After three years of having the same pre-paid phone number I had to register my Taiwan Dageda Number due to geovernment regualtions which I at first thought were a scam. What a time consumer! A fax from the phone company was faxed to the 7-11 after trying to get the clerk to understand me. (It seemed to be the white face can’t possibly be speaking the local language which happens where I am a lot). I called the company and got the clerk to listen to the pre-recorded Chinese message which he didn’t seem to understand. I was then asked if I spoke Mandarin. I always say a little as I’m nowhere near fluent but do probably have the level of a three year old.
The phone company receptionist then talks to the clerk. The phone company then want to talk to me in rapid fire Chinese. It is then understood I don’t understand what is being said after I had said “ting bu dong” four times and I am put onto an English speaking receptionist who is actually far more difficult to understand the Chinese only speaker. I had to get her to repeat herself four times still wondering “What the hell did she just said”. However the registration form was faxed to the 7-11 filled out and faxed back with a copy of my ARC but what a frustrating undergoing.
It usually doesn’t bother me that people don’t speak my native language here but when they speak it so it is incomprehensible when you actually need help it is another story. End of rant.
I had to do the same thing not long ago. I predicted a long, hassle-filled and red tape ridden time ahead --just like most things of the sort here–, so I sacrificed my number and simply bought a new sim card. It had the required registration form on the box. Simply filled it out, 7-11 dude faxed it to the company and I was set. I had to inform everyone of my new number, though.
I’m assuming Matchstick Man doesn’t live in Taipei. All I did was go into the Taiwan Da Ge Da store and show them my ID info. I was done in less than 5 minutes after getting my number called.
Going in person would be the easiest thing to do, assuming you are close to a store.
After all the undergoings I was cut off last night. I’ve just visited my local service centre with a copy of the original fax and they said the number would be back on in two hours…actually no they didn’t…the receptionist said “Two hours” and that was all the English she spoke.
i thought it was a scam too, a little po’d at having to give up my personal info to yet another source …
i had my wife try to find out a little about it, and supposedly there is some new govt. regualtion - but has anyone actually seen it (in chinese if not english?)
what really got me was when i asked what the point of the whole exercise was. the sales rep told me that there were lots of phone numbers around where the original purchaser was not the one using the phone, and that this would help the govt to keep track of who was using which number (why?). but when i asked how they would know that i gave/sold my phone to someone else, all i got was a blank stare, and a “dwai …”.
is there actually more to this, or was this explanation all there was?
Just my guess, but I’m guessing the change has something to do with all the rip offs and scams that have been recently perpetrated using prepaid cell phones (ie untraceable, at least previous to the change). I rememeber some of the stories of people receiving calls supposedly from long lost friends and relatives in a bind; others claimed to have kidnapped relatives and demanded cash. When you didn’t register your account, there was no way to trace these calls. Now you have to regsiter it using your ID number. I guess if you sold your number, or it otherwise wound up in the wrong hands, you could be held responsible for illegal activities performed with it.
Back on again. It really took two hours. I gave the original fax that the 7-11 faxed to taiwan dageda’s head office to their local service centre. Telling them I was angry about it got me “My English is not very well” reply from the guy who was trying to do his best with a disgruntled customer.
agree with you ts, yet what the hell can they do when i leave this place and someone uses the number? are they really going to try extradite on the matter? just seems a little strange, and another opportunity for someone to “accidentally” lose personal info, or another somebody to hack in a get it. the less people who have my id info, the better, imho.
I’m not sure how much good this will do at stopping those scams. I’ve already read that the scammers got some of the phone numbers by paying college students on the order of TWD2000 for a copy of their ID cards, and other cases where they had someone inside the phone company setting up phony accounts.