Surface 3 and Microsoft claim to be business ready

[ggx2015]

Hello,

Today I have received my Surface 3 ordered with the specific purpose of integrating into the business.

The idea of starting the trial for business use came from their marketing claim from their website. They say "Our most portable Surface is just 1.37 lbs but is powered by Windows 8.1 Pro with an Intel®Atom™ x7 processor, so you can run the desktop programs you rely on."

Boy what a surprise I got when I tried to add it to the domain. To my surprise it is not possible because it is running windows 8.1 not windows 8.1 pro!!!

So called MS support and they admitted there is a mistake on their website (they were surprised too ) but they cannot do anything about it. They also tried to convince me that although on the Microsoft website there is this wrong information on the MS store website it says it comes with win 8.1 so this is OK. I could not agree with that MS representative simply because when you check some features on one page you don't expect them to change on the other... So it will cost me 169 NZD to upgrade. Thanks Microsoft, what if I would have purchase 20 of these things thinking will be able to use them in our business environment? What about all that "business ready" talk? I was so frustrated...

Very very disappointing from you Microsoft to mislead customers and then act like nothing happened...

Here is the NZ link where they advertised this:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-nz/business/products#s3-specs

Australian link:

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en-au/business/products#s3-specs

 

[Geoff]

It still says this:

"Surface 3 includes the business-ready features that you expect from Microsoft, like Domain Join, easy IT integration and enterprise-class security."

When you attempt to join, is the feature removed or grayed out?

 

[ggx2015]

the option to join to a domain is greyed out. MS business support said I have to upgrade to pro... would have been good to know that before pre-order it...

 

[DMGrier]

Windows 8.1 (non-pro) is a non-business operating system, completely consumer grade and nothing more.

As a IT working in an enterprise environment the other issue with those is the reliance on MS technical support and warranty as they are not as easy to pull apart. Sure I could use those resources but doing a drive replacement on a laptop our self is so much faster then sending the device back.

So I would disagree on the business ready portion.

It still says this:

"Surface 3 includes the business-ready features that you expect from Microsoft, like Domain Join, easy IT integration and enterprise-class security."

When you attempt to join, is the feature removed or grayed out?

You cannot join a non-pro version of Windows to a domain, they do not offer the feature.

 

[Geoff]

Windows 8.1 (non-pro) is a non-business operating system, completely consumer grade and nothing more.

As a IT working in an enterprise environment the other issue with those is the reliance on MS technical support and warranty as they are not as easy to pull apart. Sure I could use those resources but doing a drive replacement on a laptop our self is so much faster then sending the device back.

So I would disagree on the business ready portion.



You cannot join a non-pro version of Windows to a domain, they do not offer the feature.

I'm aware of that, I was quoting from Microsoft what it says on their website. They are promoting that the Surface 3 is business ready and can join a domain.

 

[ggx2015]

just a quick update.

a MS moderator from answers.microsoft contacted me and said it will put me in contact with a MS store representative.

I have called the MS store again and they finally agreed to fix the issue... they have replaced the tablet with one running 8.1 Pro so thanks to forum waves...

Thanks!