It shows again after my debacle at the post office yesterday that the people in charge, that make up rules are incompetent, don’t care about correctness and that government bodies in Taiwan don’t communicate …
If our ARC, that is issued by the government is not recognized as a valid ID proof by a government agency for redeeming vouchers why should banks or private institutions do so?
In fact our ARC has the same validity as ass wipe paper with a picture pasted on … :s
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]It shows again after my debacle at the post office yesterday that the people in charge, that make up rules are incompetent, don’t care about correctness and that government bodies in Taiwan don’t communicate …
If our ARC, that is issued by the government is not recognized as a valid ID proof by a government agency for redeeming vouchers why should banks or private institutions do so?
In fact our ARC has the same validity as ass wipe paper with a picture pasted on … :s[/quote]
And you thought something different?? 
Heck many moons ago I crossed the border from the USA into Canada and back to the USA side in New York State. The US border police had issues with my California issued Drivers License (in those days all you needed was a drivers license not a passport) returning to the USA. And I had to politely remind him that California is one of the States of the United States of America !!
[quote=“Belgian Pie”]It shows again after my debacle at the post office yesterday that the people in charge, that make up rules are incompetent, don’t care about correctness and that government bodies in Taiwan don’t communicate …
If our ARC, that is issued by the government is not recognized as a valid ID proof by a government agency for redeeming vouchers why should banks or private institutions do so?
In fact our ARC has the same validity as ass wipe paper with a picture pasted on … :s[/quote]
No, it is just and ignorant clerk behind the desk who can’t be bother to use his brain and do anything he i not used to do. The ARC is a official ID of the ROC, so they have to accept it, had no problems when picking up my vouchers in Longtan (not even the main post office there). Didn’t have the stamp thingie either, all no problem.
It usually helps if (well maybe after the third calm try) you start to shout and get damn mad. Always help me in the bank when they were to damn ignorant to follow their own forms. 
Note: No I don’t enjoy doing it that way either but I learned my lesson and if it is the only way which works thane well…
[quote=“tommy525”]
Heck many moons ago I crossed the border from the USA into Canada and back to the USA side in New York State. The US border police had issues with my California issued Drivers License (in those days all you needed was a drivers license not a passport) returning to the USA. And I had to politely remind him that California is one of the States of the United States of America !![/quote]
Well, those guys are dopes too. This past summer I flew into Toronto and crossed the border into NY State, where my parents live. I was questioned at the border as to where I was flying from. When I told them the UAE, they asked me a bunch of stupid questions about what I am doing here and if the students are nice to me, :blah: :blah: :blah: Then, the guy said before I was allowed to pass through, “Those people don’t deserve to be taught nuthin’!!” 
If I hadn’t just gotten off a long flight and been in the car with my parents, I would have gotten his name and reported him.
BP, I think you should be aware that the highest satisfaction any Taiwan postal worker can get is to show you your valuable package from overseas, wave it in your face, and then return it to sender. The flimsier the excuse the better. It makes them so happy. You can tell that from the smiles on their faces when they do it. Why would you want to deny them the one joy they get in their work? You’re a cruel, cruel person.
Besides you wouldnt want them to go POSTAL on you.
I had to pick up some packages at the Xinyi post office and had no problem whatsoever to get those, in fact the people there were very nice and helpful. Same goes for sending stuff at the Fuxing N. Rd. office.
There might be some ignorant clerk somewhere but I don’t think it’s the general attitude of the postal workers in Taiwan, as your post makes it out to be.
The ARC, well, has a number like ACxxxx xxxx. Local Taiwanese IDs start with an A or F, etc, depending where the Taiwanese is living. If you want to apply for things e.g. online, you need a ‘normal’ Taiwanese ID. The ACxxxx xxxx does not work very often. For example, I tried to register a Taiwanese domain name (with TwNIC). I am qualified in all respect (own company, address, phone numbers, tax number (Tongyibianhao)…), but I couldn’t do it. Of course, people like to help, but need to phone them and try other ways, which are time consuming.
Why Taiwan can’t give us a normal ID number? Or make sure, by law, that the ID-numbers of the ARC can be used anywhere through the country, in all systems, etc?
By the way, somewhere online, there is a website, which creates fake Taiwanese IDs, you chose a location, e.g. Taipei, and then you will get a number…ha!
I had to pick up some packages at the Xinyi post office and had no problem whatsoever to get those, in fact the people there were very nice and helpful. Same goes for sending stuff at the Fuxing N. Rd. office.
