Came across this online today:
Eiger Successful in Discrimination Case Against Car Rental Company
I remembered making this post about it a while back, very good to see such a result.
Good to hear that they got slapped down.
Now onto the phone companies, banks, etc that discriminate. One at a time.
Its such a BS excuse that they cant “accept” our ID number because its different. It is a simple programming change but it provides a convenient cover for blatant discrimination. Good to see Mr Eiger taking up these cases still.
I honestly haven’t run into this problem since 2009. I couldn’t book movie tickets online at some theater in Taoyuan. Since then, my ARC or passport has been accepted for anything I’ve been interested in signing up for, including online shopping.
I’m guessing in this case their “system” could very well accept his ID number, it just made for a better answer than, we don’t rent to foreigners.
Buhaoyisi, it doesn’t fit in our computer, meibanfa 
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[quote=“dan2006”]I’m guessing in this case their “system” could very well accept his ID number, it just made for a better answer than, we don’t rent to foreigners.
Buhaoyisi, it doesn’t fit in our computer, meibanfa [/quote]
No, I’m pretty sure it’s because every website in this country uses the same copy-pasted bit of PHP or Java to verify ID numbers, and the ARC numbers work differently (they don’t have the same checksum digit). It’s just laziness.
It might be different with banks – or it might not. Chinatrust have been trying and failing for a year now to get my credit card to pay off automatically from my bank account – the English name confuses their software, apparently. I have to go there every month, take cash from the ATM, and give it to the person at the counter.
[quote=“Brendon”][quote=“dan2006”]I’m guessing in this case their “system” could very well accept his ID number, it just made for a better answer than, we don’t rent to foreigners.
Buhaoyisi, it doesn’t fit in our computer, meibanfa [/quote]
No, I’m pretty sure it’s because every website in this country uses the same copy-pasted bit of PHP or Java to verify ID numbers, and the ARC numbers work differently (they don’t have the same checksum digit). It’s just laziness.
It might be different with banks – or it might not. Chinatrust have been trying and failing for a year now to get my credit card to pay off automatically from my bank account – the English name confuses their software, apparently. I have to go there every month, take cash from the ATM, and give it to the person at the counter.[/quote]
I had issues with the automatic transfer. However I just use their online banking to do a transfer. You can also do the transfer from an ATM. Just select your bank’s code then the credit card number as the account number.
Not in Ruten, I guess.
I had to use my gf’s account to see all those +18 dirty toys sold on Ruten.
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As per other posts and my own experience, ARC numbers won’t work with Ruten and some other online sites in Taiwan. Also not accepted when initiating a train ticket purchase at 7 Eleven ibon (but, for some odd reason, it will work if the transaction is initiated online then picked up through ibon). ARC also not accepted when trying to redeem a winning lottery receipt ticket for store credit at 7 Eleven (but worked before with the old style fapiaos).
Out of curiosity …
Is your ARC number the same one as one the NHI Card ?
That’s my case - I wonder if that is the norm
(well, seems to be logical, but logic and TW are quite often not at present)
ARC number is also not accepted for buying train tickets online in the Chinese version of Taitie’s website. I guess they assume stupid foreigners can’t read Chinese, so they have to use the English version and a passport number instead.
Yep, and then have to bring your passport to get your ticket 
[quote=“MoTi”]Out of curiosity …
Is your ARC number the same one as one the NHI Card ?
That’s my case - I wonder if that is the norm
(well, seems to be logical, but logic and TW are quite often not at present)[/quote]
Yes, they’re the same.
It’s the norm. And a good thing too. No can see the id number on my APRC. So, I pull out my health insurance card. The number is used to get things like library cards, or discount card to stores like SUNFAIR.
ARC number is not accepted for paying Chunghua Telecom bill online. I have to go to the store and pay directly. Would like to see that - as well as all the other cases of blatant discrimination like this - changed.
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For that matter even Amazon would like me to enter a local ID number (I believe for customs purposes), but it doesn’t accept the APRC number.
To all those who are sensing a conspiracy aimed at keeping the hated foreigners down (just teasing - i don’t think anybody would really suggest that): it is, as someone already pointed out, the software - not the people who use it - that governs data entry and data format requirements. And that software was almost certainly written by coders who were not front line people in regards to the business for whom their employers had agreed to produce an interface and who also weren’t the least bit thinking about foreigners (or worse, keeping foreigners out by way of interface limitations) when writing said software - they had a job to do and for that followed a set of requirements to meet.
In other words, the most realistic approach is to assume at worst lack of knowledge of the rest of the world (“ignorance”, in a value-neutral sense of the word) and not malicious intent. I am sure we all agree on that. And if we do, what does that leave us with?
I deal with companies all over the world, and every time i sign up for some service in Malaysia, France, China, or the US i have to cope with some data field that cannot take my real data (most common: phone numbers, postal codes, ID card numbers, addresses) - so i know that this is not at all an issue specific to Taiwan.
The solution? Fake it: match the data as best as possible, and if necessary (which is rarely the case, in my experience) explain to the real human you are facing at some time what the problem was/is with the data fields - i have never been denied a service or product on account of data that were mangled by the software that was in my way.
It’s 2:00am, I should be in bed, but I need to vent.
So, back in November I bought one of those Dolce Gusto coffee/latte makers from Carrefour, which uses special coffee pods. At the time they carried many different kinds of coffees and lattes, including decaf, which is hard to find in Taiwan. And now, three months later–as is usual for here–they have now stopped carrying the decaf. But, all is not lost! They have a local Taiwanese website where you can order the pods. Great!
And yep, you guessed it: Non-Taiwanese ID number problems. I can add items to my shopping cart, but if I want to check out and pay, I must first register, which won’t go through with my APRC number (It also won’t work if you don’t have a Chinese name, but that’s not an issue for me). Registering also allows me to extend the warranty by six months, yet I can’t do that either because I’m a dirty foreigner.
I bought the damn machine IN TAIWAN, with money I earned IN TAIWAN and paid taxes on IN TAIWAN, as a legal, permanent resident of TAIWAN. This gets so incredibly frustrating at times 
I like it. I’m of a mind to give it a try next time.
Unfortunately I don’t know how to fake a native Taiwanese ID number. As Brendon mentioned earlier, the format uses different check sum digit and I don’t know the code. Any suggestions?
What I’ve always assumed to be the problematic difference is that for foreigners the second character is a letter, while for locals it is a numeral.