Hello MS Community, I was forced to return a total of 12 Surface Books over the past two months as I struggled to get TWO that worked (i7 512gb). I now have two that work (flawlessly so far) and that came after I received devices manufactured in the second production and after the December 2, 2015 Firmware update and Net Frame update. I am here to say that I let a MS Store tech set both up with me in store - it took 4 1/2 hours because one of the two 512s opened with OTHER USER (which means it had been spot tested in the factory by a tester-technician who logged in and ran some operations to test the functionality of this SB). I have known about this in factory testing phase for a long time. But what I learned from the in store Tech is that it is best to completely wipe your device immediately and recover everything from the MS Cloud when you get OTHER USER screen and your device has been spot tested in the production line. Why is this true and better according to my in store Tech guy? He said that "images of the testing might still remain on the hard drive and make operation of your SB problematic UNLESS you wipe the SB and restore Windows and basic OS from the MS Cloud. He said it is just safer to start over right at the beginning of unboxing your new SB and be certain no images remain from the line testing. NOTE: Sometimes - and unrelated to the OTHER USER issue that can happen (and happened to me with this SB I am discussing) is that once I got home with both SBs set up, this one that we restored from the Cloud that had been OTHER USER suddenly said that Windows was no longer Activated! I called my tech and he apologized for not checking that nothing had changed with Windows Activation when he restored this one from the Cloud. He said that Windows can be deactivated (error) when refreshing of restoring a SB or Pro 4. Since Windows 10 is part of this SB it is encoded into the mother-board of every Windows 10 device. Yet I had to Recover From The Cloud ALL OVER AGAIN in order for Windows to be ACTIVATED. Fortunately it only took me 2 hours more to reload Windows from the MS Cloud and it was reset to WINDOWS 10 IS ACTIVATED.
Now NONE of these issues should ever exist on such an expensive devise. It is disgraceful and very bad business to make MS customers lab rats - that we are experimented on to tell MS what is wrong with their product and the specific conditions of each failure. I have spent a total of 53 hours on the phone and on Log Me In Rescue sessions with MS Tech support in Redmond, WA, Oregon and the Philippines..... I say MS should issue a refund of 250.00 to each customer who had to return and replace even one SB and who can prove they have kept it beyond the 30 day return period or the extended Christmas return period. Sincerely, Mark Mazzetti.