The Letter:
Dear Mr. Nadella:
I am writing to explain why I cancelled my order for the new Surface Duo. I was eagerly looking forward to using this new device. I think that it has great potential. I pre-ordered the Duo along with Microsoft Complete and Surface Slim Pen on August 29, 2020. I received an email confirming the order and an estimated arrival date of September 10th. On September 2, I received an email stating that there was a problem with the credit card I used to place the order. I check my account and corrected my billing address. I contacted store support on the 2nd or 3rd to ensure that there wouldn’t be any problem with the order. I informed the sales support person that I was keen to receive the device on September 10 and wanted no hiccups. I was assured that the order was in order.
Yesterday, September 9th, I watched some Youtube creators saying that people had received notification that their Duo’s had received a tracking number and were set to arrive on September 10th. I checked my order status and it still claimed an estimated arrival date of September 10th. When I hadn’t received a tracking notification by the evening, I contacted sales service. The rep. was not able to give me any information as to why it didn’t ship or what its status was.
This morning, September 10th, I looked at my order status and found that my estimated arrival date was no longer listed. I wanted to see what date I was promised delivery if I ordered another Duo. I entered my specs and was told that I could receive my Duo as early as September 11th. I also checked to see when Best Buy could deliver a Duo and was told that if I placed my order within 2 hours and 30 minutes or so minutes I would receive it the next day. I contacted support again and informed them that I now had no delivery date and wanted to see if they could confirm the order status. I also informed her that I had a limited window to order it from Best Buy. I was told by the rep. after she had conferred with her team that they believed that I would be receiving my Duo today. I asked how that was possible given that I had no tracking number and further that my credit card had not been billed for the device. She advised me against cancelling as it may actually be being shipped but stated that I could always return the Duo if I ended up with two of them. I went back to Best Buy, but by this time despite the time limit I was unable to order the device with the previously offered next day delivery.
My Duo had not arrived until 5 p.m. Central and confirmed that my DUO was not coming. I contacted support again and was told the order was still being processed. An answer that was contrary to the information I had received that morning. I cancelled the order.
The fact that Microsoft’s ordering system stated I would receive the Duo tomorrow if I placed the order in the morning says that despite have a 10-day old order I was receiving no benefit from the preorder. In fact, I was in a worse position as I could have received a firm arrival confirmation if I had ordered it this morning and for the next day. Instead I was stuck in some unresolved limbo where I had no idea when I would receive my Duo. With some vague, unquantified, “its being processed” claim being my only hope. I have spent over three hours communicating sales reps trying to ensure that I received my DUO today to no avial, yet if I had waited to order until today I would have it tomorrow.
I hate to say this, but the frustration has made me want to wait until the DUO is now discounted in the future or offered for purchased as a used device. I was looking forward to testing if the Duo could be pushed to be a sole device without the need of a phone or computer. However, the uselessness of the preorder system and lack of useful status information causes other concerns. The Xbox series X and S will go on preorder in just over 10 days. I have no belief that a preorder through the Microsoft Store will result in any benefit, but detriment instead given the track record. This is highly problematic for my trust in using the Microsoft Store. I will not be using Microsoft for the preorder.
Sincerely,
Rob Myers