Alamak

The Poor HardwareZone Forum

Purchased by SPH sometime back. Should have lots of money for server upgrades but still unable to handle any slight increase in usage.

Or more likely, they’re spending extra CPU cycles to calculate how many people hit the forums per minute, and artificially display the message that the server is “too busy”.

Are they shilling for deluxe membership revenue? Preposterous, considering that online communities don’t typically have entrance fees, especially those with a low signal-to-noise ratio.

Jobs Credit and PRs

The old media is reporting that employers are elated that the Jobs Credit scheme isn’t yanked out from under them but rather its slowly being phased out over the first two quarters in 2010.

Let me relate a story I’ve heard on the ground…

When the bad markets came like a typhoon at the end of 2008, this local Singaporean-run company with 60% of their staff strength being foreigners and PRs, quicky implemented their MVC salary cut for an undetermined period.

When announcing it, the HR person prepared a long set of slides and tried to explain their actions to the group of now-unhappy employees. It mostly meant “we need to cut as much cost as we can”, which mostly resonated aming the workers as “you’re getting a pay cut”.

Then the HR person added something of a gem that was deliberately left out on the slides:

For those of you who are not citizen or PR, please go and apply for PR. Help the company save some money.

This is how seemingly well-intentioned policies affect Singapore.

SingTel vs Local iPhone Developers

Seeing the success of the app store, SingTel has smartly cooked up its own scheme called SingTel App Zone to get developers to sign up, offering marketing support of their apps in exchange for a 30% cut of a developer’s income.

Given that SingTel has no way to bypass Apple’s App Store for the iPhone, SingTel’s cut of the developers income would be on top of the 30% that Apple takes. That leaves the poor developer with just 40% of the sale price of their apps, and in this age of throaway 99 cent apps, this is untenable for anyone looking to eke out a living from iPhone apps.

While it is unknown how successful this scheme is, SingTel is upping the ante by gunning after iPhone developers who make apps that allow users to check how much bandwidth they’ve used.

The first developer had an unpleasant experience and pulled his app rather unwillinging it seems, as the only alternative was for him to join SingTel’s App Zone or see his app totally removed from Apple’s store.

Two other similar apps could be in danger of removal. Kudos to iMerlion for the excellent coverage of the local iPhone app scene.

This could be a multi-pronged approach to:

1. Leverage on the right that SingTel has to prevent apps from using their web services to query for usage data

2. Compel local app developers to sign up for the SingTel App Zone where SingTel will take a 30% profit

3. Make it less convenient for users to check their bandwidth used

Some thoughts:

• We would be interested to hear SingTel’s official explanation for 1

• We would be surprised if SingTel’s official explanation for 1 does not sing to the tune of “unauthorized access” and “cause extra load on our servers”

• If the developer goes for 2, it doesn’t mean that 1 should suddenly be allowed again

• That is unless 1 is intended to be a method to get the developer to go for 2

• 3 inconveniences SingTel customers, while making it more likely for users to accidentally exceed their bundled data and get penalized with ridiculous overuse charges

All in all, this seems to make a few developers unhappy that their efforts are wasted, while leaving many more iPhone-trotting SingTel customers without useful usage data apps.

How could this be a win-win for SingTel? When they get the 30% cut.

Deceived in Marina Square

Business must be really bad these days.

We were walking in Marina Square near the arcade centre when a man eyeballed us and walked towards us. Let’s call him Sheep Herder.

Tried to walk past Sheep Herder, who then shot out his arms with authority like a traffic policeman. No way was he going to let us walk past the aisle.

Then the begging began: “You have to help us. Otherwise we don’t get paid. We are doing a ‘lifestyle survey’ and we need more people. Please help us. It will only take a while.”

Step #1: Appeal to your altruistic side.

Sheep Herder then directed us to two Burly Girls, dressed casually like school kids on a vacation job doing surveys, but were obviously older women. They continued the begging while sheep Herder moved on to the next hapless shopper.

The Burly Girls continued acting cute and friendly, asking us to fill in the “lifestyle survey” form. They emphasized that we must fill in “Marina Square” as the shopping centre, since “we are conducting a survey about the shopping centre, otherwise we won’t get paid”.

