), the this one from MS store. I'd give Dell another try. I've purchased 2 HP, one lasting about 4 years and sold it (psu buzzing after one year), the other one a used and only lasted for 2 years before screen turned dark. I'm not so hot with HP. Compaq is just trash. I've heard Toshiba is trash and sony is overpriced. Gateway has a salvaged title and my first Asus had a problematic CD drive so won't try them, plus the 24" monitor sucks with ghost images. Samsung sucks too with my Galaxy 2 tab and an LCD that broke most buttons after not really using the buttons for 2 years. Where does that leave me? Apple?! Not a chance. But to be honest, our ipad air got bent (yeah, bent) and I unbent it (mostly) and it still works no problem. It's aluminum so otherwise a plastic one would have cracked and fallen apart.

4

Maybe its just you? I have 15.6" Sony Vaio that is 4-5 yrs old, I still use it in parallel with this Lenovo. It got so much use the keyboard is wearing out! I would have gotten another if they hadn't switched over to the chiclet keyboards. I can't stand those.
This Lenovo (and I am quite familiar with the older IBM Thinkpad brand) seems pretty sturdy, its a Thinkpad W530 with beefed up hardware for faster PCB designing. I like the keyboard, seems like a nice cross between chiclet keys and the purely mechanical keys of the Dells. I didn't like the keyboards that had number pad also which offset the center of the keypad.
We use Dell Latitudes at work, i5 machines that are all networked and constantly upgraded via network pushes for virus protection, etc.
My wife has an HP laptop, we did have to have the touchpad buttons fixed once.
Wife & I have Galaxy S3s, have been working fine so far. Mine is about a year old, hers 6 months.
Got flip covers for them to protect the screen, gives it a flip-phone kind of feel. No need for plastic stick on screen covers.

5

Yes galaxy s3 is nice. I have one in my left pocket. It is shutting down and restarting kind of ofter after less than one year use but yes it's nice. It was the reason I wanted to get galaxy tab 2. I was under the impression that if I paid $80 for the phone then if I paid $300+ for a tablet it would be better. Wrong. The phone is worth $500+ without contract so I should shoot for $500+ tablet to match the quality and speed of my phone. So the $300+ tablet (galaxy tab 2) is super under powered and on the verge of running out of ram constantly. Speed is pretty slow and plays every little game and app slowly. I compared it with ipad2, which is one year older in design and should be less cpu power and half the ram, but galaxy was worse in every aspect than ipad2. It's a paper weight.

The reasons I wanted the Dell included NOT having the stupid number keys that offset the main keyboard, and better quality being a z-trim. I probably should have got latitude but they are overpriced.

BTW, that lenovo t61 I had, I also had to replace the keyboard due to keys stopped working so roughly 3 years in use video broke (no way to pass BIOS) and 4 years in use keyboard broke and hard drive going out. It's $1,000 purchase with the 3-yr warranty. I'm glad I didn't purchase extended warranty on the other lenovo. Every lenovo I saw had the number pad so I didn't know they even have models that don't have number pad. Hope you get good use out of it. I'm done with this brand. Lenovo almost has the same spec at the cheapest prices in the market.

Back to MS store, I should have used the word "incoherent" to describe the conversation I had with their rep. Can't make yourself understood. So they promised to give me a phone call. I asked "when? I can't take phone calls while I am at work." They say as they always do "don't worry, we will call you, ok?" So there goes nothing. I never got a phone call. I got an email from somebody named Brandon. The first every coherent correspondence ever so I sent back a complaint.

I think the quality of a brand/store relies on customer service when you have trouble. I'll see how Dell holds up when I phone them for warranty replacement on a new-in-box unit.

6

So two days after I replied to their email with "email us if you have any questions", I still have not heard from MS store. They definitely don't care about customer service once they got my money. No more purchase from MS store and I'll advise anyone I know against them.

7

Sheesh dude. You have bad luck with hardware. Do you live next door to a giant electromagnet or something? :fearful:

I've owned three laptops now in about 10 years. Two Vaios, both used until they were outdated and falling apart at the seams, and a Dell Latitude that I got as a go-away gift at my last job. (It was out of warranty, so they were going to put it on the spare parts shelf anyway.) Still works great, although the battery is starting to lose its capacity a bit. I'm probably a year or two away from laptop number 4. Might end up snagging the Missus' MBA if she trades up to something else.

8

I'm ok if it is just bad luck. But microsoft online store customer service is so horrible: promised to call me and never got a call, promised a return label but only got it after two calls, then promise to return my emails but no, 3-5 business days according to a reply I got after I called a third time. This is not what one man's bad luck can do. I'm not blaming Dell. It's only partially their fault, putting aluminum trim on otherwise entirely plastic housing. The cold winter bent the lcd like a bimetal strip in your thermostat so the seams came lose and the lcd warped. Now after being indoors, the warp is better but the split open corner is still split open. MS online store is just horrible.

9

So after two weeks of silence, tug back and forth and all lies that I have one replacement reserved for me, they finally revealed the truth today, there's no replacement. The person that first established contact for my case was AWOL for 2 weeks and should be fired of not handing my case to others. I found most interesting computers there are out of stock. Their sorting is also very backwards considering it is MS that opened the store. There is no way to sort with CPU type, come on MS?!

10

Isn't it Micro$oft who markets Windoze?

Come on!

11

Their win XP and Win 7 aren't bad. Easy enough to use. Even win8 is ok if you don't use the touch interface :wink:

I can try linux but my recent experience is not the best. It's just not easy to use, not if I'm not willing to invest huge time to learn how to operate my computer (again!).

