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A California man is suing Microsoft for false advertising, arguing half the storage space billed for its new Surface tablet is taken up by the operating system. (AP image)

Customer sues Microsoft over Surface tablet storage

BY Kim Shepard  on November 15, 2012 @ 6:09 am (Updated: 9:05 am - 11/15/12 )

A California man who says he was cheated by the new Surface tablet's storage space, is now suing Microsoft over what he says are "deceptive advertising practices."

Andrew Sokolowski, a lawyer in Los Angeles, says he bought a Surface with 32 gigabytes of storage last week. But he quickly ran out of space after loading it with music and Microsoft Word documents.

His attorney, Rehtt Francisco, tells KIRO Radio Microsoft should have disclosed that the operating system and pre-installed apps suck up almost half of the tablet's advertised storage.

Francisco says he's not seeking any damages, just that Microsoft change its advertising for the Surface and the company refund its profits to consumers for "misrepresenting the characteristics of its Surface tablet."

"There's no coincidence that Microsoft's multi-million dollar ad campaign coincides with the beginning of the holiday shopping season and that their ad campaign makes no reference to the actual characteristics of the Surface tablet."

Microsoft says on its website that the 32GB Surface has 16GB of free space while the 64GB version has 45GB free. In a statement, the company says the lawsuit is without merit.

"Customers understand the operating system and pre-installed applications reside on the device's internal storage thereby reducing the total free space. Surface with Windows RT customers benefit from the ability to attach additional storage via the integrated microSD slot or full-size USB port," the statement said.

And even if Microsoft's base-model Surface only has 16 GB of memory available, that's still slightly more than the 14.3 GB you'll get from the latest Wi-Fi only iPad for the same price of $499.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Kim Shepard, KIRO Radio Reporter
Kim Shepard is a news anchor and reporter for KIRO Radio and the office optimist. She's energetic, quick to laugh and has a positive outlook on life.
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Comments (8)


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  • jstumbo wrote...
    he assumed, and he was wrong...
    November 15, 2012 5:55 am
    And now he wants someone else to pay for his mistake. After all, it can't be his fault. Sue, sue, sue!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Stevebo wrote...
    It's a frivolous lawsuit...
    November 15, 2012 9:36 am
    Especially as already pointed out... he's a LAWYER and SHOULD be familiar with "small print"...

    Also, it's not a Microsoft issue alone... if this lawyer truly wanted to champion a cause, he should be suing Apple... Google... and every other company that is putting out a tablet device where they advertise a certain drive space, but the reality is that it's less...

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ron_Spins wrote...
    If you buy a 100 gig hard drive you do not get 100 gigs
    November 15, 2012 10:56 am
    This lawyer does not have a legal leg to stand on.So "windows" does not have a light footprint! Recent versions of windows have gotten worse and worse in this respect.I am using Linux Mint now and love it.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }