A New Day for Microsoft Store

David, I have recently been speaking to one of the sales team on the phone from your Oxford Street store and have been advised that I can no longer walk round the corner from my office to purchase a new Surface in 15 minutes. This has been a massive advantage for my company as we often need equipment last minute, not to mention support and advice. Instead, a decision has been made from overseas that Microsoft's loyal customers are no longer allowed to buy anything in store. Instead we have to order online (no loyalty discount) or order over the phone. I'm sorry but that may work in the USA but in the UK it is an insane decision. Last month I purchased 2 Surface Pro 7's over the phone and they are still yet to be delivered. 7 weeks and they are still not delivered. This is the service you are pushing us to. I've had to go and source additional laptops from elsewhere. I'm looking to buy 3 more laptops, keyboards, docks this week and an additional 8 units (minimum) in August. I can't order now as I don't have exact quantities. I certainly will not wait another 7 weeks for delivery! There's a perfectly good Apple Store 5 doors down from your Oxford Street store. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that this decision to only "showcase" your products is a crazy one and that maybe a switch to a store where I can spend money and have users working the same day would be of more use. The internet is there to "showcase"... I can guarantee now that I now have no need to go and see your products in your stores. I do most of my research online and will continue to do so but not being able to collect same day in store is useless. Your staff will have no incentive to upsell or recommend a different product as they will no longer be able to sell it to me. Such as shame that Microsoft have made this decision. I lost track of how many times I've bought extra products when "just buying a Surface Pro/Laptop". Over the last 12 months, I have been purchasing on average 1 Surface Pro/Laptop a week and was aiming to continue to do so. Microsoft will now lose this business from us. I am a consultant and all of my loyal customers have in turn been loyal to Microsoft because of the convenience of this one store but this decision to significantly inconvenience your customers is going to have a significantly negative impact on Microsoft. I know I'm small-fry compared to others and my 1 laptop a week is nothing to the corporate giant that is Microsoft. I'm sure there's another reason but this decision makes absolutely no sense. The store is currently closed for the refurb/transition (so I understand). Please rethink this insane decision to stop selling products in the Oxford Street store before all you have left is a property with no one but bored staff in there, losing money hand over fist and your loyal customers walk 5 doors down and spend their money on a MacBook instead.

I am a former Apple user. I loved the Apple Store experience where I had the ability sit down with a "genius" for a few minutes and help with my decisionmaking or problem for a few minutes. I was willing to pay for the premium build quality, no crapware, and a little one-on-one experience. As a lawyer, I found that the better law related programs were on the Windows platform and that virtualization of Windows was often not practical. When Microsoft opened their store in Michigan and released the Surface line, I drove by two Apple stores to get there and proceeded to buy four Surfaces for my wife and I. I also switched my law partner and sister to Microsoft store customers. Your bean crunchers are telling you that the stores aren't pulling their weight, but you aren't factoring in brand loyalty. Frankly, even if someone "show rooms" at your store and buys a Surface online the store has served its mission. Telling people that this is the next level or next generation of service is to insult our intelligence. If my machine has problems connecting to wifi, lots of luck remoting into it to see what the problem is. A Microsoft team member talked me out of a Surface X earlier this year. He told me with the programs and drivers I was running, I should wait a year before jumping to a machine based on the Qualcomm chipset. Do you honestly think I would get that advice on the phone? I get that Microsoft stores are in premium space and can obviously see that they are obviously not as packed as Apple stores, but Microsoft has managed to cut into Apple's dominance based on this. Walk into a college classroom today and kids are either running Surfaces or Macs. Five years ago you'd have to work to see the non-Apple machine in the bunch.

I purchased my business laptop in your London Oxford Street Store, I did so because I love the physical experience of purchasing a product. While virtual stores may work for some, they do not work for others. It is wise to have a blend of virtual and physical stores for at least in the next ten to twenty years.

I have 4 Microsoft Pro surface, all working good except one Surface Pro 4 with a battery life problem, Your store in Syracuse, N.Y. had been working with me trying to solve the problem, I've been patiently waiting for them to re-open to fix my problem. Now what do I do ? With the unit off, it looses battery charge almost completely within 3 to 4 days.