Microsoft says customers should contact Support

Feb 5, 2018 08:21 GMT  ·  By

A screen flickering issue impacting Microsoft’s Surface Pro is pushing owners to some extreme workarounds, including putting their devices in freezers.

As weird as this may sound, this solution solves the problem temporarily, removing the flickering completely and returning the display to normal.

A group of Surface Pro owners launched a website called “Flickergate” to explain the issue in detail and to emphasize that Microsoft has until now ignored all reports despite hundreds of post being published on its very own forums. One such thread on Microsoft Community has no less than 140 pages of users complaining about the issue since early 2017.

The official Flickergate website states that issues are most often experienced one year after purchase, which means devices are no longer covered by warranty and users need to pay $8000 for an exchange.

“Microsoft has not acknowledged the issue. We recommend potential buyers to AVOID surface pro devices until Microsoft has fixed this problem because there is a high chance that your device will become unusable within a year,” the website reads.

Class action lawsuit considered

Microsoft said in a statement for The Verge that it’s aware of these reports and recommended customers experiencing the screen flickering to get in touch with support.

“We are aware that some customers have experienced a screen flicker on Surface Pro 4 and are monitoring the situation closely,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying. “Customers impacted by this should contact Microsoft support.”

On the other hand, customers whose devices are experiencing the screen flickering are currently considering starting a class action lawsuit against Microsoft.

“We are still considering our options. We've received a number of inquiries over time with other issues beyond the battery issue, beyond flickering,” Nicholas Migliaccio, a partner at law firm Migliaccio & Rathod LLP, said. “People have a variety of problems, but if we're looking at problems we're looking at the common ones.”

At this point, it appears it’s all just a hardware problem and Microsoft cannot address with it a software update. It remains to be seen if a recall is started, but for the time being, customers are recommended to contact Microsoft Support for more guidance on how to deal with the issue.