LOVE, Kloudiia

I was elated when I knew the ’reds’ got the exclusive right to sell iPhone in Singapore. Naturally, because I belong to this camp, for now.

Then another piece of good news swept in – that Apple had reduced the price drastically in the US. Whoa, I had more to look forward to, and so I delayed buying a phone just to wait and see what the ‘reds’ plan to do.

Then there were the speculated dates going around. It was supposed to be 2nd quarter, then 3rd, then last. Then July. Then end of year. Finally, the auspicious date was set – 22 Aug. I made my reservation before this ‘privilege’ expired.

Then I waited.

A day before the launch, I got an email detailing the price plans. The ‘reds’ came out with 3 mobile and data plans that would see potential iPhone buyers whipping out cash ranging from $0 to $508 for the 16GB model. Don’t be too happy to see that the phone will be given away for free. Besides being tied down by a new contract, one has to bear a monthly subscription of $205 for the next 24 months. That works out to $4992 (and with it a whopping 1500 minutes of outgoing calls and 1500 sms!). No wonder they are so generous to give you that phone. With such a subscription, I guess one can get any phone your heart desires for 0 cents if you walk into any mobile phone shop. The ‘greens’ would welcome you, I believe. So will the the ‘orange’. *wink*

Besides those data plans, I was given another option. If I choose to recontract my existing plan, which, to the ‘reds”s dismay (very soon to be mine) doesn’t fall under their eligible plans, I have to top up cash of $350 for a 24-month contract.

So I naively thought that would be the amount I have to fork out for the phone, and I’ll have to bear the additional costs of downloading data if I were to ever go crazy for some movies that I had to download them on the go.

But no. I called their hotline and the customer service officer couldn’t have the information on this super red-hot promotion to verify my query. So she had to get someone else to call me.

A day later plus another enquiry email, I received a call. And it dawned on me that as my existing plan was too pathetic, I had to pay the full price of the phone, which was in the area of $700 plus, and I have to top up $350. That means, this iPhone will set me back by more than $1000.

The ‘reds’ got to be kidding.

With that money, I can buy a few sets from US and happily continue my existing contract for another year and I can say bye bye to them. After all, there is this super-wonderful number-retention service available!

No matter how I do my math, this just doesn’t make sense to me. I mean cents. I mean sense and cents.

Is there anyone out there who has fanatically took up their red-hot super deals so far and is basking in the joy of having this new toy to fiddle with? Can you tell me how you feel about this?

Because until now, I can only feel that the ‘reds’ is making use of this chance to rip customers off. That’s how I felt, really.

Of course, they have every reason to do that. It’s a free market, and they probably have to deal with a snaking queue when they open this gadget to the public who wasn’t ‘privilege’ enough to make a reservation than to bother with a customer like me.

As for me, the iPhone continues to be elusive… If OMNIA has a better response to their touch interface, I’d grab one, for sure!