Why do I have to suffer to buy 20 Surface Pro 11s?!

​I am sharing my experience so the Microsoft Store can use this information to improve the experience for someone buying several Surface devices. I am a big fan of the Surface line; I’ve owned a multitude of Surface devices since launch and even have a Surface Duo!
 
Why we want 20 Surface Devices.
We are retrofitting our mobile computer lab with brand new Surface devices, thanks to a grant we can afford to level up!
Check out the grant ceremony at Science Gallery at Northlake Mall, free to attend the full Atlanta SciFi Expo in partnership with Atlanta Science Fair for ButtercupSTEAM sessions.
March 15
1-4pm EST
 
Two weeks ago, I started my quest to find someone at Microsoft sales or nonprofit to help me facilitate a 20 Surface Pro purchase. 20! That is correct.
You don’t just login to some website and add 20 devices to your shopping cart, pay, then they magically show up, but they should!
 
No, you need someone to help facilitate a purchase that big, because that’s a lot of money and you need all the support you can get to make sure your device get here, someone can be responsible for any issues that pop up. If you ever bought anything online then you know what I am talking about, looking at you Amazon.
 
Here is a short list of my issues.
 
To begin:
Like I said, two weeks ago I started my quest to find someone to help me buy 20 Surface Pro 11s.
I reached out to six Microsoft Professionals I have gotten to know in the last ten years, whom I know are connected to Surface, the Microsoft Store and Sales.
A couple said they were going to help me find someone, then one came back and said no results. I said thanks.
I reached out to the Microsoft Nonprofit Tech Accelerator from the online portal. No response.
I reached out to Microsoft social accounts on X and IG. No response.
I reached out to the Microsoft Business online and filled out the form. No response.
NO HELP IN FINDING SOMEONE AT MICROSOFT SALES TO FACILITATE A 20 DEVICE PURCHASE.
How can that be?
 
I got a response from someone (I won’t make names public unless it’s to actual Microsoft leadership so they can fix the process for small nonprofits like us) by email, responded to our issue with the standard answer about “nonprofit accelerator does not deal with Surface Pro 11”.
 
Got it, I then asked a couple of more questions including: what devices can you offer us that are not 4 years old? Because the nonprofit side of Microsoft sells Laptop Go and Surface Go renewed devices at a discount and nothing else.
THEY EVER RESPONDED TO ME AGAIN. JUST IGNORED BY THE THREE PEOPLE CC’d with Microsoft.com email addresses.
 
Why is my experience so frustrating?
Can anyone not buy several Surface devices?
Should I search for other brands to see what they have to offer?
I want 20 Surface devices because my drawing experience has been excellent.
 
FINALLY, I reached out to the chat on the Microsoft Store website, and I am faced with AI chat bot ran by Copilot. It was the weekend, so the chat bot said there was no one in the sales department to help me. Check back on Monday when someone would be in the office. No weekend sales?!
 
Monday I am back on the chat and I ask for a sales associate or someone who can help facilitate. After some time back and forth, there’s a customer service person who is willing to help, after a few questions establishing the details, I start to think that this is also a bot because it takes minutes to get a response.
I asked about business transaction, I asked about nonprofit purchase, but those options were not good for me because the Surface Pro 11 is only available on the consumer sale.
 
We start the process to create 3 different orders of 5 devices to get started because there is a purchase limit of 5. So, one order of 5 Surface Pro, 5 type covers, 5 pens and 5 arc mouses in each order.
 
Finally, we get to the end but I had to make adjustments to the address as the billing address is formatted a bit different than shipping address. There is lots of waiting but there is progress. Since we are buying the Surface in a consumer process, then the bank flags the transaction several times and we had to keep the bank on the phone while we had Microsoft store chat on the browser.
 
At the end of the four hours, almost 20K, and 3 orders later, my Microsoft Store account is deactivated because of suspicious behavior. Not entirely clear as what exactly is going on but we have to stop at this point with 3 orders of 5 until the issue is escalated, reviewed and account reactivated.
 
That is fine because I am beyond frustrated on the process, tired of sitting on the chat and I have other obligations today. What I thought would be a simple expensive transaction turned out to be an ordeal.
 
Much credit goes to the chat agent who stayed on the chat with me for four hours!
 
Fine. Two days later 10 Surface devices are here. I am excited. Then I see the boxes and I don’t understand how are the Surface design teams so amazing at designing a beautiful device, but shipping has no respect for the 1K each device cost?
 
the boxes are thin, one box has a rip on the side, and it doesn’t have any padding or protection for 6K worth of Microsoft Surface products!
 
WELCOME TO THE UNBOXING.