Warranties can be confusing. Kraft Kennedy’s Purchasing Group has spent a lot of time navigating them for our clients. Below is a breakdown of a complex warranty system that we know well, that of the Surface Pro.
With the release of the Surface Pro 4, Microsoft officially renamed its extended accidental support to “Microsoft Complete for Business.” This program applies to the Surface Pro 3’s and Pro 4’s currently available for purchase.
In name, the warranty is the same whether you purchased your device from the Microsoft Store or from Kraft Kennedy or another purchaser. In practice, however, where you bought it makes a big difference.
We always aim to fully understand a product before selling it to our clients. The following are some notes from what we have experienced in the last couple of months with the Microsoft Complete for Business program.
If the device was purchased from the Microsoft Store and an equally comparable model is available in stock, the Microsoft Store will be able to exchange a damaged or malfunctioning Surface Pro 3 or 4 for a refurbished one immediately.
Some problems we faced regarding this:
- Sometimes stores do not accept machines purchased from resellers despite being officially licensed devices from Microsoft. We have experienced Stores rejecting the advanced exchange portion of the Microsoft Complete for Business program.
- Users will need to manually register and apply the warranty to their devices in the Microsoft portal upon purchase or else they will be seen as uncovered to Microsoft. While not a major problem, the additional step required in insuring and managing all the Surface devices can be time-consuming.
- If Advanced Exchange is unavailable at the Microsoft store, then users must utilize the Mail-in Exchange program
- There is a $50 deductible to initiate the exchange and the Surface device must be mailed in for repairs. Users who turn to this program will be without their devices until the device is confirmed received.
The Microsoft Complete for Business program under Kraft Kennedy has some key differences:
- Our Advance Exchange program will always provide users with a replacement machine first. Upon using the Microsoft Complete for Business warranty under Kraft Kennedy, you will have the luxury of sending in the damaged machine after receiving the replacement machine first. This also means there is no Mail-in Exchange program, since the Advanced Exchange program will never be unavailable for covered devices.
- There is no need to manually log into the Microsoft portal to apply the warranty. Machines are automatically registered with Microsoft Complete for Business but may take 7-14 days to activate in the system. Please don’t drop your machine immediately after purchase. 😉
If you don’t need to manually register it yourself, you don’t need to worry about machine warranty management in general. This is not without its caveats. When an exchange is made, the warranty may not immediately move to the new machine. To guarantee coverage on the replacement device, we ask you to send both the old serial number and new serial number to Kraft Kennedy.
The Microsoft Surface Pros will be a great addition to your environment; they are excellent devices that perform as advertised, allowing users to both work and play on the same machine, on the road or on in the office.Whether you decide to purchase a Surface Pro from Kraft Kennedy or from another vendor, we recommend you purchase Microsoft Complete for Business. Because of the extreme portability of the device, it is highly susceptible to “accidental damage.” As a final note, please be aware that warranties cannot be extended on the Surface Pro machines.