12

Here's my advice: don't buy more than $50 online unless your using Amazon. I'm not a spambot, it's just that my family had a kindle power plug (the part where you charge it) break, and amazon replaced their kindle and their charger. Microsoft is evil, who do they care about you? You are some person who doesn't matter in their systems. I have an ancient emachines cheapo laptop from a Microcenter store that worked for 3 or so years and through infusions of strawberry milk. It was $200.

Windows 8 is ***** (so bad I had to make up a new word for it, it got censored.)

Moral of the story: Either buy from companies with reviews or from LOCAL STORES, where you can slap the cashier if necessary.
13

So after over a month I am finally getting a promised refund. Took too many unanswered emails and phone calls. Every time I got on their chat and gave them my case number, I got disconnected while being transferred. I finally called again. For half an hour the rep couldn't answer my simple question: what's the status of my case? He had to "maximize all his resources" a few times to find some iffy answer, after I got kicked back and forth between customer service and "tech support"?! Microsoft sounds like a joke to me now. It had many chances to prove itself decent but did just the opposite. I'll dedicate my half hour time to write a summary of my experience in 100 words so I can spam them anywhere I'm allowed to post.

It took me one, just one phone call to newegg to settle my last laptop return (cd drive won't properly close and kept popping open). That was around the same holiday season.

14

Hope it works out for ya man, that's a raw deal.

NewEgg was on my ****list for a bit when a family member gave me a gift card with an ampersand in one of the fields you had to fill in to redeem it. The website wouldn't accept it as a valid code. NBD, so I called in. Took like five times before they finally bothered to look it up and reset the code to something the website would allow, instead of telling me the code was correct and "should work", but maybe I should try another browser or computer. Really made me question what kind of support I could expect, if I ever needed it. Other than that (and relatively high shipping prices to Alaska), they've been OK to deal with.

The now-defunct GoogleGear / Zip Zoom Fly once sent me a hard drive that was DOA. They didn't have any more of like model to exchange it with, so their only recourse was to refund the purchase price -- with a 20% restocking fee. Several phone calls and emails failed to resolve that, so I took my 80% refund and bought somewhere else.

Amazon continues to set the bar for how painless retail sales can be, with one minor blemish: There seem to be a few products that "can't be shipped to Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico" for no obvious reason. One example I ran across was a slimline CD to IDE adapter. A little PCB you screw onto the back of a laptop optical drive, which then gives you power and 40-pin IDE breakouts. Can't ship that to AK, huh? Calling by phone resulted in an answer of: "I don't know why, sorry."

15

I used to shop heavily at amazon until they became the next ebay with thousand sellers selling the same thing for different prices. I still shop there but the only time I had some grief was they shipped me two cell phones and only charged me once. I called in a couple times, explaining to them. They finally said, well just keep it. I kept watching my credit card transactions for duplicate charges, but no. It was a cheap phone. Calling cost like $0.5 a minute, but that was 2001.

Back to the topic, they finally confirmed that they will refund me. I'll keep an eye on my credit card transactions again for a while.

16

I bought a laptop in May this year from MicroSoft Online and it died before I had it 30 days. Hard drive was bad. I called MS and they told me I had to go thru ASUS and unfortunately I felt for their assurance that ASUS would make it right. To make a long story short, it was repaired twice and died the day after I got it back (motherboard and hard drive) needed. I had actual possession of the laptop 46 days and ASUS wanted to give me a recertified replacement when they couldn't fix mine 3 different times. Spoke with MS several times (6 or 7 times) once promised a refund but I didn't have laptop ASUS did. Now I have it and MS refuses to call me back. Stay away from both companies. Neither stands behind their products or ones they sell.

17

I felt sorry for your bad experience. In my case MS took back the laptop that had a visual defect. I guess MS only stand behind what they sell if you return directly to them. In your case they refused to take it back. Their customer service is very non-responsive especially if you want problems solved. They should close the store and quit selling stuff.

18

Consider for future purchase:
We have 3 Lenovo laptops, all ~1 yr old now, no problems yet.
T430, two W530.

19

CrossRoads:
Consider for future purchase:
We have 3 Lenovo laptops, all ~1 yr old now, no problems yet.
T430, two W530.

Good for you. My wife had a T61 but it had that problematic Nvidia chip that totally failed after 3.5 years (6 months after warranty ran out). Some companies extended their warranties to cover the problematic chip but Lenovo wasn't among them. Had to research what happened and purchase depot repair package. Big hassle. The other one is an ideapad y530. Hardware compatible issues now and then. We are using Dell now. There is a visible decline in quality over the course of 1.5 years. We bought maybe 5 inspiron laptops (returned one) and quality was on the decline.

20

liudr:

CrossRoads:
Consider for future purchase:
We have 3 Lenovo laptops, all ~1 yr old now, no problems yet.
T430, two W530.

Good for you. My wife had a T61 but it had that problematic Nvidia chip that totally failed after 3.5 years (6 months after warranty ran out). Some companies extended their warranties to cover the problematic chip but Lenovo wasn't among them. Had to research what happened and purchase depot repair package. Big hassle. The other one is an ideapad y530. Hardware compatible issues now and then. We are using Dell now. There is a visible decline in quality over the course of 1.5 years. We bought maybe 5 inspiron laptops (returned one) and quality was on the decline.

Yeah, the y500 series Lenovo laptops have very specific power management hardware, almost to the same point as Apple. This means you're pretty much locked into the OS that the laptop shipped with, unless Lenovo also released a similar version laptop with software for the new OS.

I still like the quality of their machines, and I believe with the new low TDP intel chips, the power management isn't as overbearing.