Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering, Shaking

What's worse, I tried to contact Microsoft as they recommended in the email but they require $29 per call since the warranty is over which I find to be ridiculous.

I had the same issue. Doubly upset because Microsoft support were the ones that told me to sit tight and wait for a patch until my warranty expired and I could no longer contact them for free. Anyway, call 1-800-Microsoft and explain your situation to a person. I managed to arrange a replacement without paying for the dedicated Surface support line.

Like many, I am international and had to spend hundreds of dollars shipping my machine to and from the US for replacement. The lack of transparency and acknowledgement on this issue is insulting and infuriating.

You've outlined my exact concerns.

I already got burnt with an original Surface RT that died a week after warranty. I made the mistake of trying Microsoft again with the Pro 4 and it is looking like I'll regret it.

It's a beautiful device but spending $2000 on it to have it last less than a year isn't acceptable.  

I have sent my surface to family so I can submit it in for replacement but my fear is exactly what you've outlined, in a few months when my warranty is expired and the replacement device's warranty has expired the issue will reappear.

Microsoft needs to acknowledge the issue and make it clear that they're addressing it.  

Until they do so I will be actively avoiding buying or recommending Microsoft hardware to anyone.

Agreed.

As a two-time sufferer of this issue, I'm gonna start by saying I STRONGLY advise against replacing your SP4 for this screen jittering/ flickering- especially for those of you dropping $300+ for out-of-warranty replacement; because there is an extremely high likelihood that your replacement device will face the same problem.

Allow me to explain (also bear with me, first time on this forum).

Basically, I've gone through one Surface pro 4 already for this same exact problem and now the second has it as well. The first device's screen started the crazy jittering/shaking about 7-8 months after purchase, and after bearing with it for 2-3 months I decided to contact Microsoft seeing that only 1 month was left in my warranty. The rep concluded that it was most likely a hardware defect (I went as far as doing a factory reset, did not help) and offered to have it replaced. I agreed, but the problem was (like many of you) I'm currently residing outside of the US, with no access to a microsoft store. He recommended that I shipped it to my family in the US to conduct the replacement, which I did.

This was at the end of December 2016. After spending over $200 in shipping fees and being without my only college PC for over a month, I received the replacement around the start of February 2017. The replacement was in a plain brown box and noticeable a refurb unit, but in perfect condition. The unit also has the infamous light bleed, but I overlooked it that seeing that the jittering was absent; and was just relieved to have a usable machine again for school. Also, I was contacted around the same time via email by a Surface rep basically giving a support ref number and saying to request a call if I had any issues with the replacement, and they'll help the best they can.

Fast forward approx 2 months later and the dreaded screen shaking suddenly appeared again (first noticed this week of April 10th). Its noticeably more vigorous than my previous device and cursor input/ movement on the screen doesn’t cause it to temporarily stop (I suspect the seconds on clock trick would work in the last case, but doesn't help in this instance). I don't attribute it to heat as I did last time because the shaking starts from cold boot, sometimes even showing on the black Surface splash screen.

What's worse, I tried to contact Microsoft as they recommended in the email but they require $29 per call since the warranty is over which I find to be ridiculous.

At this point I'm extremely disappointed in Microsoft and the Surface team.  I'm sitting overseas exams in little over a month, but can't even read my notes off of my device w/o an external display. All I can say is that I deeply regret choosing Surface over a Mac.. problems like this are unacceptable for such a premium device. I understand everyone else's frustration and definitely agree that this is grounds for a full recall of affected devices (if it is indeed hardware related). Otherwise, they should at least release an official statement acknowledging the issue and promise a patch or whatever needs to be done.

Also I'd like to point out that the number of users reporting the same problem has drastically increased since I last researched it back in December, so it's definitely getting more and more widespread.

TLDR; Don't replace your SP4 just yet as you might get back a worse device with the same problem. Try and wait it out until Microsoft gives some definitive feedback.