WTF are the phones doing in Seremban? I'm taking a drive up to Seremban now.

esdome, let us know how you fare. Hope you get one.

I put my iPhone 3G up for sale but now have to delay my potential buyer, who's practically begging me to hand over the 3G to him because, like you, I also have no spare phone.

Wasted one day leave for tomorrow. Looks like I'll have to go PC Fair and catch H1N1 or something.

That's exactly what happened to me except I'm the one that has to look for one now that noone seems to have it.

I got a 3GS as a walk-in customer! Am I the first?

Anyway, I got my prebooked 32GB White on Friday from Machines Lot 10 and wanted to get a 16GB for my wife but of course there's no stock for walk-in so placed a RM200 booking for one.

Yesterday, family & I went for dinner at Mines. Something we don't normally do. While waiting for food, I went up to Switch to look at some cases. I saw 2 white & 1 black 3GS in their glass cabinets. I assumed they were all booked but asked the sales girl anyway. She said the 2 white ones are available for sale! I told her I'll come back after dinner.

So after dinner, I went to buy a prepaid card and went to get the 3GS. It was already 9:30pm but I thought still enough time, Switch closes at 10pm. Unfortunately when I tried to pay, the sales girl told me that I had to pay by cash as the "credit card system" was already off and they didn't have the password to turn it on again. So wierd & stupid. I decided to come back the next morning.

So today, I went to Mines again. Planned to go early but ended up reaching there around noon. Already one of the white 16gb was gone. I had my prepaid card from last night and made the purchase.

It was a pure stroke of luck that I went to Mines for dinner on Sat. The problem now is I've paid Machines RM200 for the 2nd batch booking. I don't know if they will be willing to return my money.

@tinkerbell
I called up Machines and you're right. They can only return the RM200 booking fee in the form of store credit which isn't too bad for me since I'll eventually get something from them but I told them to hang on to it as my auntie wants an iPhone too. Will probably pass the booking to her.

@brojason
brojason, I really feel for you. Really bad luck. I'm sure Maxis will give you 1-1 replacement if they have stocks but given the current stock situation, I think they will most probably make you wait. It's either that or they bump someone off the prebooking list. Good luck and let us know what happens. I have 16GB & 32GB white each. So far so good for both sets. Fingers crossed.

@whizzy
Much better than the iPhone 3G when browsing on WIFI, the 3G used to suck up battery when using WIFI. Can't say much about talk time yet since it's the weekend.

Dunno about PG but since Friday and because I was looking for a unit for my wife who didn't bother to book, I called up all the Klang Valley Machines stores, Switch Mines, walk into 6 different Maxis Centers (Pavilion, KLCC, Times Square, MidValley, Mines, Sunway) and a few Maxis dealers, none had ready stock for walk-in customers.

It was only by a stroke of luck that I found 2 available units at Switch on Sat night. I had called them the day before and they told me they didn't have any. By the time I bought 1 on Sunday noon, the other unit was already gone.

I did find a shop in Low Yat Plaza which still has stocks of the 3GS but they're imports and the quoted price was RM3700 for the 32gb. I guess they're targeting tourists & desperados.

I collected my prebooked unit last Friday evening from Machines Lot 10. I was the only one there. It was as pleasant as any other shopping experience at Machines. The only delay was signing up for the contract which took about 30mins because Maxis reg system was down or something.

Sunday morning, I walked in to buy a non-prebooked 16GB unit from Switch. Also nobody there. This one on Hotlink so was even faster to process & pay.

Keep looking, you never know. I found not 1 but 2 units at Switch available for walk-in purchase. By the time I bought 1 the other one also kena sapu already.

Not yesterday, no, I checked Maxis & Machines Sunway. No extra units for walk-in purchase. Can make booking but dunno when the next shipment is due. Try next week, hopefully the shipment arrive early and with extra units.