And we’ll get a free gift at the end if we “answer correctly”! Woohoo!

Step #2: Exploit greed.

The survey asked us about things like our income level, how much we save per month, and of course the obligatory contact information. A win for telemarketers and email spammers.

Burly Girls continued chatting us up, giggling and fake smiling the best they could. “What line are you in? You’re enjoying your job? Its good money!” Rapport? Check. (Or so they thought.)

Step #3: Exploit your kind nature.

Then, Burly Girls awkwardly tried to transition to their modus operandi. They flipped over a large card on the table and there it was, a huge red “Prudential” logo staring back at us.

Suddenly, the conversation turned into insurance. “What policies do you have? Are you sure your advisor is good? Most people aren’t sufficiently insured. Investment-linked policies are a great way to save.” We resisted since we had our own “advisors”. They begged for a “chance” to serve us.

“No thanks.” So we left with no prize, gave up our contact information and ultimately wasted 10 minutes of our lives which we could never get back.

Yeah yeah, we’re whiners. This happens all the time right? Well, count the number of things they did:

• Blocking our right of way
• Using a false premise to make us sit down
• Alluding that they’re surveyors
• Hiding their real occupations
• Collecting personal information
• Lying about giving a prize
• Wasting more of people’s time than necessary if they asked directly

The steps highlighted in bold above are classic manipulation tactics used by the most desperate and unethical salesmen.

Prudential & Marina Square, you’ve lost a few more customers today. As Prudential lets more of their advisors act in such ways, more people will talk and write about it.

Either we’re wrong, or being deceptive actually makes customers trust you more. Take your pick, Prudential.

SingTel iFlexi iPhone Plans for 2009

Thanks for the feedback on our 2008 article, SingTel iFlexi Plans for iPhone 3G.

SingTel has tweaked their plans for the iPhone 3GS launch in 2009. Here are the changes in the iFlexi Plans compared to 2008’s offering:

• MMS = SMS

  • iFlexi plans get a 500 (or 1500 for iFlexi Premium) quota that can be used for SMS or MMS

  • Other (non-iFlexi) SingTel plans do not bundle MMS

• SingTel has lowered the prices of the 16GB iPhone 3GS to $288 for iFlexi Value

  • Last year’s equivalent (iPhone 3G 8GB) was priced at $348

  • The high-end 32GB model (equivalent to last year’s iPhone 3G 16GB) is still $438

  • It was also $348 for the iOne plan in 2008, but SingTel has kept this pricing for 2009, probably to entice more people to sign up for iFlexi

• There is a low-tier iFlexi Lite plan at $39 a month

  • iPhones cost more for this plan

• Last year’s iPhone 3G 8GB is now retailing at a lower price

  • The iPhone 3G (not 3GS) 16GB is discontinued

• Bundled data is still at the same low levels (500MB to 3GB depending on the iFlexi plan) compared to the Broadband-on-Mobile (BBOM) VAS plans (30-50GB)

  • The 500MB to 3GB bundled data will revert to much lower levels after the promotional period

  • SingTel’s fine-print states: “Bundled data allowance is for a limited period only”

• SingTel is giving a $100 discount for BBOM sign-ups, something which they quietly removed in 2008 just before the launch

• The plans now go up to HSDPA speeds of 7.2Mbps

  • HSDPA is available only in a few central areas in Singapore

  • This is negligible because in other areas, the speed of the “unrivaled network” rarely exceeds 1Mbps

SingTel is making a concerted effort to push people to the iFlexi plans because they:

• Provide minimal bundled data

  • SingTel earns way more when you exceed the quota

• Provide just a little bit more outgoing talk time…

  • …while charging you much more per month

• Cover the amount that SingTel has to pay Apple for each iPhone sold

  • Therefore iPhone prices are higher for non-iFlexi plans

As recommended in our 2008 article, do consider the following when deciding:

1. Calculate the total price based on a 24-month contract

   • See the tables in last year’s article for a guide

2. Don’t be a typical shopper: Be willing to pay more upfront to save in the long-term

3. Remember to factor in the caller ID of $5 per month (excluding GST) in your costing

   • All Singapore telcos have a bad habit of conveniently forgetting to include the essential caller ID service in their mobile plans, as compared to other countries

