I've been holding onto the wrong iphone all these times

Yeah, you read it right.


For the past 1 year, I have been holding onto the wrong serial number iphone that was sent to me by Apple. How I discover?


I was complaining about my iphone home button faulty and had wanted to make a one to one exchange. I took out the Applecare certificate and the tax invoice that I had received from Apple and headed down to M1 shop on a Sunday with the 3 kids.


It was already frustrating enough to keep pressing and pressing my iphone button and it's not working. And then plus the 3 kids making a scene at M1, it was horrible. Then came the news, "I'm sorry mdm, your iphone is no longer in warranty." I shoved the certificate plan infront of his face. He said he will check and came back few mins later.


"Mdm, how many iphones do you have?" I went blank. And then he proceeded to tell me that the serial number on the certificate does not match the serial number on my iphone. In my heart, I was thinking die lah, no more warranty means I cannot change my handphone liao. And I was hoping my mum made a mistake in passing me my dad's iphone certificate.


So we left the shop disappointed and with a crying Reyes. Sigh...I started calling my mum and then search online to find out more about how to track the serial number.


And then I managed to log onto Apple customer care under my mum's ID and she printed out the whole list of tax invoices that she had bought the iphone for the past 18 months. She bought 3 extended applecare warranty - for me, my dad and my bro. Itchy hand, I did a search for dad's serial number and voila, his also stated no extended warranty and the serial number does not match the tax invoice! But bro's iphone had no issue.


So the person who is holding onto the serial number iphone stated on my tax invoice has extended warranty, whereas I dont. Same goes for my dad's case. We made calls to the sales personnel in charge and he doesnt seem to be of any help at all. For all the purchase my mum made, only these 2 phones were made with this idiotic guy - Victor. And in both cases, such things occur. The usual sales rep wasnt around that time so mum had no choice but to place order with this guy.


So we started a long call with apple customer care in Singapore, transfer to Australia, and then back to Singapore. I was being hung up sharp at 5pm while on hold on the australia customer care service. Ridiculous lor and they never called me back too.


The worst thing for a big and reputable company like Apple was to insist that there is no such serial number on their record, when my mum read my iphone serial number to them over the phone. And to also insist that THEY will NEVER make a packing mistake. Come on??? It's not about the $99 that we paid for the extended warranty. It's an internal mistake made in your company and you want to push the blame to your consumers? Misleading me to think my iphone has warranty and then embarassed myself at the shop.


So I sent them a photo of my serial number on the iphone box and my dad's one as well. We waited for days and mum called and scolded them daily. LOL. Eventually yesterday mum said she received a call from the management, an ang moh lady who kept apologizing for the bad service provided by the Singapore customer service lady who told my mum to go ahead to complain. And the verdict? They transferred the extended warranty to my serial number and will be sending me a revised applecare certificate.


You know, all these problems could have been easily avoided. For those who purchase the extended applecare warranty from the retail shops - m1, singtel or starhub, you should receive an applecare box that requires you to register your iphone online.


But the problem here is, if you click on extended warranty on apple online store, it's an auto enrol, where they will register for you immediately your iphone serial number. So if you are like me, purchase an iphone, then purchase the extended warranty, they will register a serial number of the iphone and then have that iphone sent to you. Should the packing department make a mistake to pack the wrong serial number, you are doom.


And please put up your hands, how many of you check the serial number of your iphone against your certificate?


I wrote to the press, am hoping they will contact me back soon. I dont believe this is a one time off case for such a big company like Apple who handles thousands of sales daily.