Microsoft Has A Dedicated Support Line For Surface Studio Owners

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Today, Microsoft began shipping out its Surface Studio to those pre-ordered the device on the first day of availability. If you were quick to pull the trigger on the new AIO PC, check your inbox as you should have a shipping notification for your device.

The Surface brand, while generally regarded as being a high-quality brand, has had its fair share of issues, especially with new product lines. Seeing as the Studio is the highest price device the company has sold in the Surface family, Microsoft wants to make sure there are zero issues with the device but also knows it’s not realistic that all of the first run devices will be perfect.

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For those who have purchased a device, Microsoft is providing a dedicated phone line to these users to help them with any issues they may have with the new device. After spending at least $3000 on a new device, this type of high-quality customer service is likely appreciated by the early adopters.

If you do get your Surface Studio this week (or anytime, really), we’d love to know your initial impressions; drop us a line in our forums.

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Conversation 15 comments

  • 1377

    Premium Member
    23 November, 2016 - 8:20 pm

    <p>So MSFT expects buyers to have issues with these machines?</p>

    • 49

      Premium Member
      23 November, 2016 - 8:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27106">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/hrlngrv">hrlngrv</a><a href="#27106">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>It’s inevitable some will have issues on a first run device, with limited production.</p>

      • 6405

        01 December, 2016 - 11:41 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#27107">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/brad-sams">Brad Sams</a><a href="#27107">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>It’s also worth noting that not all support calls will be for "problems" – they could be for "how do I…?" questions.</p>

    • 5664

      Premium Member
      23 November, 2016 - 8:30 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27106">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/hrlngrv">hrlngrv</a><a href="#27106">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>No. They just want to be able to get out ahead of any issues, so these very valuable customers who just forked over a serious chunk of change will feel like they can trust their purchase,&nbsp;<em>if problems arise.</em></p>
      <p>&nbsp;</p>
      <p>Reasonable. That way if someone ends up with a dud unit they aren’t shuffled through plain support and grow frustrated. They can instead get a new, working machine ASAP</p>

  • 4801

    Premium Member
    23 November, 2016 - 8:39 pm

    <p>Hi All,</p>
    <p>As a person you shelled out $2500 plus for Surface Book with Performance Base, why do I have to deal with 3rd party support call center that do not even know the basics of Windows 10.</p>
    <p>I think anyone who spends the kind of money Microsoft demands for Surface devices should receive a premium support experience.</p>
    <p>The Microsoft Store sold me the additional support as a means to get better support, not the case, many of the agents seem poorly trained, long wait times, poor follow up after a commitment to follow up call.</p>
    <p>Panos, hope you read this, talk to Office 365 Business people who have a call center, they work from home and seem for most part knowledgeable.</p>
    <p>I could not get one of the Surface agents to walk me thru extending monitors, 4 hours later, it was sort of working, shame on Microsoft for hiring crappy contractors, was escalated to Satya’s office and got some goof in UK that had no knowledge of Surface trying to resolve the escalation.</p>
    <p>When the local Microsoft store got involved (BTW 2 hour drive), they were appalled at how it was handled and suggested to avoid the Surface call center.</p>
    <p>Panos, if you read this…fix the friggin&nbsp;support problem you have with&nbsp;other Surface devices before setting up a dedicated team for Surface Studio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!&nbsp;</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

    • 5027

      24 November, 2016 - 7:03 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27109">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/djncanada">djncanada</a><a href="#27109">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Maybe you should contact Panos for this, not write it at a general tech blog :)</p>
      <p>But I agree with you, that considering Surface is mostly high-end devices the support need to match this as well.</p>
      <p>Panos on Twitter : &nbsp;https://twitter.com/panos_panay</p&gt;
      <p>Surface team on Twitter (not Surface Support):&nbsp;https://twitter.com/surface</p&gt;

    • 5664

      Premium Member
      24 November, 2016 - 11:13 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27109">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/djncanada">djncanada</a><a href="#27109">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>That sounds like hell. I’m honestly happy to have a MS store in town… I don’t know how I’d buy a PC or add-one otherwise, since I absolutely abhor ordering things.</p>

    • 5767

      24 November, 2016 - 4:28 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#27109">In reply to </a><a href="../../users/djncanada">djncanada</a><a href="#27109">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>Agreed all US-based Surface owners should get US-based support.</p>

  • 250

    Premium Member
    23 November, 2016 - 8:43 pm

    <p>Yup, got the word that mine is shipping today for Friday delivery, which is a couple of days earlier than I anticipated when I first heard they would ship before mid-December. I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the direct support line, but I’m hoping not to have to take advantage of it. I prefer to dope things out on my own, and slightly buggy new stuff doesn’t faze me. Over the years I have come to realize that Microsoft’s unstated policy is to ship late betas and let early adopters finish the debugging and shakedown testing that was partially completed in house. I expect there will be a few things wrong with these early devices, but I also expect that system and firmware updates will shove them into the zone of nearly full reliability within several weeks to a few months. I can be patient with the occasional glitch, but I will probably be kind of angry if the device won’t complete initial boot. If that happens, I imagine I <em>will</em> be placing a call to the trouble number.</p>
    <p>I’ll try to post initial thoughts over the weekend. I imagine getting the device set up and configured with the tools I most want will burn what’s left of Friday after the expected 3:00-4:00 p.m. delivery. Playtime will probably begin around dawn Saturday morning.</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

  • 2611

    Premium Member
    23 November, 2016 - 9:32 pm

    <p>And the Cortana button goes to a live dedicated concierge.</p>

  • 5486

    24 November, 2016 - 5:35 am

    <p>Based on Microsoft’s track record with hardware, that could be a pretty busy line. I hope they’ve got quite a few staff ready!</p>

  • 5767

    24 November, 2016 - 4:27 pm

    <p>I would bet this phone line is to a US customer service rep instead of India. I wish they would move all their telephone support to US. Apple does that.</p>

  • 8179

    24 November, 2016 - 7:40 pm

    <p>Nothing new. Well, maybe to MS it is.</p>
    <p>Blackberry had this for their high end phones a few years ago – direct line to local (In Canada for me) support that was able to diagnose issues immediately – and in my case have a brand new phone to me the next day. It was brilliant. Same for Sony right now – buying into their upper tier Hi-Res audio gets you a direct line to support in the U.S. instead of the regular line which goes to India</p>
    <p>If you’re paying top $&nbsp;- wouldn’t you be happy to have this? Makes me chuckle when reading people’s comments saying this direct support line is a sign of MS sending out subpar hardware…</p>

  • 8665

    27 November, 2016 - 5:41 am

    <p>Good luck with that support line if it is anything like Microsoft’s other support offerings, lol. &nbsp;May the force be with ya! &nbsp;You’ll need it, lol.</p>

  • 6405

    30 November, 2016 - 6:47 am

    <p>I’m surprised they don’t already offer this. It used to be the case that the OEM would handle support, but since Microsoft started making their own hardware, surely the onus was now on them to provide support?</p>

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