New Razer Blade 2014 being shipped used when buying new?

Hello all, I've been lurking on these forums for awhile now and decided to take the plunge and buy the new razer blade 2014 recently. I was hoping I could get some of you fellow users opinions on this problem I'm having.

I think I may have received a used razer blade 2014 laptop when I had ordered it new. I ordered this laptop from the Microsoft store and I have just received the laptop today. As soon as opened it I noticed the first box brown razer box had already been opened and resealed with an additional piece of tape which covered the already opened piece of tape. I thought that was weird but I continued to open the box. I opened the second box (the black and green box) within the brown box and everything seemed fine. Nothing looked used or damaged. I opened the clear plastic which covered the notebook and that looked fine. I then opened the laptop itself and noticed there are some fingerprint smudges across the screen and on the edges. I immediately thought no way is this really a used laptop that someone returned. I then looked at the cables which seemed to be fine. The zip ties holding the cables had looked like they had been take off before though.

I thought well maybe Microsoft just inspects their packages to make sure everything looks fine. I start the computer and it turns off. Apparently the battery was dead, 0%. I start to fill out the basic info for windows after I plugged the laptop to an outlet. Everything seemed to be going alright, but the weird thing was the windows setup screen didn't ask me for the product key. Whenever I started with a clean OS it has always asked me for the product key before the setup completes.

I plan on calling Microsoft to explain why the brand new laptop I purchase seemed to be opened and used, but I have to wait for tomorrow during business hours for that. Until then I thought I might get some other razer blade owners opinions to see if their laptops came to them the same way.

I bought a new laptop and paid the price for a new laptop. I really don't mind getting a used laptop, but not if I paid a premium price for a new one. Plus I'm a little worried that someone had returned a faulty laptop and Microsoft just repackaged it and sold it as new.
Am I being paranoid or are these serious concerns I should be worried about? Does Microsoft do an initial inspection to make sure everything is working correctly before they ship? Has anyone gotten their New Razer Blade 2014 and noticed the same thing?

Thank you in advance for any information.

Update:
Thanks everyone for your input. I called MS and told them what happened. They offered an exchange for the inconvenience, which is nice but I'm still thinking well what happened if I get another one just like it or even worse :/.
I asked if the representative might know why the package was open and used. I knew she probably couldn't give me an answer but it never hurts to ask. She didn't know why and just said their system says it's new.

@bhc72
Yea I noticed that also. The wallpaper is that honeycomb wallpaper without the razer logo.

@sangemaru
The only reason I bought from MS was the big discount for students. I saved about $300, which is nice but not so nice that I get a used product haha.
What was one nice thing is that I ordered on May 20th. Got an email saying shipped later that day. Received product on May 21st at 3:00pm. Didn't pay for overnight shipping. Just chose the free ground 5-7 day shipping.

@tjmaxwell and @justinus
I thought about that also. That's why I was curious if they did some kind of initial check before shipping the laptop. When I opened the black and green razer box that "signature support" card was laying right on top of the laptop. I read the card and was thinking maybe they wiped it clean before sending it out to their customers?
Ugh that still sounds wrong to open up a new laptop and do that. I didn't know that this was their policy for new laptops. I'd rather just clean it out myself.

 

I apologize for the not very helpful post that's going to follow, but... why buy from Microsoft?
Although very helpful for fellow NBR'ers to know to avoid the big M. That's a really crap thing to do when redistributing products.

 

Newer systems have the product key stored in the UEFI, which is picked up by Windows automatically. It sucks that your Blade seems to have been used though.

 

The finger prints are the tell tale sign. Definitely call MS and send it back. And @ sangemaru "why buy from MS"? Because they actually ship them to you immediately instead of a 2-3 week delay direct from Razer not to mention discounts, etc.

 

I ordered my 256gb from m store and did not have these issues. There was no taping over. No fingerprint smudges. However the plastic wrapped around the laptop itself had evaporation droplets coating it (like a black car you wash and forget to dry) which struck me as odd. I would like to assume it doesn't rain inside the Razer manufacturing plant.

The laptop ended having problems and m store is sending me a new one.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I too did not have to enter my product key.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

5% discount via Bing Rewards at a minimum, though there were apparently both $100 off and 10% discounts for students (combined). There's also Microsoft Complete (though until put to the test we won't know if they send a Razer replacement or another brand as replacement). Free shipping and free returns as well.

Sounds like craizen is going to find out how good MS Store's customer service is!

My from-Razer 512GB did not pick up its key from the UEFI (if it's even in there). I had to do the flip over, take a picture with the phone, flip back and enter song and dance.

 

Could you share what the problems you experienced with your blade were?

It sounds like MS may be opening these for some kind of check. The Blade I received from Razer required entry of product key.

 

Same here, that was super annoying to have to do during initial setup!

 

My blade would make cricket noises on the right side of the keyboard when the gpu was in use and before the fans spun into action.

The tape to the outer razer box (packing box) however was not altered in any way, so I'm not sure how Microsoft got into the box.

One thing that strikes me as odd is that I've noticed people reviewing the Razer ordered directly from razer have a razer logo in the default honeycomb background, but the Microsoft ordered blades have no logo, yet they have the same honeycomb background.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

I ordered a 512 from Razer and it was clean as a whistle inside the plastic. Definitely is untouched.

 

The Microsoft Store offers a service called "Signature" that wipes new PCs of any bloatware and optimizes them (details here). I wonder if they tried to do that on your PC? I also ordered a Blade from the Microsoft Store online and it was definitely factory sealed. Not sure, just a thought.

 

I hope not, there's zero bloat on the Blade, nothing for them to optimize.

 

I think Microsoft breaks the seal on the box to put in its "Microsoft Signature" card. The seal on my box appeared to have been tampered with, but everything inside looked untouched. The card has to get inside there somehow.

 

@bhc72 thanks for the info on the different backgrounds. I too got it from the MS store and have just the honeycomb with no Logo.

Could someone kindly share the honeycomb with razer logo wallpaper please?

 

The Microsoft Signature card goes in the outer box. I believe they break the seal on the Razer box to load the Microsoft Signature disk image.

For those who bought from Microsoft Store, please check your inner box (the Razer branded brown box) and inspect the plastic seal carefully. You should see two layers, like this: https://i.imgur.com/rvcCU1j.jpg If you have inspected the Razer brown box very closely and don't see two sticker layers, do take a pic and let us know.
(Original post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/razer/747532-razer-blade-2014-owner-s-lounge-165.html#post9730529)

There's a thread that discusses the differences between Razer factory disk image and Microsoft Signature image here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/raz...crosoft-store-vs-razer-store-differences.html

 

Both Razers I ordered out of the box had a 0% charge just FYI.

 

Where did you order from?

 

Razer