I am an existing iValue plan subscriber. I had the iPhone 3G 8GB Black and was given an invitation to upgrade.

If the 30 days wait time is due, just go straight to Maxis Center from where you have booked and ask for collection. If you booked from other places, sorry I have no experience. No point calling customer care 123 because they are clueless and they don't know what is the exact condition in the front line. They will resort to world famine and hunger because there are worldwide shortage of food! Just go to the desk and ask. What they say will be truth. If they have leftovers, heck, you'll get yours too!

Thats what happened to me. 7 days left into the 30-day wait time, I called every 2 days to Maxis 123 and they tell me rubbish. I asked to be connected to the Maxis Center but they gave all sort of reasons. Until a Maxis employee call me that she will personally arrange my iPhone. So I just give up. On the first of Hari Raya, I turned up at Maxis Gardens and my phone was there waiting for the whole week! No one bothered to call/email/sms! Probably busy on holiday or whatever.

1. Yes that is possible. The plan is not 'phone dependent'.

2. True also. Ultimately the plan is meant for and to be used with the iPhone. The entire contract term states the user, the service and the iPhone. No other phones. So legally, Maxis has the right to terminate you for breaching the contract and have you pay the penalty for early termination. Thats the legal perspective. The other side of this requirement is to protect Maxis and Apple's interest. One of the main star features on the iPhone is the Apps Store. With the iPhone and iValue plans, you can not only browse the internet but also make purchases on the Apps Stores. The developers, iPhone and Maxis takes a cut in the money you pay to acquire these applications. Maxis generate revenue from the constant usage of the data and its service. If you break this combination and use the plan with the other phone, you will not be surfing or buying apps as intended. On the other hand, your GF may be using the iPhone with another service provider allowing that service provider to profit and generate revenue on a device originally meant to be exclusively used under Maxis. See the legal and technical bounds here?

The good news is no one cares as long as you pay your bills on time and not tell anyone about it. Just keep a ssshh...

3. Technically you can. The 3G modem is similar as a mobile phone in that it is a GSM transceiver. Again, the legal limitations prevent you from doing that. In real world, just keep a sssh... if it works.

Yeah and we have to face it, Prepaid profits aren't really good compared to Postpaid profits where people make steady monthly payments into Maxis's piggy bank. And we all know that most people who're interested into buying the iPhone outright comes from other service providers anyway. So we can't really fault with Maxis. Also, the reason why iPhone 3G was available on prepaid back then was due to the low adoption rate. I guess we heard about that before.

Like I said before, forget about calling 123 if your 30 days wait time is up. Go straight to Maxis Center and collect your phone. Those 123 people don't have a clue what is happening in the front line. They will resort to the usual explanations. Those are to control their customers' expectations. This is not a world famine/hunger due to food shortage guys. Do not believe them.

Got a called this morning from Maxis. A lady who 'pledged' to resolve my problems 1 week ago now tell me that apparently she or other Maxis staff did not realize that Maxis Center@The Gardens already made necessary arrangements for my booking. The phone is already there waiting. So I fed back how I felt to the lady. I gave as much information as possible because I know the conversation was recorded. At least I hope it'll improve their service.

This shows a few things:

1. They are really clueless.
2. Maxis Centers operate independent of what happens in the HQ and HQ doesn't really know whats the condition in the front line.
3. No collaboration.

So forget about 123, be proactive, go straight to Maxis Center if your wait time is up. A lot of people say Asian companies have problems with communication where there's 'MISCOMMUNICATION' or 'LACK OF COMMUNICATION'. I disagree. In my many years working in Malaysia (and I'm a Malaysian dude), people DON'T and REFUSE to communicate. Period.

p/s: Oops, I forgot to say that I've collected mine THE HARD way.

This post has been edited by davidmak: Sep 23 2009, 11:28 AM

I think they will. It doesn't matter how you pay because their official receipt will record it as one off payment. Thats what matter. Their internal accounting office will be able to resolve it pretty easy. Of course, its just more work to do. Its a matter of convenience rather than possibility. They don't charge you the processing fee for using credit card so they don't lose. Some retail stores do not accept it because the lower amount committed into credit card would mean a smaller cut. With a lower amount, it'll take a longer time to reach a minimum transaction where processing fee would be waived. Its a matter of the bank and the retailer. Nothing to do with customers.

