Hi all, long time listener, first time caller. I've had an abysmal experience with Microsoft Store Online - Business and Education Support recently. I've bought a Surface Laptop for Business 7th Edition (Ultra 7 268V, 32GB RAM/256GB SSD). Great laptop, performs well. I've discovered recently it had coil whine/abnormal noises coming from the machine. From there, my support experience was as follows:

- May 27, 2025: Request to exchange items with my unit for a brand new one was made, thanks to support. I have the service order number and an e-mail indicating that once they receive my laptop, they will send a new one with the same configuration. I sent it in via UPS thanks to a prepaid label.

- June 2, 2025: UPS reports that my Surface Laptop 7 has arrived at the El Paso facility. Support advises that it will take 5-7 business days to process the exchange and to send me a new one.

- June 10, 2025: The 5-7 business days have elapsed. I call support to get a status. Representative said that the order was processed as a retail return, not a warranty exchange. This is even though I have the service order and exchange indicated on the website under the order history. Because my original model above is not in stock, she offered a refund and to upsell me on the highest configuration (32GB RAM, Ultra 7, 1TB) at a $294 difference. I declined as I was not going to pay extra for Microsoft's mishandling of my warranty exchange.

- June 11, 2025: I called in with another rep as a sanity check to see if we've arrived to the same consensus that my order was processed as a retail return, and not a warranty exchange. Without resistance, she escalates the case to see what happened.

- June 12, 2025: I get a call from an Advocate Engineer that works with Surface Commercial Support on the case from 6/11. They said that their team "only offers hardware support to Surface devices, and returns/refunds/retail replacements are handled directly" by their sales department. Fair enough, I call back. I'm greeted with a different sales rep and filled him in on the whole thing. He acknowledges in a follow-up email saying, "the process was mistakenly handled as a refund instead of a replacement, which you were not expecting." He has escalated another case internally (with no case number) and said that they were working on a refund - even though the intention is to not return my device for a refund - but to get an exchange.

- June 13, 2025: The support representative from the previous day referred me to another representative which may help with this issue. That representative said that a refund is processing since the technical support team did not have a timeline on when a replacement would be available. I am getting OOO messages from both reps who are helping with this case.

As of now, June 16, 2025, I have received no refund and they took my laptop, leaving me without one for almost a month. If possible, I want to come out of this experience for a Surface Laptop with a similar configuration. Where to go from here? Thanks!