There might be some ignorant clerk somewhere but I don’t think it’s the general attitude of the postal workers in Taiwan, as your post makes it out to be.[/quote]
Very true actually. Iv always found their service to be very good. EVerywhere I went.
[quote=“Rascal”]
I had to pick up some packages at the Xinyi post office and had no problem whatsoever to get those, in fact the people there were very nice and helpful. Same goes for sending stuff at the Fuxing N. Rd. office.
There might be some ignorant clerk somewhere but I don’t think it’s the general attitude of the postal workers in Taiwan, as your post makes it out to be.[/quote]
Well, I think there’s a consensus that on a great many matters, Taipei != Taiwan.
Down in Taichung I had a few encounters with the post office. Most common was having a parcel shipped to me from overseas. Obviously my name on the parcel being in English. I tried to use my driver’s license as ID but no go there because they only have my name in Chinese. Passport? Nope. Taiwan address is not marked on my passport. It took management intervention to decide to accept that since my driver’s license and passport have photos which both look like me, they are probably identifying the same person and therefore the address and name can be called a match. In the meantime the clerks were trying very hard to get me to abandon the package (background chorus of ‘send it back, send it back!’).
I had the same problem in three different post offices. The last time was 10 years ago, so maybe they have changed. Maybe I had bad luck and always ran into these kind of rice-worms.
After several times like this I gave up and started using DHL or another courier rather than face this kind of hassle.
whities need to be kept in check
…“rice worms”… :roflmao:
BP you always seem to get the ringers. I’ve used my card at the PO many many times. I cash in the receipt lotto winnings there regularly as well as get packages sent from off the island…never a problem. I use it at home for ‘registered letter’ deliveries along with my ‘chop.’
Heck, I even use my ‘chop’ for the wifes ‘registered’ mail arriving to the house…no problemo.
Nothing but compliments for the Postal System here.
I’d better not tell BP that the post office clerk delivers my mail to my desk, or that would be OFF TOPIC. 
Anyhow, how many of you, when you have to do any kind of official business, must present your ARC AND passport, or even, just the passport? For banking purposes I think it is harebrained, and I agree with BP when he asks why we must do so, since the ARC is teh official ID given to us by the ROC g’ment and should be enough. If they want two photo ID’s I can show plenty. But I do not like to carry my passport around and it is a hassle to take it out its safety box. If our ARC is supposed to play the role of shenfenzhen, or official ID, why don’t they acept it as that?
Banks are a different issue, they got lot’s of stupid rules when it comes to foreigners but many of them are actually dictated by the very same government that gives you the ARC (so they tell me).
I have nothing but love for the Taipei based postal workers. I even got my vouchers in Xinxhuang with no hassle. I’m not overly fond of Changhua’s postal workers considering every other package is searched by customs. I’d say overall they are very helpful but overmanned.
Banks are a different issue, they got lot’s of stupid rules when it comes to foreigners but many of them are actually dictated by the very same government that gives you the ARC (so they tell me).[/quote]
Ehem, bank among others -it is just that I have expectations, uyou know, that they will be a bit more reasonable…
:roflmao:
I opened a bank account today and once again had to show them my passport aswell as my resident ARC, but I expected that anyway. One of the problems is they don’t know what ARCs are supposed to look like, another is that ARCs are open very short-term in nature. It shouldn’t be a requirement though to bring the passport as ARCs are supposed to be official ID. My experience of postal and bank workers here is generally quite good, as in they do make the effort usually, although much easier of course if you speak Chinese, they always feel more at ease. The Taiwanese postal system is omnipresent and pretty efficient in my book.
What gets me most is not being able to buy train tickets online, register for certain services, just because the ID number coding is different than regular Taiwanese, that’s just ignorant dumb cr%p but there you go. Probably the same thing for the High Speed Train. Perhaps the TRA website will be fixed in the NEXT 10 YEARS, I see they got around to putting English translation stickers on their ticket vending machines only 6 years after I got here…
old post. someone asked this 12 years ago. Now that they’ve issued the crappy new numbers without applying any common sense, things are still the same.
Taiwan - you suck in IT systems software and compliance… absolutely suck!
They suck intentionally. The government was advised by various groups that this number system would be a flop unless they made the number standardized with the current citizen checksums but they pressed on anyway.
It’s done this way to ensure businesses know who is a foreigner so that they are easier to decline or manage