Anyway, its better you resolve this with Maxis Center about the possibilities in mode of payment. Don't take my word for it.

Damn cun the photo! Sui ah!

Time to browse and shop for cases now. Proceed to Garage Sale please. A personal recommendation, More-Thing Handwoven Series.

The iValue Plan included minutes, sms, mms and data is only for domestic consumption. Only applicable for use within Malaysia. Calls made within Malaysia to another number within Malaysia would be charged according to the domestic charges. If you call from Malaysia to an international line, different rates would apply. But it'll be deducted within your commitment fee.

However, if you are traveling abroad then the prevalent roaming charges will apply independent of your iValue Plan. The bill will have a separate section to detail all the calls made and received when traveling abroad or roaming. It will not eat into your iValue Plan, meaning you need to pay extra. Mind you its gonna be expensive

I was traveling to Bangkok for business matters for 2 days and my bill is around RM180 just for roaming. Total minutes I call/receive is less than 15-20 minutes combined. When you dial out, the prevalent roaming charges applies. But when you receive calls, it'll charge according to fixed rate per block (30 seconds). In my case, its RM5.00 per 30 second block.

This post has been edited by davidmak: Sep 24 2009, 10:48 AM

Yes, thats what I am talking about.

Well the free sms and mms only applies for within Maxis numbers. Doing this for other networks will still implies the usual charges independent of your plan. After finishing these sms/mms quotas, you'll still be charged independent/add onto your monthly commitment. To put it simply for you, after using up these free sms/mms (only for Maxis numbers), you'll get charged separately as usual.

Doesn't mean you do less calls you can do more sms. Its separate. The RM50 division is only for 333 minutes. Also its a 30 second block. A call that takes 2 seconds or 28 seconds is considered 1 block. A call that takes 31 seconds will be 2 blocks (30 + 1 seconds). So that 333 minutes is merely an estimate. If your calls are short and sweet... the more inaccurate it'll be. If you make long calls like 1 hours plus, then yes.

Yeah, thats one of the reason why the call log and counter are not always accurate due to different block mechanism used by different telco. Its usually by country. Most telcos in Malaysia uses 30 second per block. I believe this has something to do with network utilization and billing techniques. There are few ways to set a target/prevention. One is to calculate the 333 minutes to reflect the 30 seconds per block. Lets say 5 hours. So you will have to make sure your call counter/log is less than 5 hours. Just remember that the iPhone call counter takes call in/out so its a combined thing. So every month when you receive Maxis sms notification of billing, you just reset the call counter. Also try to call 123 to limit your credit to somewhere comfortable so that your bill will never exceed a certain limit.

Yes, really pissed me off too. There's this lady in Maxis Gardens which I have a grudge at. A lady who looks like Malay but speaks Chinese/Cantonese. She never check and just say NO... NO... NO... Dang! In the end, my iPhone is waiting there for a whole week!

Yes, the 500MB bandwidth quota is DATA allocated to your every month. It doesn't matter how you use this data. You can be on 3G, EDGE, GPRS, etc and it'll be using from this quota. Data transferred over WIFI is excepted.

No worries, when you disable 3G your iPhone will automatically fall back to the 'next best signal' which could be GPRS or EDGE. In most situations, it'll be EDGE if you're in Klang Valley or other places nearby. Some 'ulu' places will have GPRS indicated by 'o'. Most of the time 3G is the best. However, there can be situations where 3G is congested or 3G signal is weak. That way, falling back to EDGE is a good alternative. Also it helps save a little on the battery too.

Nah, Maxis 3G is pretty ok most of the time. I don't know about its other Maxis 3G broadband but surfing on my iPhone seems to be great. But it depends on the location you're in. Some places may have good signal but no respond on the internet = fail. Some other places, pretty consistent. But I only use internet on my iPhone for Facebook, IM and some regular Safari. So it doesn't matter if its 3G or EDGE.

