I wanted to buy a MS Surface Pro 8 tablet (reviewed by Choice), so I logged on to Microsoft where I had bought my Pro 7, 3 years before. I only wanted the Tablet, no accessories, no Office subscription. The tablet works without these, so there is no need to purchase them. When I started the order, these were “Required” items and there was no option for “No Thanks”.
I contacted Chat and it was not possible for me to purchase just the tablet. The Agent finally agreed to process an order for just the tablet, but it meant I could not do it myself, they had to purchase it for me using my card details. I had to set up payment again as my card had expired, log in several times and continue a “chat” with the agent. About an hour later, I finally gave up on this and bought it online from a local chain store who can sell me one without any extras being required.
How many people give up and order the “required” Keyboard/cover (cheapest $175.96), and MS Office 365 subscription (cheapest $99) on top of the $1,548.00?
When you go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-au/
Chose Surface → Surface Pro 8
There is no other option than “configure now” which takes you to the screen shot above.
I have bought computers through MS before, where I could sail through all the upgrades, accessories and software on offer, and only buy the item I wanted. The agent on MS Chat told me I could not buy the tablet on its own. This was not because I was on a “Bundled” page, they just didn’t do it. Finally it had to be a special arrangement, with all sorts of complications.
In this case, I gave up, looked for a local reseller, bought the one item I wanted (without all the accessories etc) and I will pick it up on Wednesday. Perhaps I could have bought the compulsory keyboard and returned it free for a refund, and cancelled the subscription before it shipped. But I already have a keyboard and I own MS Office.
If I go to Microsoft to look at buying a surface pro 8, it takes me to ‘configure now’ and there is no bundling.
Perhaps there are parallel universes as postulated by by some.
I clicked through your product. On the configure pages I ticked the ‘None’ office option, and there are pulldowns for other products to be added. Note the total shown is your base price.
I note the Starting From price was not $1,540 for the cheapest tablet.
Next time I won’t log in, just buy as a Guest. Regardless, I got what I wanted, and they lost a sale. The advantage of buying from MS is they register the tablet, transfer the Office licence, and do a good job on warranty returns - have got 2 “new” ones when the battery swelled and the other had BSoD repeatedly. “new” because I am not sure if they were new or immaculately. refurbished.
The end of the story - I went to pick up my $1,548 Surface Pro 8 to find Harvey Norman had “cancelled” the order. After much back & forth and being handed to the tech guys, they said they “knew what had happened” and went off for a conference with a senior person. They came back and thrust a $1,648 Pro 8 (the next model up?) at me and warned me that the keyboard from the Pro 7 would not work with the Pro 8, but I use a blue tooth full sized keyboard, so that didn’t matter.
I am yet to unwrap it and see what I have actually got.
For the subject of this topic, this isn’t what is usually meant by “drip pricing”.
Either way though the whole process was painful.
That’s a good question. In some circumstances “enforced bundling” could be illegal, in particular where the seller has a dominant market share (which obviously does apply in overall terms to the company involved).
Hmmm. Not sure that buying another one is the right approach then. I mean it’s great that their warranty return process is smooth and that they don’t give you pushback and mess you around but …
That said, unless you know why the BSoD was happening, it might continue to happen with every future new device if it’s a software problem until someone actually fixes the bug.
(If it’s a software problem then it is likely that the problem will go away in the short term because you are starting with a new clean device, without all the dodgy software installed, registry corruption and cruft, … but you can often achieve the same result just by blowing away the contents of the disk and reinstalling from scratch - after doing a backup of your files etc. of course).
I gave up on Microsoft years ago. When they allowed early birds to try Windows 10. It didn’t work, so they guided me on how to go back to Windows 7. Then strange things started to happen. I had a maintenance contract with them, so I rang and asked them to fix it. They told me they couldn’t - that it would just continue to deteriorate till it stopped altogether. And that unless I wanted to lose all my work, my programs, my files, everything, I had only one option - to see if anyone online would sell me their copy of Windows 7 with two upgrades (I’ve forgotten what they called those). Which of course proved impossible.
In the meantime, they told me they were cancelling their maintenance contract with me forthwith and refunding the fee I’d paid for their “services”.
And, as they predicted, I lost the lot - 500Gb of programs, data, the lot.
I don’t choose to do business with firms that behave like this, so I refuse to have anything further to do with Microsoft - EVER!
Hello Mrs Z. I hope you don’t mind; I amended the topic from ‘drip pricing’ to ‘differing bundle pricing options’ as it seems that the discussion is about differing options and pricing appearing for returning customers vs guests.
Thank you! I am a bit annoyed that MS would produce the next iteration of the Pro series with a slightly different shape (half a cm narrower, cm higher) such that the Pro 7 keyboard does not fit the Pro 8 - creating more e-waste. That might be what is behind the “bundling” for a customer who owns a Pro 7. The tablet doesn’t last long. Mine had a hard life being carted everywhere, but I got at least 3 years. The battery is now running down too quickly and getting hot.
I have unwrapped and now setting up the Pro 8. It is what I purchased, but with a bigger price tag ($100 more). HN still hasn’t sent the Tax Invoice, probably because the order was “cancelled” when I tried to pick it up at the Click & Collect desk, and it has fallen off the digital cliff. I chose it because it is Windows, which means I don’t have to learn another system and I can transfer files and pictures to my main desk top. It does not have USB A, so got a USB A to C cable for our old stuff - cattle cameras, hard disk etc.
Happy with it so far. Yet to pair Blue Tooth keyboard (one wouldn’t pair) and mouse. Currently transferring files - File History does not restore to a different device, even another Pro, so it is Copy, Paste using old hard disk.
Regardless of any misbehaviour from Microsoft proper backup would have reduced your losses.
You didn’t think that a pre-production version of an OS might ever have problems, that installing it on a non-critical machine or taking a solid backup before the upgrade might be an idea?
If you wanted just the basic tablet, you seem to have used the wrong option on the MS website. If you start into the bundle option, you will get a bundle. If you go through the configure option, you can get the basic machine then can optionally add other options or not.
My point was there was no other option - “Configure now” which took me to a bundle deal. The unit I was buying was $1,548, yet it said From $1,698. Suspect it realised I needed a new keyboard as the Pro 7 keyboard will not fit the Pro 8. I tried several ways to access only the tablet, but even with Chat, it was looking like I could not buy one.
I don’t know why Harvey Norman cancelled my order after I had placed it, paid and received confirmation that it was at the Click & Collect desk. I didn’t like my chances after MS failed to deliver, and a long trip to pick it up. Someone in the industry might know.
