12 Days of Microsoft Store Deals: Shopping tips and first day experiences

The Microsoft Store'southward 12 Days of Christmas Deals kicked off yesterday with some serious discounts on the Dell Venue 8 Pro Windows 8 tablet. During Mon's deal, the start 20 people at the Microsoft Store could buy the Venue 8 Pro for only $99. Anybody later that had the option to buy it for $199 until stock ran out.

We already posted a photograph of i Microsoft Store'south Venue Pro line yesterday in our article well-nigh the leaked 12 Days of Deals schedule. Just it also happens that I was on-hand at the Houston Microsoft Store to bank check out the promotion. Head by the break to learn just what Houston-area Microsoft fans experienced at the auction, shopping tips for the rest of the 12 Days of Deals, and whether I ended up with a cheap Venue eight Pro or not!

Finding the Microsoft Store

Before we could line upwardly for tablet deal, nosotros had to first find the Microsoft Store in Houston, TX. Of class I really should take been in that location by at present, merely I live virtually an hour from Houston then it's not the nearly convenient trip. (The drive actually took 90 minutes due to nasty morning blitz hour traffic.)

A little online research told me the Microsoft Store is located inside of the Galleria, Houston'south gigantic upscale mall. This interior location threw a wrinkle into the mix: how would we line up exterior of the store before the Galleria opened at 10?

Due to scheduling difficulties, traffic, and transit times, my deal hunting partner and I didn't arrive at the Galleria until 7:50am. Once there, nosotros parked hush-hush and rushed inside. The mall ostensibly doesn't open until 10, simply the doors were already open up.

The Microsoft Store of Houston is located on Level one of the Galleria, which (confronting logic) is really the second aboveground floor of the building. The ice skating rink sits on the level below. Nosotros institute the store only past the Westin Oaks and immediately beside Georgio Armani (the store, not the guy).

Line upwards

Instead of lining up in front end of the store, a security guard directed u.s.a. to a line outside of the edifice. The store employees and Galleria security had placed the line on the sidewalk in forepart of the Galleria'due south Orange Parking Garage. My partner and I were the 19^th and twenty^th people in the line, with well-nigh 20 more people queuing behind united states.

Our spot would have been excellent if not for the fact that a batch of 20 people had already been allowed to enter the store sometime before 8am. The promotion only allotted 20 Venue 8 Pros at $99, meaning that the doorbuster bargain had sold out 2 hours earlier the Microsoft Store's published hours.

Throughout the morning, we overhead three different store employees claiming that people had been lined upwards at 3am, 4am, and 5am. It was similar the phone game trying to figure out when the line really started. Whichever the case, all of us bargain hunters would have liked an advance announcement of the official queuing spot and real store hours instead of having to guess at where to get and when the Galleria doors would actually open.

Barely fabricated it

Effectually 8:30, a store employee appeared to count the line. He informed us that the store only had a limited stock of tablets to offer at the non-doorbuster sale cost of $199. I really ended up being the concluding person to qualify for the sale, with everyone behind me going home empty-handed. Naturally they expressed disappointment, specially since this sell out occurred 90 minutes earlier the Microsoft Store's published opening hour.

Once inside the store, we waited in line for another 45 minutes or so equally the employees slowly sold people their tablets.

I don't know what information technology is about the Microsoft Store, simply their checkout process (which I first witnessed at the Microsoft WPC Event this summer) is extremely slow and inefficient. Two whole employees stand at a small table with no cash register and manage transactions on modified Windows Phones. They and then fetch the client's receipt from a divide location. Not the best way to go customers in and out of a store.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed browsing the displays for Surface tablets and accessories as we aged in the line. And the shop made the event more pleasant by offering cookies, coffee, and hot chocolate for early morning time visitors. After the line cleared, I finally left full of hot chocolate and with a $199 Venue 8 Pro tablet in hand.

Tips for the 12 Days of Deals

There are all the same 11 days of deals left in the Microsoft Store promotion (x if nosotros don't count today). Each day Microsoft will offering one product at a discount in limited quantities. These include some choice devices similar the Lumia 1520 and 1020 and even a ane-yr Xbox Music Pass (full list here). Just the outset 20 people in line will go the doorbuster price, with anybody else getting a more standard sale cost until quantities sell out.

To increase your chances of getting the doorbuster cost on the 12 Days of Deal items (or even the regular auction toll earlier items run out), nosotros've got a few tips for you lot.

• Know the store'due south official queuing location. Call or visit the store during normal business hours and detect out from an employee.
• Plan your parking spot so that you can get from the car to the line quicker. Ask an employee if needed.
• If you're hoping for the doorbuster, four hours in accelerate is probably the minimum time to arrive at the store. Super defended shoppers might want to show upward half-dozen hours early, just to be condom.
• Even if you're fine with the regular auction price instead of the doorbuster deal, you lot'll still need to arrive well in accelerate. We cut it awfully shut beingness 2 hours early, so three would be more advisable.
• Apparel warmly! As experienced Black Fri shoppers already know, you lot don't want to discover yourself lined up in the common cold wearing just a t-shirt or a jacket that doesn't go on the chilly air at bay.
• Eat breakfast earlier lining up, and bring something to occupy yourself. Y'all'll be at that place for a while, so you might every bit well avoid dying from hunger or boredom.
• Bring a partner! The 12 Days of Deal sale items are express to 1 per customer. If you hope to snag an extra, you lot'll need an accomplice. A second person also makes it possible to take restroom breaks without losing your place in line.

Finally, I would advise the Microsoft Store itself to more conspicuously advertise procedures for special sales like this. If they're going to offset selling early, permit the states know what time so nosotros tin program effectually that instead of a later hour. And try to have enough product to encounter need at least until the store's normal opening 60 minutes. There'due south no benefit to sending dozens of customers home unhappy.

How about you lot guys at home? Did whatever of our readers manage to snag a Venue viii Pro at doorbuster or sale prices? And knowing the atmospheric condition the 12 Days of Deals poses to shoppers, will yous be lining up early on for any of the remaining deals?

All photos taken with a Nokia Lumia 920

Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-store-12-days-deals-tips

Posted by: schroederjace1953.blogspot.com

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