We’re almost into the homestretch of another school year for the kid. By next year, she’ll be allowed to bring a mobile phone to school. In a couple more years, she’ll be needing her own laptop.
It just so happened that the hand-me-down phones that I’ve been using have reached their planned obsolescence, and the miser in me finally had to admit that it was time to get new ones.
The electronics market is also quite volatile these days. The AI bubble pushed prices of computing components through the roof. (Amazingly, when it comes to laptops, Macs are the best bang-for-buck gizmos at this time, in my opinion.) Prices are expected to stabilize only by 2028.
With all these factors coming into play, the waifu and I opted to sort out the family’s device allocation strategy and realign some windfall from last year to acquire what we need. We aren’t government contractors, so we have to stretch the value of every peso from that fund. Off I went, bargain hunting.
The cheapest finds these days are usually on Shopee. It’s crazy how brands undercut their retailers by offering the lowest prices in their “official stores” on the platform. For example, with vouchers stacked, a mid-range Samsung phone goes for almost 40% cheaper than the retail price at the mall. And now that the platform has built-in zero-percent, multi-month installment terms, Shopee offers the most sensible deals for the everyday bargain hunter. Theoretically. On paper.
So, a couple of weeks ago, I went on a purchasing spree for phones for myself and the kid. I felt pretty good, having supposedly scored fairly decent deals. Base price already much lower than SRP, another 20% off from vouchers, and 3-month 0% installment via UnionBank credit card.
Three mid-range phones for less than the price of one new iPhone, at terms that I could even absorb into the monthly expenses. No need to tap the surplus cash, which could now go into home repairs or another yakiniku binge.
But 2026 being 2026, it only took a couple of hours for shit to start hitting the fan. My app pinged notifications that all three transactions were cancelled and refunded due to “abnormalities detected.”
I reached out to Shopee, despite their support generally being as useless as a ruptured appendix. According to Shopee support, the “abnormalities detected” flag was likely because my account has been known to use vouchers extensively. The agent even encouraged me to try buying them again without the vouchers and pay full price.
It does feel like it’s just Shopee not wanting to honor their own vouchers. If you don’t want people using vouchers, then don’t give them out. Shopee now actually posts prices factoring in your available (supposedly usable) vouchers. It makes you wonder if this practice actually goes against the price tag law. It feels all bait-and-switch-y. The government should investigate the matter. Then again, consumer protection is utter shit in this country.
The cancelled transactions were marked “refunded,” and I was advised to just wait for the amounts to be reconciled with my bank within 5 to 45 days. Yes. Up to 45 days. In an era where digital transactions can be done in milliseconds.
Not wanting to risk having Shopee detect any more aberrations, I just went and took my business to Lazada, even if I had to forgo a couple of thousand bucks in price difference. The packages amazingly arrived just a day later, containing phones—and not pieces of rock or bar soap.
That should have been that, with me being relieved that I could be productive again and the kid ecstatic now that she could be a memelordette with her own new phone. Apparently, the kid likes putting captions on pictures like it’s early-2010s 9gag.
But 2026 just had to be 2026. I kept checking daily to see if the refunds from Shopee would come in. The app said the refund had been processed. By my experience, credit card refunds usually get credited back within 3 to 5 days.
With these ones, though, more than two weeks passed and zilch. Just the records of the installment transactions being posted. I had to call Shopee to verify that the refunds were already processed, to which they just said yes. I demanded that I be given the ARN of the refunds for tracking, but the agent didn’t even know what an ARN is and just dismissed me, telling me to wait for the maximum allotted 45 days before making a fuss.
I called up the bank to follow up several times, and in all of them, I was advised by agents to just wait, as they also had no visibility on where the refunds were in their system. I was advised, though, to call again once the refunds got credited to “pre-terminate” the installment transactions because, apparently, this can “damage” your account. Something to do with how monthly installment charges need to get “paid” every month even if your statement balance is negative in your favor because of a refund.
Then supposedly came the magical day when the refund amounts finally got credited back to my account—more than two weeks since the refunds were “completed” by Shopee. I even felt relieved since it was just a couple of days before my statement cutoff. Had the amounts not been credited, the first months of amortization would have been included in my upcoming statement.
Acting on the advice of the bank’s agents, I called to pre-terminate the installment transactions. But then the agents told me that there would be pre-termination fees on all of them. I objected and requested that these fees be waived since it was the merchant that cancelled the transaction. Why would I be out of any money from cancelled transactions?
I was put on hold for a total of 45 minutes, as the agent was having issues with a “system enhancement” and needed to “coordinate with the relevant department.” Eventually, the agent was able to log my requests, and I was given reference numbers for follow-up. The agent ended the call saying that the request had been processed, but the fee waivers were still “subject for bank approval.”
But 2026 just had to be 2026. I checked my account a few hours later and noticed that the pre-terminations were already processed. But scrolling down further to check the transactions, I noticed that one of my other installment purchases had also been pre-terminated.
Mind you, this was a major purchase that I had to get through a buy-now-pay-later option and amortize over the next two years. It being pre-terminated meant I had to pay the amount upfront. And, my cutoff was coming up.
So I called the bank again to raise the issue. I demanded that the matter be corrected since it was an error on their part. The agent I spoke with confirmed that the previous agent mistakenly included that purchase with my pre-termination requests, but she had to coordinate with various people to find out what could be done.
I was advised to wait until end of business to find out what solutions they could offer. End of business came, and the bank finally called me back. But 2026 just had to be 2026, the line got cut off before they could tell me anything of value. I waited for them to call again, and there was nothing for a couple more hours.
I called the hotline again and got in touch with a new agent. I had to give her a few more minutes to backtrack the case and recap it to me. I again had to clarify and correct the details that were incorrectly noted by the previous agents (e.g., the ticket at that time didn’t indicate which transaction was supposed to be reinstated back to installment).
I raised the urgency required since my cutoff was just days away, but the agent couldn’t give any assurances that they’d be able to process things before that. She told me that I shouldn’t be surprised if the entire amount appears in my statement. She just advised that I could leave out that amount when paying, as the value would eventually be credited back before the next cutoff date.
In the end, I was just told that my latest requests had been logged and that I should wait for the installment to be reinstated.
So here I am, waiting for the next business day to come and see if my issue will finally be resolved. But 2026 being 2026, I’m holding my breath. There’s been a ton of shit that’s happened already, and we’re not even past January.
I wonder if 2026 is going to be like a year-long whatchamacallit—that spell of bad luck explained through the sweet science of astrology? Mercury tardigrade or something?
Anyway, here are my takeaways:
- Shopee (and Lazada) should be investigated for how they display prices on their platforms. The “After Voucher” scheme is misleading and should be considered deceitful, especially if they will not honor its use and gaslight customers for using it.
- With regard to my miserly ways, the waifu often advises me that a few bucks saved may not be worth the inconvenience. But given how I inherited my daughter’s stubbornness, I refuse to listen. Lucky me, the waifu hasn’t left me yet.
- I value the human element in customer service, but if incompetence is the baseline of what’s to be expected of human support agents, then I have no issues with AI replacing the whole pack of them.
FML.