Most badly executed promotion ever- Part I

(Last Updated 6th Feb 2007)

DO NOT COPY OR QUOTE ME ON THIS. IF YOU ARE AFFECTED, PLEASE USE YOUR OWN WORDS AND WRITE YOUR OWN COMPLAIN EMAIL !

It's very unlikely any of our major ISP will ever give us a deal with involves free laptops for the upcoming months. For those who didn't know, Starhub blew it big time in their recent promotion last year at Sitex 2006. Without further ado, here is the beef.

Names have not been censored to protect the guilty, but my privacy is protected :)

This is a on-going drama unfolding. This entry will be updated whenever there is a fresh development.

My first email to Starhub / HP

Incoming E-Mail from Foong Jia Khang
Subject: Starhub/HP Centrino promotional notebook fiasco
To: customerservice@starhub.com,starhub.helpline@hp.com
From: Foong Jia Khang
CC:
Received on: 01/02/2007 3:24:51 PM

To whom it may concern,

I have signed my re-contract at Sitex on 2nd Nov 2006 and was told that my re-contract application will be processed in 7 days. It was 2 weeks after the show (approx 15th Dec 2006) before someone from starhub called me to confirm my re-contract. I told that I should be getting my notebook within a month from the confirmation of the re-contract.

By right, my new contract should start on the day that is was signed, or at very least, within the 7 days frame as verbally told to me by the Starhub Staff at Sitex. Instead, it starts from 12 December, meaning I have to incur addition charges as my new contract have a 10% discount for the re-contract. This also means my contract starts
later, and therefore, ends later. This also adds a delay to my notebook collection as HP takes a month to process my order AFTER Starhub confirmed my re-contract. My last re-contract and contract at Singtel was effective on the day of signing, why is Starhub so different? I congratulate Starhub for having a overwhelming response
for this promotion, but post dating, stretching the contract, the resulted additional billing and delayed delivery of the laptop irks me.

The Starhub staff who called me to confirm my recontact told me to wait for HP to call me for the laptop itself. The wait stretched on and on and I waited patiently until I have to call up Starhub at the end of the second week of January when everyone else already got their notebooks. To my horror, no one can give me a date when anyone from Starhub or HP will call me. My new contract has been running since 12 Dec, and one month later, no one from HP or Starhub called me. Does this indicate that my order wasn't processed at all, and didn't reach HP after 8 weeks after the show? My friends in the same queue in front and behind me have already received their laptops. That goes for the same for my friends who signed up before and after Sitex. Why am I the only one delayed so badly?

Regrettably, I have to resort to calling up your helpline again to demand HP to get back to me to confirm my notebook order. HP did so in a week, and confirmed my order. After the call from HP, I was able to pick up my notebook from Richland within the following week at 29 Jan.

The laptop I ordered was a Compaq V3136TU. It was a upgrade from a Compaq V3131 which was advertised as a Intel Centrino Duo Core laptop. The upgrade specifications was clearly for the additional ram, DVD writer, CPU and extended warranty. But the V3136TU is not a Centrino laptop, which is not mention anywhere when I re-contract, or during the calls from Starhub or HP. I paid the highest premium for the upgrades and instead, receive a DOWNGRADE without warning. This is a breach of contract, as the goods delivered is not as advertised. This is totally unacceptable. I waited 2 months for this, which could have been much longer if I had not been persistent, and finally received the wrong laptop.

I am well aware that there is a price premium for Centrino laptops, which is the reason why the Starhub offer is attractive in the first place, By changing to a non-Centrino Laptop without prior notice, this is a really a unethical move to cut cost. Please do NOT try to tell methat the Intel wireless chipset is not important, or it has the same functionality as the Broadcom wireless chipset. I am a IT professional and this is an obvious case of short-changing if it is not a
mistake. If this is a mistake, is there going to be a recall ?

This promotion appeared as the best from Starhub initially, but is now
the worst experience so far. There were no notification for the numerous delays nor things was carried out the way that it could have been done. I am very disappointed at the handling of the promotion which is filled with frustration. This is compounded by the fact that I actually recommended this promotion among my friends, and several of them did signed up, only to encounter the same inconvenience and bad
experience as I did.

I wish to be contacted about these issues as soon as possible.

