Show me where Taiwan law provides that you can collect debts from family members, or that having a household registration prevents one from going abroad and never coming back.
Chunghwa claimed to me in the midst of one of our marathon interviews that they could sue family members for unpaid phone/telecom bills if the person was Taiwanese, but could not “get the money” from foreigners who had done a runner. I do not see where that is true, and if it were, the relative would have had to sign as a guarantor – or else why does anyone sign as a guarantor, if Chunghwa can just go after the family?
What I want to see is a sensible policy, such as: we will check your credit history. If you are have been a customer of Chunghwa’s (let’s say, 1 year with on-time or at least no egregiously late payments – almost everyone in Taiwan gets their phone cut off now and then, so that shouldn’t be an issue!) then no guarantor. They should also consider monthly income or annual income as shown by tax statement…usually people who are making good incomes are not going to run away from an NT$5000 bill. And let the policy be the SAME for Taiwanese. If there’s a problem with payments, then address the problem with payments, and don’t merely exclude an entire group of people on the supposition that some of them will default. (I am still waiting for Chunghwa to show me the figure it “has” about how a higher percentage of foreigners than Taiwanese fail to pay their telecom bills.)
it has always been my understanding that chunghua, once a state run entity, now is owned in large part by the US based AT&T. hence the striking similarities between their corporate logos.
would it do any good to tell corporate papa what subsidiary junior has been doing? chunghua is free to abuse as they will, but corporate headquarters’ll getting movin’ licketysplit.
i really enjoy my hicktownhere in which the local office of chunghua refuses to install a telephone line in my home. same for internet. they want to see a two year contract notated on my arc. i didn’t know they had two year arc’s for englishee teechers.
I doubt it. I think the best way would be to get some media attention, and perhaps a petition or letter writing campaign to the office of Ma Ying-jiu or Chen Shui-bian … or even some foreigner-friendly legislator who would be willing to make a stink about it.
I doubt it. I think the best way would be to get some media attention, and perhaps a petition or letter writing campaign to the office of Ma Ying-jiu or Chen Shui-bian … or even some foreigner-friendly legislator who would be willing to make a stink about it.[/quote]
Corporate Papa doesn’t give two hoots about what goes on in Taiwan, believe me I have tried making contact with the Corporate Papa, but I didn’t even get a reply.
[quote=“Bassman”]Corporate Papa doesn’t give two hoots about what goes on in Taiwan, believe me I have tried making contact with the Corporate Papa, but I didn’t even get a reply.[/quote]It’s the same with foreign banks, ABN-AMRO treats foreigners here in a way they wouldn’t be allowed to back home.
No, I’m serious that if you want to get something done you have to look at the household registration angle. I know what you mean Ironlady that a Taiwanese person can leave the country and skip on their bills just as easily as a foreigner, and that household registration is probably not really much use in tracking you down and recovering debt. But the thing is that Household registration is the thing that they come back to (I’ve persued this as far up the chain as I could with a few companies, and it’s always come back to HR). No HR no credit. It might not be realistic, but that’s their system. It’s like it was soemtimes in NZ if you wanted to buy booze - need a driving licence or a passport to proove your age. I don’t drive and don’t have a passport. Mei banfa.
Now why should the comapny (whether it’s Telecom, credit card comapnies or the banks who run the credit for store purchases) set up a special system just for people who don’t have HR? There’s not much in it for them. So maybe the way to do it is pressure the government, on the basis that they want to attract foreigners and ABCs etc without HR for professional positions to come live in Taiwan, that there’s a problem here and pass a law that says “for services which require ID cards, ARC cards will also be allowed, for services that require HR, ‘x’ will be allowed”. Don’t know what that ‘x’ would be though - soem kind of ‘foreigner registration???’
I suggest you ask them for the policy that states you have to have a Taiwanese person present to apply for a telephone, if they tell you no, call the headoffice in Taipei and explain the situation.
skeptic yank
Are you sure Chung-Hwa Telecom is partially owned by AT&T? I would love to see an article about this. From what I know only Far East has any relationhips with AT&T.
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I would be up for staging a protest outside Chung-Hwa Telecom, I would also be willing to handout flyers randomly on the street in front of local government offices all over Taipei.
That’s a good idea to ask to see their policy in writing. I’m in Jiayi County now, but I’ll be going back up to Miaoli County on Sunday evening. So next Monday or Tuesday I’ll stop by the Chunghwa office in Miaoli County and see what happens when I insist on seeing their policy written down on paper.
By the way, I also don’t believe that Chunghwa is partially owned by AT&T, but I know that Far Eastone (“Yuan3 Chuan2”) is owned by AT&T.
Good luck and let us know what happens. Most likely they will brush you off and not want to talk to you, but you never know, they may also give in because you are trying to cause problems. You may just get your phone line yet – trouble free.
There’s an interesting article in today’s Chinatimes about a protest by Chinese spouses. The gist of the article is that a group of Chinese spouses want to protest against draft amendments to the Act Governing Relation Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland. The good people at the TSU want the mainland spouses deported if Chinese spouses protest on the grounds that protests do not comport with the purpose of their presence in Taiwan.
The Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for overseeing demonstrations, is saying that the legality of the protest depends on “many factors” including whether or not a permit has been applied for and the fact that some Chinese spouses have ID cards and some have residence cards. If we were to have a protest, most of us would have residency cards. The Ministry’s statements are hardly a ringing endorsement of our right to demonstrate.
Note also the comments by Tsai Ing-wen to the effect that the Chinese spouses should go through “proper democratic channels” such as contacting the Mainland Affairs Commission and talking to legislators. Perhaps our first step should be to present a letter to the DGT complaining about the shabby treatment we are receiving from Chunghwa Telecom and other telecom providers? If we don’t get a response, then we should apply for a permit to demonstrate. How much do you want to bet that we need a citizen to apply for the permit?
You do … at least that’s what a police officer who was interviewed on the news tonight said (on TVBS) … however, when asked about whether the mainland Chinese spouses would be deported or not, he said that it was legal for them to demonstrate because Taiwan is a democratic country, blah blah blah. So, at least from what this one police officer who was interviewed said, we can demonstrate …
Yeah, and it’ll be comforting to read that quote on the plane back home after being deported…plus, many of us aren’t married to anyone with voting rights here, so I think we’d have even less voice to back up our desire to protest legally.
I am all for the protest, when I get to taiwan November 15th, I have been in taiwan and know it is difficult enough to get a phone line.
I dont know if this is a racial problem, or just a bad business decision. I worked for MCI in the Fraud department, and they use to block usage access at a certain doller amount for regular customers…except for there Asian policy which took the shape of if you have a Chinese name, let them rack it up!!! They have a high percentage of paying there bills, at least that is what they told us. If you were calling to Packistan from New York, they cut you off after 10$ and call you to make a credit card payment. Other Asian policies, check with the Universities that you graduated from. The policy is not listed, but think about all the PHD students that were Asian, but could not speak English. Well I’ll stop ranting and writing.
