Microsoft Eases Frustrations in Second Weekend of Surface Pro Sales

None of what Microsoft is doing is benefitting the vast partner ecosystem. They are only allowing the aforementioned retailers to buy - in volume - directly from their supply chain. There has still been no word given by Microsoft to their authorized distributors as to when they can purchase quantities of stock to supply to resellers. I asked all of the head purchasing managers of all of Microsoft's authorized distributors in Canada (Ingram Micro, ASI, Synnex, and Tech Data) as to when they can expect them and they have all stated that Microsoft has not given them any timeframe as to when they can purchase them - nor any SKU's, which is the first step to getting ETA's - despite recurring requests from prospective resellers, to which I count myself. Usually they will get SKU's about 2 months ahead of time, and they still don't have them! So Microsoft is effectively throwing most of their partner resellers under the bus here for some exclusivity with a few big box stores that have no loyalty to them in the retail environment.

Microsoft online store now charges for Microsoft Complete immediately when ordered with a Surface Pro 128GB even though they do not yet ship the machine.

I live in Canada,and ordered a 128GB surface pro from the Microsoft store on Day 1 (10 hours after zero-hour), and received it on Day 3.

I haven't checked availability at the brick'n'morter stores though; however, it certainly seems to be available up here...

It was still frustrating for me. I tried ordering online on Friday and got a message that my order could not be completed and to call for help. I called Microsoft and was told that he couldn't compete the order since the pro stock changes hadn't been rolled out to their system but I should just "Keep pressing the order button until it works".

I called back a few hours later after attempting a dozen times and was told that I had pressed the order button too many times and could not order again for another 24 hours. Really? He then said that the original order was declined because I didn't include my middle initial from the credit card in the order form. I pointed out that the order form doesn't have a spot for the middle initial and he said that they've been aware of the issue for a while but are having trouble getting the site updated. He also claimed that he couldn't do a manual order for me using any credit card because my microsoft account was locked out and their software wouldn't let him do an order. Isn't this the world's largest software company?

24 hours later I still couldn't order even when creating a new microsoft account. Finally on Sunday I called again and was given a manual order by the support rep. Microsoft still has a lot to learn about ecommerce...