4. Data is important for the iPhone

   • Basic iPhone functionality like push notifications and maps require it

   • You must not exceed the quota of your plan because the overuse charges are hefty as explained in last year’s article

5. Consider what you really need

   • If you use iPhone features that need lots of mobile data:

     • Trust us, you will :-)

     • A moderate iPhone user can easily exceed 500MB per month

       • 1GB is just nice for most users

     • You will need much more if you plan to tether iPhone to your notebook

     • Consider a BBOM plan for way more bundled data (up to 50GB)

       • You get peace-of-mind too

   • If you talk more and surf less:

     • The iFlexi plans may provide more talk time while providing just enough data

6. Sign up for the right plan

   • Remember that you are signing a 24-month contract

   • Estimate your needs so that you do not need to go to a higher plan while still on contract, especially since you have already paid a higher price for the iPhone

The high penalty charges when breaking an iPhone contract is much higher than other brands of phones. SingTel has a monopoly on this sought-after product and can tightly regulate the price.

We hope that M1 and StarHub can keep up their efforts to get the iPhone. Competition is good for consumers!

Pfingo SMS is Broken

Pfingo is a service by StarHub that provides customers with an internet phone (VoIP) account, allowing affordable calls to Singapore and overseas numbers.

One huge advantage of Pfingo compared to other internet phone services is that for an additional monthly fee, you can get a local phone number tied to your account so that your family and friends in Singapore can call you locally, pay local charges, while you receive your calls anywhere on the planet.

You can send SMS from Pfingo’s Windows and mobile phone software. Well, sort of…

The major problem is that the SMS number that appears on the recipient’s end is not your local Pfingo number. We’re using Pfingo for our business to save on phone bills but instead its given us a lot of pain:

• Customers who decide to respond to our SMS by calling the strange number cannot reach us

• Customers who send SMS to our Pfingo number will not be successful

• We then tried to get our customers to SMS to our real mobile phone number instead. Bad move:

  • We got scolded by customers who were confused that the number they should call for voice calls (Pfingo) is different from the number they should SMS to (our mobile phone)

  • Who could possibly remember that?

• Customers who reply to the strange number must do so within a time limit

  • Within 30 minutes for international SMS

  • Within 24 hours for local SMS

  • Failing which, the SMS disappears into StarHub’s black hole

  • This is unacceptable, based on the way customers expect SMS to work (i.e. all the time)

• After a day or so, StarHub sends a meaningless SMS like this to our customers: “pfingoSMS session with [user id] has ended. Please reply to his/her mobile phone instead.”

  • We got scolded by our customers for sending spam

All we wanted was a single local number on our name card, where our customers can contact us via voice or SMS. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way and we signed for a 2 year contract.

Technically, StarHub has chosen a broken SMS solution using virtual SMS numbers so that they can also earn SMS revenue from Pfingo customers that do not sign up for the local phone number service. (SMS is not free on any Pfingo plan.)

A tech support article from Pfingo says the following:

A friend cannot send SMS to your pfingoTALK number directly. This is not available yet. Support for 2 Way SMS would be available in the future.

There are two issues with this:

• This limitation is not highlighted in any of the sales pages on the Pfingo site

  • Customers discover this problem only after signing up for Pfingo

• StarHub seems totally uninterested in fixing this problem because that article was “created on” 2 August 2007 and was never updated since

  • The implications of making such a statement is that some customers may sign up for Pfingo, expecting this to be available soon

  • Or like us, we discovered after we signed up because we naturally expected that SMS sent to our Pfingo number would reach us

  • We tolerated this broken SMS problem for months, hoping that something will be done. Apparently not.

  • We tried contacting Pfingo’s internet-based support to get this fixed, but all we got were canned replies basically telling us “sorry but that’s how it works”

  • Furthermore, StarHub has restricted customer service for Pfingo to internet-based support. We went down to a few StarHub shops, asked for Pfingo, and all we got were blank stares from their customer service staff. They’ve never heard of Pfingo!

Here’s hoping that StarHub does the right thing for paying customers by implementing proper SMS, rather than amending that tech support article to remove the words “would be available in the future”. We will keep our readers up to date.