Surface Pro 4, Screen Flickering, Shaking

Thanks for taking the time to respond. If id known it was an issue I would have done something sooner.

It's a but unfortunate for me. My unit was 2 months exceeding the purchase replacement period of three years. So Microsoft was unable to replace mine. I dunno why they limit to three years.

Regards,

hh

My Microsoft Surface Support nightmare.

Surface Pro 4 – 1

In October of 2015, I bought a top-of-the-line Surface Pro 4 – 16 Gb RAM and 1 Tb of solid state memory, for a cool $2699 plus the docking station and keyboard and some travel accessories. Soon after, the display began to shake, up and down, to the point it was unreadable. I called Support and it was quickly replaced.

Surface Pro 4 – 2

I was very happy with it. Used it heavily for about three years.

Here’s where the nightmare begins…

In January of this year (2019), I began to notice a shadow on the right side of the screen in the vicinity of the power connector. In a few weeks, the shadow had darkened and grown in size. Then, a dark brown (like a burn) spot appeared just over the power connector and the screen buckled/bubbled out from the frame.

Surface Pro 4 - 3

I called Surface Support, and, because the Surface was out of warranty, Paid the $450.00 replacement fee. I explained to the support rep that I was leaving for a vacation on March 13, and had to have the replacement before that. Since the MS replacement policy is that the PC being replaced must arrive at MS before they will send the replacement, I was worried that the turnaround time would be too long. I sent the bad SP4 - 2, hoping the timing would work. It took 13 days, until March 12, for my SP4 to travel from Arizona to Texas to reach Microsoft – I’m not sure what kind of shipping they pay for to take that long!! When the tech support called me, I cried foul!! No way was I going to have my replacement by the 13^th^!

Unbelievably, and wonderfully, he managed to get it shipped overnight, and I was a happy camper (or vacationer)…

That was order number xxxxxx, serial number xxxxxx received 3/13/2019.

Surface Pro 4 – 4

…For a week or two. Then the damned thing started the screen jumping thing. So, irritated, I called support – again. And went through the routine - again. This time, I paid for express 2-day shipping each way. I wasn’t going to wait 2-3 weeks or more to get my replacement. Sent my SP4 to MS again and got my replacement on April 3.

That was order number xxxxxx, serial number xxxxxx received 4/3/2019.

Surface Pro 4 – 5

After about 3 days, SP4 -4 started that damned screen jumping thing!! Was I ever upset! Another call to Microsoft. After haggling with Michael, the tech, he spoke with the next level of support, and got them to agree to send me a replacement SP Gen 5 to get out of the SP4 merry-go-round. By now, it is early April, and we are scheduled to return home to Oregon from Arizona. In the next 2-3 weeks. I wasn’t willing to chance having it delivered to our Arizona address after we left, or to have it arrive in Oregon before we arrived, so I asked Michael to call me on April 25 to schedule the replacement. He called on the 25^th^, as requested! I convinced him to extend my express shipping payment to this replacement, and he agreed.

The Gen 5 Surface order, number xxxxxx, serial number xxxxxx was created on 4/26/2019, then canceled on 4/26/2019!!

Surface Pro 4 – 6

It was replaced by an SP4, order number xxxxxx, serial number xxxxxx!! (Later modified to order number xxxxxx, serial number xxxxxx).

So someone decided I was NOT eligible for the upgrade to an SP5!! SP4 - 6 arrived on May 3, a Friday. By Saturday evening, it was having the worst screen jumping problem of all the SP4s I had been sent!

So, I called support again, very pissed off! This time I was handled by Elmer, a very nice tech. He again talked to the next level of support, and again, I was told I was eligible for an SP5 upgrade. I asked to have MS send me the replacement immediately since I had been through all of this crap. But, no, they had to have this SP4 before they would send the SP5. So okay, I sent it. At least, he agreed to express shipping – again!

I thought I was finally done with this mess. But I received an email from MS after my SP4 – 6 had arrived, on 5/15, telling me that my SP4 HAD NOT BEEN SERVICED and it was BEING RETURNED TO ME!!! WTH?!?!?! Returned?!?!?!

So, another angry call to Surface tech support. Elmer called me and assured me that they couls reach FedEx and stop the shipment of SP4 – 6, and as soon as they had word from FedEx, they would ship my SP5.

Of course, they didn’t catch it, and it was delivered to me yesterday, the 17^th^ of May. I was out of town for the day, and was unhappily anticipating another trip to the UPS store to return it. This now would be the fourth time I’ve had to make a trip to the UPS store for this damned problem!

Should be end of story, right? Well, no. We returned home to find NO package. NO PACKAGE!!! It was stolen! From my front door! I have security cameras, but the front door camera was not working at the time, so no video of the theft. I’ve contacted the police and FedEx, but not MS yet.

MS has mishandled this problem since the beginning, and SHOULD take care of me, but right now, I’m so angry I can’t talk to them!!

NOTE: xxxxxx Personal information deleted by the moderator. Please see the Microsoft Community Frequently Asked Questions for more information on how you can protect your privacy.

Maybe you should call them again. The shipping label was emailed to me right after conversation with Michael  B. - customer service representative.