Yes bro, go to their outlet and cancel first before the pre-order. If you can wait till next month, just walk in to their centre and if they have the stocks you want, just ask them to renew your contract and they'll waive the penalty.

but why would you be without phone?

you cancel the zerolution contract by paying [RRP divide contract length multiply by outstanding contract length] + penalty for cancelling it earlier.
maxis or any telco for that matter won't take the phone back lah.

why the penalty?

the give you discounted device, and in return you had previously promised to continue pay them RM128 rateplan for 24mth. but now you want to renege. so instead of having to pay the full RM1536 for the outstanding RM128*12mth (as example), they're asking for maybe few percent of the device price as compensation for unrealised promise.

maybe to you RM43 is steep amount as you are in your final month, but if you look at perspective of someone else who maybe is in month 18, having to pay RM43(?) but escapes from the final monthly bill of [RM139*6mth] could be a blessing.

after all, once you terminate contract, there is no guarantee you won't change to cheaper plan or MNP out altogether.

that's fair, no? unlike fibre contract in which if you renege, you are still liable to pay the monthly commitment multiply by outstanding months.

I thought advance device payment was a thing of the past? I encountered the same scenario a couple of POs back.

Not just for the iPhones, and definitely not this year only. It happened during iPhone 14 preorder and perhaps even for the iPhone 13. During iPhone 12 time they didn't have this.

They scared you take their phone and run away. Hahaha. Interest free cashflow for them. These farkers.

In which step you will tell you need advance payment

You port in to maxis or existing customer?

If you’re existing customer I suggest wait for 1-2 minutes after login into your maxis account and do the purchase.

I’ve encountered the advance payment page. So what i did was relogin waited 1-2 mins , delete item in cart and add it back and proceed to checkout and no more advance payment needed.

Yeah, I got in the queue at 11.53pm - I was 1003 (and they were serving 1000, hahaha). All done and dusted by 12.07am
What plan are you on? The highest? If not mistaken you’ve been a customer with them for quite some time right? It’s strange that they require you to pay upfront

Haha, I also do not want that which is why I’m still waiting for the branch to have stock before walking in to trade in. They told me this is the only way they can only use the trade in value to offset the device price for normal contract and not put the value into the monthly billl, which is why I have not preordered the phone.