Yup, pretty worth it. No worries if you don't have data plan for it. You can always get the apps via WIFI or via iTunes (with iPhone connected). However, if you wish to reveal the potential of iPhone on the move, then you definitely need a data plan for it.

The 2,000 hours of internet surfing is approximately calculated from the number of data bandwidth quota allocated to you every month. Be very careful on the 2,000 hours of internet surfing because it can mean a lot of things. It could be websites with only text (since data transferred is usually small) or maybe one two websites but stagnant there for a few hundred hours.

Just ignore all those approximation, they are meant to give a quantitative figure for consumer to make comparisons. Just look at the data bandwidth quota allocated to you and watch the cellular data counter.

First time activation alone doesn't import any user setting into the PC unless the guy accidentally set it up or synced or restored to a previous iPhone. Then that will port in settings from the previous iPhone. In my opinion, better demand an explanation from Maxis Center. Used unit or refurbished units usually go through stringent 'check up' and the phone's software is restored to plain vanilla new state. It couldn't possibly harbor previous user's settings. Unless they didn't do a good job or skipped some processes before packing it in.

Come to think of it when I collected my iPhone, my box is double wrapped. The first layer is Apple's shrink wrap. The second layer is Maxis's shrink wrap where the service card resides. However, they don't look like a botched job and look professionally new.

In fact I was shocked to see my iPhone lifetime counter being 1 day + 2 hours. Then later I realized restoring from a previous iPhone's backup will also port these counters into the new iPhone. This has been demonstrated many times and heavily discussed in the forum. Setting up the iPhone as new will reset the counter.

The restoring and syncing of iPhone is pretty interesting thing actually. For example, I managed to restore a backup to 2 different iPhone along with the purchased applications. Both iPhone now sync to iTunes of different PC and they work just fine. Of course, both iPhones belongs to me and has my username activation in it.

Yes, you could do this at home. The activation is just the matter of plugging it in and going through an automated process. When you reach home and plug it into your iTunes for the second time, it will let you perform user registration to activate your warranty. The Maxis customer executive told me that by letting Maxis activate on the spot allows your Maxis warranty to be activated immediately.

In my opinion, it doesn't matter. You have the service card and the information is registered to your name. You also have the receipts and Maxis has your information. They have no excuse. Basically the activation is just a good will gesture to let you use it immediately rather going away with a no-yet-operational phone. Also on the spot activation allow you to inspect the phone's features and check for dead pixels, dead areas, etc.

The activation process done by Apple is actually the signing servers to authenticate your copy of iPhone OS. This process is done many times over the course of ownership where you may be updating to a new OS version or performing a simple restore.

This post has been edited by davidmak: Sep 29 2009, 04:05 PM

I don't think they have called you. It is more like a convenient tactic whereby they just notify you over sms so that you cannot 'retaliate' with your feedback and they are not obligated to take down your complaints and file it down. In chinese's saying, kill first... think later. Or a preemptive attack.

Ya, until Maxis put up an official announcement over their website there's no evidence of any delay. Just turn a deaf ear to their customer care consultant's report. Stick with the 30 days. Thats all you can do. If they delay, there's nothing more you can do.

Yeah wait is agony...

What about the lifetime counter? What does it states? It should be in the low. Of course they can reset this counter when they set it up as new. By the way, the App Store username you found. Does it look like a localized one or something 'international'. Maybe they use a generic username account to test the functionality and forgot to erase?

I am still skeptical that the Maxis activation would do so much in a short time. The activation process is just like a few seconds. I think we should just stop here. If the phone is new without any visible usage marks/scratches, no phone numbers dialed, lifetime counter on the low, etc. The rest is covered in the warranty.

I understand having a feeling of suspicion is hard for you. After all, we dumped good money on such a product to expect it to be new. But this can't go on forever. If you have sync and set up the iPhone to your own. Good chance is you do not have the evidence anymore. If you still have not synced it and the username is still there. My advice is to go back to Maxis. Get an explanation that would ease your suspicion.