Some Singtel customers still face difficulties pre-ordering iPhones on site
The iPhone 7 is shown on display during an Apple media event in San Francisco, California, U.S. September 7, 2016. Photo: Reuters
SINGAPORE — Despite Singtel’s overnight suspension of its iPhone pre-order site to fix technical issues, customers on Thursday (Sept 15) appeared to still face problems trying to place an order for the latest iPhones.
Within minutes of the site’s opening at 10am, irate customers had taken to the telco’s Facebook page to complain about login issues and blank pages. Several said they received a message that they had “reached the maximum of 2 handset reservations allowed per customer”, even though they had not done so.
“Can’t even get to step 2, it just hang(s) and returned (to a) blank page. Retry again and no stock, what a lousy experience on your reservation system,” wrote Facebook user Wayne Lim.
Facebook user Shaun Yay added: “I keep getting the ‘Sorry you reached the max of 2 handset(s) reservation’ error and I can’t proceed! I don’t even have any phones!”
User Guanjie Wong said he was unable to select an appointment time and after he refreshed the page, “it says I have reach(ed) the maximum of 2 handset(s) per customer”.
In response, Singtel referred users to an iPhone update page at http://iphone.singtel.com/updates/#moreforiphone. Singtel added: “For those who encounter black pages, please do try refreshing your page again. #fingerscrossed everyone!”
At 11am, the telco closed its iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus reservations. For customers who successfully made a reservation but were unable to secure an appointment slot, Singtel said it would contact them via SMS.
In an earlier update at 9.45am, Singtel said it was informed that “stocks for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in Jet Black, in all capacities will not be arriving on 16 Sep as planned”.
“Due to high demand, customers may have experienced a slow response on our pre-order website today. The details of customers who were successful in securing a handset were captured in our system and we have contacted them via SMS to make their purchase at our launch event at Marina Bay Sands on 16 to 18 September.
"We would like to assure customers who are interested in the Jet Black iPhone that we are working with Apple to bring stocks to Singapore as soon as possible. We thank them for their patience and advise them to stay tuned to our bulletin board for the latest updates," a Singtel spokesperson told TODAY.
Meanwhile, customers of the other two telcos — StarHub and M1 — had also experienced similar technical issues while pre-ordering the new iPhones earlier this week.
On Tuesday, StarHub customers said they were unable to reserve the phones, even at their allocated appointment time. The issue persisted throughout the day, with some experiencing system errors as well.
Some M1 customers said the information for pre-ordering was not sent out all at once. One customer said she received her invitation more than 10 hours after other customers.