With disappointment and anger,

Foong Jia Khang
Customer No : CENSORED
HP order : CENSORED
Mobile : CENSORED

Starhub's Reply (Standard template reply obviously)

	date			Feb 2, 2007 2:05 PM
	subject			Feedback on MaxOnline Promotion - Customer No. CENSORED
	mailed-by			starhub.com

Dear Foong Jia Khang

Thank you for your email of 1 February 2007.

Due to overwhelming response from our customers, there has been a
delay in delivering the HP premium. We sincerely apologise for the
inconvenience it caused you. We assure you that we have been working
with HP closely and allocating all of our resources to maximise
efficiency and minimise your waiting time.

We would like to inform you that there was a communication error on
the branding of the Intel Core Duo Mobile Technology in the
advertising materials pertaining to this promotion. It was an error
leading to the inclusion of the Centrino name and logo in the
technical specifications of the notebooks. The original text should
have read 'Intel Core Duo Mobile Technology' instead of 'Intel
Centrino Duo Mobile Technology'.

HP and StarHub would like to apologise for the error. However, please
rest assured that the notebook that you are receiving will have the
same functionality, and that all other details mentioned in the
promotions were correct.

In addition, the specifications of the notebook that were
communicated clearly on the order confirmation page where the
customer confirmed his/her order contained accurate information of
the notebook specifications from the start of the promotion.

We will take note and share your valuable feedback with the relevant
departments for their consideration to improve in this area.

If you have any questions, please email to this address or fax in to
6725 1603.


Best regards

Vianny Tjen

Customer Affairs

My second email to Starhub / HP

Feb 5, 2007 11:37 AM

Re: Feedback on MaxOnline Promotion - Customer No. 71556710

Starhub is a well known name in the IT / Communication industry, and it's hard to believe such a mistake could have occurred. There is a clear distinction for a notebook with a notebook with Centrino technology and the Centrino name and logo were used in the advertisement. For the reason that you are offering a Centrino Core 2 Duo notebook, I took the offer instead of Singtel's Sony LCD. Even if there is a communication error, this is ridiculous.

> HP and StarHub would like to apologise for the error. However, please
> rest assured that the notebook that you are receiving will have the
> same functionality, and that all other details mentioned in the
> promotions were correct.
I assume that the reply to my initial email was a template reply. And the person who forwarded me the template reply did not read the content of my email.

Therefore, I shall repeat myself again

I am well aware that there is a price premium for Centrino laptops, which is the reason why the Starhub offer is attractive in the first place, By changing to a non-Centrino Laptop without prior notice, this is a really a unethical move to cut cost. Please do NOT try to tell me that the Intel wireless chipset is not important, or it has the same functionality as the Broadcom wireless chipset. I am a IT professional and this is an obvious case of short-changing if it is not a mistake. If this is a mistake, is there going to be a recall ?

I paid a premium for the laptop and I expect to get what I have paid for. If you deem "have the same functionality" as the reasoning, you might as well send Celeron and AMD laptops to me. They all have the same functionality.

> In addition, the specifications of the notebook that were
> communicated clearly on the order confirmation page where the
> customer confirmed his/her order contained accurate information of
> the notebook specifications from the start of the promotion.
There is no such order confirmation page. A HP staff called me, took my order and confirmed my order via email, which contains the following:

1.0	Upg 2; NB V3136TU (RL377PA); SH GO SITEX
1.1	RL377PA Compaq Presario V3136TU NB PC
1.2	RV673PA HP SCV Nov 06 NB Offer
1.3	RZ380PA SCV SITEX $150 Discount Voucher
1.4	U4819E Pick Up & Return, HW Support, 3 year (Consumer)

It makes no mention that this is NOT a centrino notebook. It merely states the model, no specifications at all. It is only natural to assume that the notebook I will get is as advertised when I signed up. No one from Starhub or HP had notified me on this, nor I was told during my 5 calls with Starhub and 2 calls with HP. Therefore, I am not informed of the problem before and after the purchase, and found out on my own after I have received the laptop.

A apology and a excuse like this is NOT acceptable. Not only the laptop is late by twice the time stated during the promotion (and more if I didn't call in), it's the wrong model as well.

