Wow. To say that I'm beyond annoyed with StarHub would be a huge understatement. Huge.
This evening, I received an email regarding my iPhone 6s booking status. Before opening the email, I was so excited because I thought that I would receive information regarding the collection of the new iPhone. Alas! To my shock and horror, I was informed that i was "not eligible to book iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus due to ... outstanding bill(s)".
Imagine my disappointment because I have been waiting for the new iPhone 6s since 9 months ago when my line was due for recontract in December. And even more so, when I've been using an iPhone 5 with a cracked screen for 3 months now. So when StarHub announced that they were opening up registration for iPhone 6s, I leapt at the opportunity. Who didn't want to avoid the crazy queues and disappointment when you're told that they've sold out on the latest iPhone? I even kept bragging to my family and friends about it.
A week after my registration - today - I received this email. The payment of my bill is via GIRO, meaning that the payment should have gone through on the last day of the month - which would have been 31st August.
Hence, when I received this email, I was obviously confused and decided to call StarHub's 24/7 hotline to find out why. I told the customer service representative my problem and I was put on hold for the longest time. So, I decided to look through StarHub's Facebook to see if I was the only one going through this. To my surprise (not really, actually), I wasn't. Anyway, the CSR came back and reconfirmed the name that I registered under, and asked me in, what I assumed was, an incredulous tone, "You said you're not eligible?". So, I was put on hold again while he went to reconfirm, and continued scrolling through the comments on StarHub's iPhone 6s post. Anyway, the CSR got back to me, and apparently, they only received payment in cash when my mum paid her credit card bill on the 17th. I have no idea what happened there, and honestly, I'm so annoyed and tired that I don't really care right now. And as per their T&Cs, you would have to have no outstanding bills upon registration. Therefore, even though there is no outstanding bill for my number before the email was even sent out, I was immediately deemed ineligible and was disqualified. The only way I could get my hands on the new iPhone would be to get it on the 26th September via walk-in sales. And based on past stories and news headlines, we all know that 'walk-in sales', basically, inevitably and obviously is, 'queue-up sales'. And again, who would want to queue up for hours to get the new iPhone? I'd already waited months and paid extra every month, no way was I going to be caught on newspaper as one of those who queued up for half a day.
I kept asking if there was anything I could, or anything he could do to help, such as to reserve a set for me, alas, again, he couldn't, because the whole point of the registration was to reserve a set for customers. And since I got disqualified, there was no way for him to put me on the list. Exasperated, I asked him if there were even any registrations that got approved, and he said of course. And I proceeded to ask him if there were many who got disqualified, and also, he said yes. So, based on what I got, my hypothesis is that the response for the iPhone 6s was overwhelming and they could not meet all the requests, so they came up with this ridiculous explanation, or if I may, bullshit, to try and wriggle their way out of this.
After all that ranting, I am a little calmer, and I have to say that I may be partially at fault because I didn't read the T&C, so I overlooked the part regarding the payment. I guess you do learn something new everyday. In this case, I learnt that paying via GIRO doesn't mean that companies automatically trust that you'll pay up on time, and may still believe you'll skip or delay payment. I also learnt that some companies are just rigid and uncompromising to their customers. But there's nothing that we can do, and they know it.
Oh, and just to clarify, I registered for the iPhone 6s under my mum's name and she makes the payment because my line is signed under her name and both our bills are lumped together.
This evening, I received an email regarding my iPhone 6s booking status. Before opening the email, I was so excited because I thought that I would receive information regarding the collection of the new iPhone. Alas! To my shock and horror, I was informed that i was "not eligible to book iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus due to ... outstanding bill(s)".
Imagine my disappointment because I have been waiting for the new iPhone 6s since 9 months ago when my line was due for recontract in December. And even more so, when I've been using an iPhone 5 with a cracked screen for 3 months now. So when StarHub announced that they were opening up registration for iPhone 6s, I leapt at the opportunity. Who didn't want to avoid the crazy queues and disappointment when you're told that they've sold out on the latest iPhone? I even kept bragging to my family and friends about it.
A week after my registration - today - I received this email. The payment of my bill is via GIRO, meaning that the payment should have gone through on the last day of the month - which would have been 31st August.
Hence, when I received this email, I was obviously confused and decided to call StarHub's 24/7 hotline to find out why. I told the customer service representative my problem and I was put on hold for the longest time. So, I decided to look through StarHub's Facebook to see if I was the only one going through this. To my surprise (not really, actually), I wasn't. Anyway, the CSR came back and reconfirmed the name that I registered under, and asked me in, what I assumed was, an incredulous tone, "You said you're not eligible?". So, I was put on hold again while he went to reconfirm, and continued scrolling through the comments on StarHub's iPhone 6s post. Anyway, the CSR got back to me, and apparently, they only received payment in cash when my mum paid her credit card bill on the 17th. I have no idea what happened there, and honestly, I'm so annoyed and tired that I don't really care right now. And as per their T&Cs, you would have to have no outstanding bills upon registration. Therefore, even though there is no outstanding bill for my number before the email was even sent out, I was immediately deemed ineligible and was disqualified. The only way I could get my hands on the new iPhone would be to get it on the 26th September via walk-in sales. And based on past stories and news headlines, we all know that 'walk-in sales', basically, inevitably and obviously is, 'queue-up sales'. And again, who would want to queue up for hours to get the new iPhone? I'd already waited months and paid extra every month, no way was I going to be caught on newspaper as one of those who queued up for half a day.
I kept asking if there was anything I could, or anything he could do to help, such as to reserve a set for me, alas, again, he couldn't, because the whole point of the registration was to reserve a set for customers. And since I got disqualified, there was no way for him to put me on the list. Exasperated, I asked him if there were even any registrations that got approved, and he said of course. And I proceeded to ask him if there were many who got disqualified, and also, he said yes. So, based on what I got, my hypothesis is that the response for the iPhone 6s was overwhelming and they could not meet all the requests, so they came up with this ridiculous explanation, or if I may, bullshit, to try and wriggle their way out of this.
After all that ranting, I am a little calmer, and I have to say that I may be partially at fault because I didn't read the T&C, so I overlooked the part regarding the payment. I guess you do learn something new everyday. In this case, I learnt that paying via GIRO doesn't mean that companies automatically trust that you'll pay up on time, and may still believe you'll skip or delay payment. I also learnt that some companies are just rigid and uncompromising to their customers. But there's nothing that we can do, and they know it.
Oh, and just to clarify, I registered for the iPhone 6s under my mum's name and she makes the payment because my line is signed under her name and both our bills are lumped together.
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