-:: Malaysia Mobile Tech News ::-

Well, it looks like Maxis is still accepting pre-orders for the iPhone3GS, missing their self imposed deadline.  So, either they’ve got a lot of stocks coming in, which means they over-estimated demand for Apple’s new phone (again!), or the generally poor state of the economy is putting people off purchasing a phone for now, or too many of their customers have already bought a iPhone3G under contract and have no wish to take out a new contract (Maxis does not yet have an upgrade plan in place for their existing iPhone3G customers), or all of the above.  Here’s their self imposed deadline:

Here’s what I would do if I was Maxis – move a lot of stocks down to my branches in JB, especially those closest to the Causeway.  Then employ some shill marketers to flood the major Singaporean online forums with the fact that unlocked/SIM free iPhone3GS are available just across the causeway, mere minutes away from most Singaporeans (Singtel does not offer a prepaid contract free iPhone3GS yet).  And sell it like “hey, take a leisurely weekend drive up to Johor, do some cheap shopping, and get a new contract-free iPhone3GS!“.

I’ve also been informed that internally the stocks of the iPhone3GS have not been been made available to employees yet and will only appear on 31st July, the first day when customers are expected to turn up to collect.  I’m sure the stocks are already in as the approval has to be obtained from the authorities a few days before the phone goes on sale.

And I’m still waiting for the “exciting announcement(s)” which I reported earlier.  It seems to have fizzled out and died a slow but quiet death.

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It’s like your first date – when you have finally secured the first date with the girl/guy of your dreams some time next week, all you can think about is the day of the date and how it couldn’t come fast enough.  So, in the wake of Maxis’ iPhone3GS (pricing plans) announcement today and having booked a unit on their website comes the hard part.  The waiting.  First, waiting for the confirmation email to arrive, which one is supposed to print out and bring to the preferred Maxis Centre or authorised reseller in order to pay the RM 200 (non-refundable) deposit.  One would think the booking reference number is sufficient for Maxis to pull up the order details, but no.  According to a loyal reader, Andy, he tried to use this same tactic when wanting to give money voluntarily to Maxis at one of their centres today, and said request was denied.  I went – “huh”?  Followed by a “duh”.  If I’m selling something, and people willingly give me money without me putting a gun to their heads, I will gladly and willingly accept it without question.  Not so with Maxis, it seems.  I don’t know what the problem is, but apparently their booking confirmation emails (which must contain some super secret booking and product codes) are held up at some server, somewhere, in cyberspace, and not reaching their valued and loved customers.

The booking confirmation email is supposed to be sent once you complete your ordering process online, but till now, I haven’t received mine.  Neither has Andy.  So I clicked on the “Resend Confirmation Email” at the bottom of this page.  Twice.  And I received this nice message.  Twice.  See below.  And nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero, appeared in my mailbox.

I want to give my money to someone, for goodness sakes!  Why can’t I give it away?  Do I now have to put a gun to people’s heads to accept my money?

To be fair to Maxis though, they did say to expect a confirmation email within 24 hours.  So, since I placed my order at around 11+ in the morning today, I should expect it by lunchtime tomorrow.  And maybe, as things so often go in this universe, I’ll get 1,203,039 confirmation emails.  Hopefully after reading them all, I’ll discover one that has a special early bird discount of 10% off the purchase price.  And of course, knowing my luck, it’ll be the last one I read.  That’s life, I guess.

Finally, let’s hope that the collection event doesn’t turn out to be some kind of circus.  I really have no wish to engage in hand-to-hand combat with aged grandfathers or grandmothers.  Nor would I want to instruct my pet Rottweiler to bite anyone on their crown jewels to get them out of my way – not that I fear for the bitten party’s safety, but I fear what my pet dog may get from the bitten party.  Click here to read how Singapore’s Singtel allegedly botched up their launching/collection – although there were people who paid deposits in order to secure a 3GS, during the collection, even people without deposits were allowed to buy one.  And to top it off, these people without deposit got in the queue in front of people who paid deposits.  If this happens at the Maxis Centre when I go to collect my unit, you will surely read about it in the next day’s papers, for some violence is bound to happen.  I hope Maxis manages this one well, where people who paid deposits are given queue numbers, the queue is processed quickly (separate queues for people purchasing prepaid units vs people who sign up for plans which take longer to process), knowledgeable staff, more than 5 counters open to handle the queue as well as proper queue management.  Is this asking too much?  Will pandemonium ensue?

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