The dreaded telecom dance

Never needed a deposit for Taiwan Mobile… multiple contracts and locations.

Yeah, you’ll be surprised what you can get if you tell them you’re cancelling. Somebody just recently told me they got a call immediately after their cancellation asking what the problem was, and was then offered an unadvertised tariff that undercut the competitor’s rate.

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I cancelled Taiwan mobile last year and moved to APTG , to do so you can’t just call in, you have to cancel at a corporate store , ironically for the op you need a passport to cancel lol.

Anyway they offered me deals to stay that got progressively better. I still switched as APTG was cheaper , a switch I regret.

Ive never paid a deposit for Taiwan mobile

Well, 4.5 years ago there was no escaping the deposit, so those 2900 NT have been making interest for TW Mobile for all that time.

Why did you regret going to APTG?

Did anyone ever have to pay a deposit/bond with Far Eastern? (遠傳)

It’s all hit and miss. Some stores will put it through with no bond and others insist.
They asked for a bond 3 years ago and i said I’d call the NCC to complain. They told me please don’t and wait for a call back . The next day they cleared it, no bond.

FET is bondless but your arc must be over a year.

Aptg is cheap, very cheap, but at the places I work at 80% gets no signal.
At my home they work great

I’ve got an APRC, so it will be no problem to go to FET then.

If APTG has lousy coverage then it is not for me: I work in the boondocks of Taoyuan and even the major players don’t get good coverage there.

Cheers mate!

How did you get APTG? They wont even look at me without a guarantor and their sales are NO CONTRACT!
I’ve been to the NCC twice and their site still says foreigners need a guarantor.

Can confirm I also didn’t need a deposit for TW Mobile.

Oddly enough, I also signed up at the Syntrend branch.

A year ago like you I wanted their no contract $249 unlimited deal and they said no guarantor no service. So I had a day off and wanting to ruffle some feathers as is my style I stopped by their head office and asked to speak to the manger.

A man and woman came down and as far as I could tell they had no official capacity, I assumed they were there to tell me to bugger off.
They had no authority to offer me anything but the rules… no guarantor no service.
I told them I will contact the NCC right in their office and they said OK and left.

So I did. After some back and forth they agreed to service with a $2400 deposit which I reluctantly agreed to as the service price was cheap

Yeah, that’s what I got, but, I want to see that rule deleted off their site. I’m willing to make their lives a nightmare until that rule is deleted.

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Id normally pursue it to the end but I just wanted the deal so caved in early.
I think if I kept refusing their offer to the ncc they would eventually cave in.

Their attitude is completely anti foreigner which surprises me seeing they are the smallest carrier one would think they would want new.clients, even if I’m a smelly foreigner.

A few months ago a friend arrived with no arc so I asked if I can add another account to mine.
They said sure, go back to the same store and put up another $2400 bond even on another account. I was pissed that as an existing paying on time client they still didn’t trust me so I said forget it

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Good enough a reason to steer clear of them. Bad customer service is a major turn-off for me. With TW Mobile it has been half good, half bad for me, but the half bad is taking over now.

Went into a couple of FET stores just for fun to see what kind of deals I could get. Even when it was busy they took the time for me and were very friendly.

BTW, what NCC department handles telephone companies complaints? I’ve dealt with the NCC before, but that was regarding import/export. Any phone number good to have on speed dial?

Telecom Complaints only :
+886-800-201207

But I found they weren’t very willing to help over the phone. I used the online complaint form.

But before hitting them with the big guns, I’d tell them first what you want and how you will let NCC know if they can’t do it. Gives them a chance first to resolve the issue

That’s the problem. We have to fight every time for everything. The 電信法 Article 21 clearly states that services must be provided fairly without discrimination. You get through, but Johnny will then experience the same thing, needs a guarantor. They just don’t learn.

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I got the 499 unlimited 4G deal earlier this year. No guarantor, no deposit. I’m an ARC holder and didn’t have a previous account. This was at some random TWM in Taipei.

Thanks for that, I was looking for this.

Of course I will be civil and polite, but I don’t have much faith in TW Mobile due to past experience. They usually counter with “It’s company policy” which is a valid argument, except if they don’t act out their policy. One time I had to make a scene in one of their stores to get something done after I had waited 8 weeks for them to do something. Luckily they were wise enough to see that by returning me money I would leave and not scare the other customers away, so they did. Needless to say I never visited that store again.

Okay, so here is how it ended (for now).

I went to a FET store (again), but it was a cricket store (加盟店). Wrong, only their company stores are allowed to handle foreigners and we don’t have a FET company store in Daxi. Went to the company store in Taoyuan, but they demanded a deposit of 2400 NT, so I left. The other day I was in Longtan and after insisting that I didn’t want to pay a deposit the girl went off and 15 minutes she returned and said that APRC holders were indeed exempt of paying the deposit. Great, but their computer system didn’t have an option to skip the bond for foreigners (or so she said).

Being tired of all this sh#te I caved and paid the 2400 and left. At least I’ve got a good deal (299/month with 12GB mobile internet), my APRC is my primary ID, so no more carrying passports and I met someone who was willing to spend time and effort to get what I wanted (although she didn’t succeed).

I’m not done with this, yet, because the NCC were very contradictory when I called them and I also know from other sources that FET indeed does not require a deposit for foreigners.

I had a discussion about all this in one of my adult classes and they didn’t quite get my frustration. Use your wife’s name if you don’t want to pay a deposit and yes, all foreigners pose a risk of fleeing, so a deposit is warranted. If the general consensus is like that it will be tough to get any substantial change done.

The NCC was very contradictory when I called too last year too.
The first girl was sympathetic but she transferred me to another who said they couldn’t do anything. It seemed to me from her tone she was just being lazy so I used the online form to make my complaint, that way it’s on file and a reference number is given and they have to work on it.
A few calls later with the carrier and it was sorted.

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