Surface Pro 3 battery degradation

AMEX payed mine out within a week, no hassles at all.  It was actually the most pleasent part of all of this

Glad this turned out your way, just shows how imp communication and customer service is... Mine isn't a brick yet, though can't function untethered from it's power cord. I'll probably just wait till they fix this; with the assumption that there isn't anything south of where I am :)

My review on the Microsoft store was also 'moderated' but I will re-post a modified version.

My surface died yesterday afternoon. I can't keep it on long enough to boot fully, even when plugged into dock or mains. I've tried disabling components to no avail. I even tried a SP4 power supply since it uses 64w instead of the 36w. It worked for a little bit longer but ultimately failed.

I'm going to go down to the local MS store tomorrow and give them an opportunity to do the right thing. I'll let everyone know what the results are. I think the 'elite corps of support personal' on the phones are too detached from the situation to get any real results.

Comment on twitter #batterygate

Don't forget to click 'Me Too' at the top of this thread.

Post your review on the surface at the store.

All,

I have returned from the local MS store with some information and results. I'll bullet this for the adhd folks and get into the details below for those it might benefit.

1. They replaced my SP3/i5/256GB, free of charge, with a refurb that has a warranty expiration of 10/2017.
2. Local Microsoft Store at Streets of Southpoint, Durham, NC
3. They are aware of this issue. Although they minimized the impact (claiming less than 1%) they know the problem exists.
4. Confirmed it would be resolved with a software update
5. No information or ETA on the update - it is supposed to be top priority for MS.
6. For those with bricks(like me), the Surface 'Book' power adapter pushed enough watts to run my surface and copy data off (neither my dock or main could run my surface at home) so it's feasible that it could accept an update via a custom firmware tool that doesn't have the 40% battery requirement.

My scenario is as follows:

Purchased 5/25/2015, problem noticed 7/18/2016 -it powered off abruptly off-dock, identified issue as SIMPLO week of 7/26/2016, battery report shows degradation began 2 weeks before warranty expiration, contacted support 8/1/2016, was advised to wait for software update, complete failure 8/9/2016-would not stay powered on even while docked, visited MS store 8/11/2016, replacement.

My phone expirence:

It was crap. Sort of a 'I don't even think you have the SIMPLO battery problem but if you did you need to wait for the update or pay $500 bucks for a warranty replacement' kind of experience.

My store expirenece:

I want to mention that, although after speaking with phone support, I was genuinely pissed, I arrived at the store with

the intent to give them an opporitunity to do the right thing or tell me they wouldn't to my face. If they didn't do right I'd planned only to smh, shame them briefly about how I expected better, walk out and maybe sue the sh*t out of them; I didn't have any intention or desire to raise **** or cause a scene (although I have been on social media). The point is, I was pleasent and so were they. When I arrived they asked if I had an appointment, I did not. They squeezed me in an hour later, meanwhile they signed my son and I up for the HTC Vive demo, which was really cool (recommend it). 

After that the customer service advisor met with us at the desk. I started out telling him very little; my surface powered off one day, battery got worse and now it won't even stay on while docked. He talked about looking up my warranty status while trying to get it to power on and I let him know that it was out of warranty (just get that out of the way folks). I told him I found others with similar issue and online decided to call support. Support gave me two options, $99+$450 or wait for a update. I elected to wait for the update, but that was no longer an option as it died on 8/9. I explained that now I can't use the computer, and even if there were an update I would not have the ability to apply it due to the state.

He managed (with the surface book power supply) to get the device on and look at my battery report. He started to show it to me I let him know I'd seen it and it was identical to what other users reported, degradation started around the same time as warranty expiration. I also mentioned that the anniversary update deleted my report, and the one he was viewing didn't have the historical account, but that I had a backup copy if he wanted to see it - he declined.

After a few minutes of poking around he offered to replace the unit, free of charge, or I could wait for the update. I explained some concerns about waiting for the update (specifically that I can't apply it and the system is unusable). I explained some concerns about the replacement being a refurb. He said it wasn't and a refurb but it was a white-box, restock or re-box I can't rememeber exactly but I took it as a refub called something else; like a 'previously owned car' instead of used car. I explained my main concern was the warranty on the refurb. He said it would be 90 days. I communicated a concern about obtaining a surface with the same problem and a 90 day warranty. He offered to power it on there and verify it was using a different battery.

Since I need a computer asap and my warranty was already expired, I agreed to these terms. He brought the replacment out, checked the battery and verified it was an LG. While we were exchanging the systems and checking the battery he mentioned that he was aware of the SIMPLO battery issue (he referenced SIMPLO, I didn't mention it the entire encounter). He went on to say that, they have regular conference calls discussing it and there were not many users with this issue, less than 1%. I exlained to him that from my perspective and to the individial affected, it was 100% and he agreed.

A few minutes later he swung the replacement surface around and showed me the warranty expiration, 10/2017. He said that it was the warranty on the unit out of the box and he would not transfer my out of warranty/90 day refurb status to it and would leave it as is. I let him know that he wouldn't see me complaining.

Once complete he let me (instead of a $49 transfer cost) sit there and copy some data over to my sd card and then let me secure erase the original unit myself so I could confirm it was deleted.

Although your experience should be the same whether your in the store or on the phone, the difference with mine was night and day. I mentioned this to him and that I wasn't sure what to expect since I'd hear many crappy outcomes both in store and phone. He apologized and only offered that the stores are given a little more flexibility and discretion in dealing with these issues.

So, in short, if you do not count my time, and mental anguish in dealing with this scenario, I have a refurbished unit with a 1year+2months warranty at 0 cost to me.  Best case I suppose, considering other experiences. While I'm still extremely unhappy with the lack of communication from MS and the Surface team, I will say that the professional behavior of the MS store personnel quite literally prevented me from leaving the entire ecosystem today and I'm all in, W10, xBox, Band 2, WP, Surface. 

I hope this helps someone and I hope everyone affected gets a positive resolution.

Regards,

Josh



It mitigates one of the problems of using a Surface with a battery capacity of 144mWh: my Surface started shutting down when the CPU was under a heavy load, apparently because the system was drawing more power than the AC adapter could provide and the battery no longer had the capacity to cover the shortfall. Limiting the CPU to 65% keeps the power requirements within the limits of what the AC adapter can provide (at least for me). This at least keeps the Surface usable while plugged in.