A story from a time long past. After all, it’s been almost ten years. Back then, I was nearing the end of my studies, and Microsoft had just unveiled the third iteration of its Surface Pro line. With the prospect of a salary increase on the horizon, I pre-ordered a device and its accompanying keyboard, providing my credit card details.

But in October, on the release date, an email arrived instead of the tablet: my bank had withdrawn the credit card authorization, and I had to renew it. No problem, the required €1,250 was in the account, and I approved the charge. And that was the last I heard for several weeks. Even though I was a pre-order customer, Microsoft couldn’t keep up with production, and I had to be patient—at least according to the hotline I called. Every day, I checked my email inbox, hoping a shipping confirmation was waiting for me.

Weeks after the official release, a package was delivered unannounced. A plain cardboard box, with a label from Microsoft. I excitedly opened it and took the two tablets and keyboards out of the box. Two of them? That’s right. Although I had only ordered one of each, I received two. I unpacked the first one right away; the second went back into the box. On the Surface, after setting it up, of course, I checked my Microsoft and bank accounts. My bank account was still pleasantly full, while Microsoft’s system indicated that the shipment was still being prepared.

Fairness and honesty then prompted me to pick up the phone. A call to Microsoft would surely clear things up. The response:

“Sometimes the system lags, especially with high demand. If it doesn’t resolve by next week, please call us again.”

A week later, I was back on the hotline with a nice lady. She was surprised by my honesty and confused by the situation. She asked me to be patient for another week. She wasn’t going to be idle; she wanted to look into the matter and would get back to me. Definitely not first-level support. She was friendly, competent, solution-oriented, and reliable.

For another week, the second device sat in its box, still neatly shrink-wrapped. Then came the call back. Neither she nor any of her colleagues could figure out what had happened. Their system was firmly convinced that nothing had been shipped yet, but my order was in a broken state. Her hope was that it would eventually sort itself out automatically. Then Microsoft might still charge me, or they might not. There was nothing more they could do.

And the second device? She had spoken to her boss about it. Shipping it back to the logistics center in Ireland would be expensive and, without a delivery record, complicated to process in the system. I should consider it a gift from Microsoft and keep it. And that’s how my girlfriend also got a Surface Pro 3. And sure enough, the system eventually updated my order to “Completed,” but without charging me a single cent. Two Surface Pro 3s plus keyboard covers for the price of none, thanks to Microsoft’s broken systems. With the student discount, it was a gift of €2,500; at full price, it was more like €3,000.

Thanks, Microsoft. It was an awesome device back then, even if it had poor cooling and wasn’t repairable. It served me faithfully for over five years.