If you booked during PC Fair over the weekend, I think you'd have to wait. The people getting theirs now are those who prebooked 2 weeks ago. I got my prebooked unit last Friday as scheduled. You can try scouring for a shop who has extra units but I think that's pretty rare. I was lucky to find such a shop with 2 extra units but both sold out the next day.

it says on the website. Port in to maxis line - cannot sign up for maxis plan with iphone for 24 months. Correct.

Yes, all wrap up nicely. I bought mine from Machines & Switch. Both let me unbox myself. Actually they don't need the phone for activation or anything like that. If you're postpaid, just tell them the plan that you want and your phone number. If you're prepaid, just give them the Hotlink card & IC to register.

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Added on August 4, 2009, 9:38 amI don't think that's true. I went to a few Maxis centers and none of them would sell to me if I didn't have a booking. Some guy next to me even tried to bribe them with RM50. LOL.

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Added on August 4, 2009, 9:43 amMachines gave me back my deposit in the form of store credit and I cancelled my booking just 2 days after I made it. That's OK with me but I'm sure you'd prefer cash.

This post has been edited by soonwai: Aug 4 2009, 09:43 AM

Good choice. better support Machines than Maxis. I booked mine at Lot 10 and they got my 32GB White for me on the evening of the 31st. The day before and the morning of the 31st, they only had bad news for me but somehow managed to get my 3GS at 5pm. It was so fresh off the delivery truck that I had to wait for them to enter the details of the 3GS into their inventory before I could pay for it.

However I heard of some bad experience with Machines MV. So I guess YMMV.

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Added on August 5, 2009, 1:23 amWhich Machines store did you book from? Is it Midvalley?

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Added on August 5, 2009, 1:32 amTinkerbel,

You can add this to the faq.

EON Bank Credit Cards allows you to convert the purchase to installments. I believe they have the best rates for 12 months I've seen so far and longest at 3 years.

6 months 2.5%
12 months 3%
24 months 5%
36 months 7%

Reference: http://www.eonbank.com.my/consumer/creditc...ment_plan.shtml


This post has been edited by soonwai: Aug 5 2009, 01:32 AM

Maxis is the one to be blamed.

If they don't want to be responsible then they should issue a statement and put the blame on Apple. I'm sure they had been planning the launch a few months ago. They have more than enough time to stock up before launching, well before the current "worldwide shortage". I think they are probably too scared to order a big batch of phones and get burned if noone buys.

Either that or Apple suddenly called them up on the 30th and told them "no stock lah." Like what Maxis is doing to us now.

In the meantime, our deposit is earning interest for Maxis. They could have stopped the booking when a certain number is reached but no, they let it go on & on, increasing the number of soon-to-be disappointed customers.

As for the poor dealers, Machines, Switch, MEPs, they are the ones we shout at because we gave them our money and they said the phones can be collected at whatever date. The dealers are the ones with more to lose from disgruntled customers than Maxis. I'm sure they're hassling Maxis at every opportunity. I can attest to at least one Machines store manager who tried his damndest to get my 31st July unit and succeeded.

One other possibility is that the company handling the logistics & distribution for Maxis screwed up. Is it Brightstar Distribution? I'm not sure.

That's my rant though I'm not sure why I'm ranting since I already have 2 iPhones, my prebooked 3GS plus a walk-in unit. I guess I just feel for you.

One more thing. We're lucky in a way that the iPhone 3GS is being handled by Maxis. If it was any other handphone with the same stock situation, you'd be seeing the handphone stall in Sungei Wang jacking up the price to an astronomical value. For those who really need one now, there's a stall in LYP with ready stocks but not Maxis sets. Last time I asked the price was RM3780 for the 32GB.

This post has been edited by soonwai: Aug 5 2009, 02:18 AM

It's because they have the guts to order more units so as not to disappoint their walk-in impulse buying customers.

Try Settings:General:Reset:Reset Network Settings and see if that helps.

I managed to find 2 units at Switch, Mines on Sunday but both gone now. It's definitely a very long shot. I don't think there'll be any hope of finding one in stores in the city. Other states perhaps?

I know cause I bought one of the two for the wife. :-)