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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

[Rant] They asked me to bring the passport

Today I went to SoftBank store on the way back home. I made up my mind I get any iPhone 5S available. I don't want the gold one if that makes me have to wait for a month in a queue. Apparently they still had the Space Grey model and I thought, ok my luck isn't that bad. 

Either way you have to cover it up in a case which might even hide the gold color. No point making the purchase based on color when everything else is identical. Anyways, I don't know why the gold model is not widely available.

So I waited until my chance came, playing with the showcased iPhones. A few minutes later, a store girl came and asked me if I have the necessary documents with me to do the swap. I told her that I had the Resident card with me and she checked it. They were looking for the remaining period of stay. She wanted to check if I qualify for the installment based payment or full payment upfront for the phone. It's as if she didn't want to sell me the iPhone!

Then she asked me if I had the passport with me. This nonsense wasn't there the last time, and the last time I didn't even have two years left with my VISA. Of course I didn't  have it with me. Am I that stupid to take my passport everywhere I went? She then told me that the passport is required if I wanted to pay using the monthly installments. With iPhone 4S, this upfront payment was only JPY46,800 for the 16GB model. For the iPhone 5S, it is JPY 68,040. The huge price hike is mostly due to devaluation of the currency. (But if you look at the total cost incurred within the two years, it is still same as the iPhone 5)

I wasn't sure if I wanted to pay that kind of a huge price up front. So I said I would return with the passport. I wonder if there actually is a difference between paying the amount upfront or not. There has to be. I will have to do some digging.

The following campaigns are available for people who currently own an iPhone 4 or a 4S.





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