With disappointment and anger,

Foong Jia Khang
Customer No : CENSORED
HP order : CENSORED
Mobile : CENSORED

----------------------------

Phonecall from HP

6th Feb 2007 - 10.08 am

Jess Yong from HP called up on my mobile. First she tried to smoke me by saying that the $329 upgrade option means upgrading to a "Intel Core 2 Duo" laptop. She asked me if I have the advertisement with me for the promotion. This is an obvious act to smoke people. Most people will not have the advertisement with them, allowing her to say anything in her favor. Luckily, I have a scan of the promotional material which I can bring up in seconds. I quickly refute her by stating that that only refers to the processor. Centrino is a 3-part package. I paid $329 to upgrade the CPU, RAM, DVD Burner, OS and Warranty. The "Intel Core 2 Duo" is an upgrade for the processor. Since the original specifications denotes it as a Centrino laptop, it should stay as a Centrino laptop after upgrading as it didn't states that it will be changed to a non-Centrino laptop because of a change in the wireless chipset. There is no where in the material that says otherwise. It makes no sense to paid for the upgrades and get a downgrade. I must repeat, that this is another unethical tactic to pass the buck rather than admitting it. Imagine those poor people who did not have the advertising material anymore. She will insist that the $329 upgade actually means downgrading to a non-Centrino while upgrading the rest of the notebook. Such nonsense.

For those who didn't know what's a Centrino, apart that Intel kept pushing the magic word into your skull. It means the following must be present to qualify :

1. Intel mobile processor
2. Intel mobile wireless chipset
3. Intel mobile motherboard chipset

The dispute arises when Starhub promoted the offer as Centrino laptops. But they gave us a non-Centrino laptop instead by substituting the Intel mobile wireless chipset with a 3rd part Broadcom wireless chipset instead. Probably a cost saving move, and undetectable to non computer savvy folks. No, they are not getting away with this. No way.

I told her that something has to be done about this, so she offered me 2 options :

1. Canceled the subscription to Starhub and return the notebook
2. Get a free 9 months warranty from HP

Being the evil bastard, I asked her if HP will pick up the notebook if I choose to cancel. Why is this evil you might wonder? This will be a nightmare on her end. I will make them refund my payments to HP, ask them to pickup the notebook from me, cancel my subscription to Starhub and blow up the case. Further more, it does me no good to cancel the subscription now as I have already paid for 1 month on the new subscription and I have already missed the Singtel LCD offer. Certainly, they are not going to refund me the subscription.

She didn't want to continue to smoke me on the technical grounds, so she went on to her second line of defense. She kept insisting that there was a mistake on the advertisement and the laptop is nice and functional. It looks great and such blah blah blah obviously trying hard to me to agree to keep the notebook.

At this point of time, I was already angry at her attempts to smoke me. So I proceed to tell her that even if what she said is true, I didn't care. I paid a premium for a Centrino notebook, and insist that I should get one even if there is truly a mistake. If I were to cancel the subscription, are they going to give me Singtel's LCD offer ? (Obviously trying to make her life hard here since it's not possible to)

Then I let up and asked if it's possible to refund me my 2 years HP carepack instead and give me the 9 months warranty, hence netting a 1 year and 9 months warranty with $219 cash back. She said no, which is quite expected since it will create problems with their systems. It's hard to get a refund. Therefore I asked if the 9 months warranty can be stacked on top of my 3 years warranty.

<15>

Yes. It can be done she replied. So I will have to send her my notebooks serial number to update the warranty period. So we came to the end of our conversation. Seriously, I don't mind an addition 9 months extension of the warranty to the notebook. A notebook doesn't last so long nowadays and get worse with age. Such a long warranty will certainly safe guard the future of the notebook.

I don't like to stress people over the phone like this but they insist in covering up and smoking me, I am not going to tolerate this nonsense. I have to be a nasty customer in order to get what they are suppose to give me in the first place.

I will just say that Starhub / HP screwed up big time in this promotion.

I will be making sure that I actually getting 3 years and 9 months of warranty before I end this post. I really doubt that it can be done since the max duration of a carepack I know is 3 years.

Currently, my warranty stands at 3 years. Let's see.

And meanwhile, the saga continues...

Additional reading material :

1. How to get the extra 9 mths warrenty from SH? (Hardwarezone)
2. MOL Promo (Hardwarezone)
3. ZDnetasia News article

Resources

1. HP warranty check

Terrible translations

What do you get when a Ang Mo runs through China and Taiwan ? He went to China and Taiwan and found many really terribly translation words. It's bad that it made my tears flow ... from laughter while reading his site. While ordering his meals, he found some gems hidden in the menu like ...

