Sales, Social and Tech

A Facebook acquaintance have highlighted in a Facebook post that the OPT OUT option of Starhub's SMS ad maybe not be working as intended. It seems OPT OUT only works when one complains to the Starhub twitter account. Wrote on Facebook, I have received one SMS dated 27 Jun 2013, and if you look at my opt out at 76333 dated 27 June 2013. By right, I should not be receiving any more unsolicited SMSes from Starhub. However, I have just received another unsolicited SMS from Starhub today, despite I have already sent them an OPTOUT. Either they are lying about their optout option, or they are just continuously spamming me with their offers by paying lip service to a customer's complaint of opting out.  If you are seriously going to implement "Do not call" registry, please get something like this as simple to be enforced.   It was only after a complain was made and tag to Starhub Facebook account was the user removed from the Starhub SMS marketing database. H...

Now that I have both a Starhub line and a M1 line (for the wife), it makes it easier to compare the two telcos side by side. And customer satisfaction doesn't just end at having a good network but also down to their apps. I noticed that both Starhub and M1 have their own native iPhone apps which allows you to track your current bill and data usage. I tried both, but I stopped at the registration process for the Starhub app and have since removed it from the iPhonoe. Here's why. After you install both apps, it will ask you for your mobile and password. For M1, the process was rather simple and fast as the registration only required your mobile number, IC number and password. These three are usually remembered by any Singaporeans. In order to register a user id and password for the Starhub app, you need to enter, not three, but four unique IDs. There are your mobile number, IC number, account number and password. Who actually remembers their account number? Even when you...

I was sitting next to a friend for lunch and noticed that he had an iPhone 4s, just like me. Only difference was that he was on Starhub and I was on M1. I asked him to try Siri and he was getting slow respond, and so we decided to do a speed test. The above picture showed that M1 was giving shorter ping time (38ms) and had faster upload speed of 1.77Mbps. Starhub had faster download speed (8.58Mbps) than M1s (5.51Mbps). Starhub ping time was at 131ms. However, Starhub download speed was at 0.07Mbps which was 25 times slower than M1. That explains the slow Siri respond. A difference in upload speeds of 25 times is something that should be of concern to Starhub users. However, do not that this test was only done at one location, Marina Square Link, but it could be a concern because upload speeds are now as important as download speeds average due to the content creation tools that are now easily available on iPhones. The ping times are also a concern because it shows tha...

(Update 26 August 2011 645pm – Kudos for Starhub for checking up with me directly after reading this blog post. They are currently investigating and will inform me of the status soon.) After persuading my grandfather to switch from Singtel to Starhub Digital Line, the decision to switch have left my 90-year-old grandfather without a home number for three days, and counting, after the scheduled date of transfer. My grandparents have been using Singtel for years and only finally decided to switch to Starhub Digital Line because of the cost savings it provided. The date set for transfer from Singtel to Starhub was supposed to be on 23 August 2011. Singtel would cut the line from 10am – 12pm and Starhub would activate the Digital Home Line at 2pm – 4pm on the same day. Singtel terminated the line as schedule but Starhub line as not activated as scheduled. There was no call from Starhub to inform of my grandfather of the delay. My mom had to call to Starhub hotline to check on the...

(Update –ION Orchard Tests) I was at ION Orchard for an event and tested the 21Mbps bandwidth on my netbook. It was able to reach d/l speeds of 4000+kbps and u/l speed of 600kbps. That eliminates the configuration and hardware issues of the netbook as it is possible to achieve higher bandwidth. A friend from an IT pub told me that the further one get from the city area, but my test at an event in Raffles Place was quite bad yesterday.   (Update – Morning Tests) On PC 21Mbps Last Result: Download Speed: 1420 kbps (177.5 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 343 kbps (42.9 KB/sec transfer rate) We have detected your IP Address is 117.20.181.14 1Mbps Last Result: Download Speed: 1572 kbps (196.5 KB/sec transfer rate) Upload Speed: 132 kbps (16.5 KB/sec transfer rate) We have detected your IP Address is 113.10.122.244 ---------------------------------------------- I just signed up for the Starhub MaxMobile Elite plan with the idea ...