各式油菜 = Every form rape
烧春鸡 = Burn the spring chicken
家乡一品锅 = 1 article pot : home town

He called it Manglish. It's sure to make you really hungry after laughing so hard. His site also contains articles on his experience there. Quite interesting to read how things looked to a foreigner.

Check this link out ! Very entertaining.

Meanwhile, back to WoW exp grinding.

当了一个晚上的跟班. Stalking a journalist

Breaking tradition, instead of laughing at the people on 10 o'clock news, I went to the new year 2007 countdown at Esplanade to join in the super big crowd of 160,000 waiting to catch the fireworks display at midnight. In additional, I get the unique chance to see how news is being recorded.

It was meant to be a gathering for my TPGS friends but things fell apart as the hours approached. So in the end, everybody except Cuiyan put aeroplane for various reasons. Well, she had to be there for the entire duration as she had to do a 2000 words write-up on the merry making event at Esplanade. Hey not bad leh, where else can i land myself a job which let me report for work at 5pm at SPH, go over at over New Year 2007 countdown @ esplanade and all these counts as a working day ? Think of the hours you can pig before reporting to work. *drooling*

The standing order of the night was :

1. Watch the whole thing
2. Interview a couple, not necessarily male-female
3. Interview a angmo, someone who is from far far away
4. Interview a group of friends
5. Interview a family
6. Watch the aftermath

Anyway, after a 点心 dinner at It's Dimsum resturant at Marina Square (food is not bad), we caught the first round of fireworks blasting from the NTUC towers rooftop at 10pm. It was quite nice but was sadly, incredibly short. The whole thing went for 2 mins tops. Joy quickly turned into disappointment. Everyone's reaction was like, WTF, that's all ???!?!?!

That's right folks, just right under 2 mins of kaboom. The next 2 fireworks displays were just as short. In-between the 2nd and 3rd display, heaven was just as pissed off. So we got drenched in short order. Everyone tried to get into the nearest shelter at the Esplanade but expectingly, it's already jammed packed with people. Fortunately, heaven didn't have a full bladder that night. The rain subsided as quickly as it came and left the night cooler than before.

The countdown didn't actually happened. There wasn't any countdown to be heard from the organisers and so the festive feeling was missing. The year 2007 started with spectacular fireworks, blowing tens of thousands of dollars with every bang. The background music was missing though. Basically the fireworks display was similar to the national day 2006 version, with an new addition which looks suspiciously like signal flares. Despite the shortcomings, the crowd clearly enjoyed the show. The finale lit up the entire sky in dazzling golden shower. I really wonder how much did they blew up this time round.

After the fireworks, as we waited for our pre-booked cab, we took a break at 2Hot cafe at Esplanade. The aftermath of the event was a badly littered park. As Cuiyan went off interviewing the cleanup supervisor, I sat back at the sight before me. As half a dozen cleaners cleaned up the grass field before me, people kept throwing more rubbish onto the ground. A lazy restaurant employee conveniently pushed out rubbish from the restaurant premises onto the grass field. 好顺便阿! 干得好!

Oh by the way, what are the chances that you meet 2 out of 3 groups of 早报 photographers in the huge crowd of 160,000 ? We did. Wow. Must buy ToTo this Thursday.

Also watch out for lurkers around every corner for nig brother is everywhere. The next time when venturing outside your home, it's best to watch your tongue and put on your best behavior . You never know when a media photographer and journalist will sneak next to you and ask you for an interview. A journalist can decide to write something about what you have done and they don't walk around with a sign board screaming their occupation. They are like everyone else. Scary bor? From my observation, there is a 100% snaring rate. Everyone approached by Cuiyan agreed to be interviewed. The only concern was from a local family who didn't want to have faces on the next day's papers.

Being a journalist have it's bright side too. Most people have this fear or maybe even hatred towards strangers who approached them on the street. Approach anyone and identify yourself as a journalist, and they eventually help you with your job. I shall name this behavior trait as the anti-credit cards / anti-salesman / anti-insurance reaction. The reaction is always the same, the skeptical look, the attempts at evading even before the start of the conversation and the stunning relief that it's not another salesman. Maybe she needs some "preventive measures". I believe that by not taking out a little notepad and pen before approaching the target victim interviewee, people will not run away so much. If you must make a difference between yourself and some other salesman, this has to be it. Salesman approaching you from the street with a notebook ? Shooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!Go away... Gooo !!