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Old Jul 13, 2022, 8:15 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: moondog
The "FT People on WeChat" group
Our group chat is comprised of FT members and friends of FT members. We talk about pretty much anything except for politics (because Papa Bear has the ability to watch over us). The group has its own QR code, but it has a short shelf life (e.g. about 5 days), so I'm not including it here. The easiest way to join is to add me as a contact (moondogsh) and let me put you in the group.

Contacting Tencent Customer Support
If you want to get in touch with Tencent customer service (e.g. to update your passport number or change your name format so it aligns with your bank accounts), most web resources will advise you to simply message the "WeChat Team" contact. It is extremely difficult to get a human response when using this approach. Calling them also results in a bot experience.

However, the following drill works as of July 2022 (specific menu options can always change, of course; the key is getting yourself to step 5 below):
1. Dial 95716 (or +86 4009100100 from outside of China)
2. Select option 1 for personal accounts
3. Enter your connected phone number followed by #
3. Select option 2 for other questions
4. The bot will ask you to describe your issue using voice; just speak to it in English; it won't understand and will ask you to repeat 3-5 times before giving up
5. Now, the bot will give you ~8 menu options; through trial and error, I can state that option 7 is good for immediate transfer to a human (some of the others might work as well)
6. When the representative picks up, you definitely need to speak Chinese, but your request is presumably fairly easy to convey, and their responses are also pretty simple
7. They might want to move the conversation over to WeChat; this is okay because they will send you an invite to a special customer service queue, which is only ~60% automated
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Old Jul 31, 2020, 7:20 am
  #256  
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Originally Posted by moondog
I have no problems accessing either, but they aren't popular here.
1. Government fiat.

2. Network effect.

3. Winner takes all.

This goes a long way to explain WeChat’s dominance in China.
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Old Jul 31, 2020, 7:37 am
  #257  
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Originally Posted by lsquare
1. Government fiat.

2. Network effect.

3. Winner takes all.

This goes a long way to explain WeChat’s dominance in China.
4.Wechat is simply better
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Old Jul 31, 2020, 7:01 pm
  #258  
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Originally Posted by moondog
4.Wechat is simply better
lol! I'm not convinced yet!
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Old Jul 31, 2020, 11:19 pm
  #259  
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Originally Posted by lsquare
lol! I'm not convinced yet!
Even Zuckerberg agrees on this point.
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Old Jul 31, 2020, 11:53 pm
  #260  
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Originally Posted by moondog
Even Zuckerberg agrees on this point.
He said that? Source?
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Old Aug 1, 2020, 1:33 am
  #261  
 
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Originally Posted by lsquare
He said that? Source?
Easy to find, just search for "Zuckerberg WeChat" - most of the stories link back to statements he made in spring 2019.

Example:
https://www.scmp.com/tech/apps-socia...r-advice-about
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Old Aug 6, 2020, 8:11 pm
  #262  
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So it begins... hopefully this madness will be stopped by courts
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Old Aug 6, 2020, 8:42 pm
  #263  
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Originally Posted by azepine00
So it begins... hopefully this madness will be stopped by courts
I disagree with you. China often talk about reciprocity in international relations. Since FB and Twitter is banned in the Mainland, it's only fair that WeChat is banned as well.
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Old Aug 7, 2020, 12:27 am
  #264  
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This came through on my Youtube. What are the implications? While I don't trust having WeChat on my phone and don't really use it, this can be really inconvenient for a lot of people.

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Old Aug 7, 2020, 12:44 am
  #265  
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Originally Posted by lsquare
I disagree with you. China often talk about reciprocity in international relations. Since FB and Twitter is banned in the Mainland, it's only fair that WeChat is banned as well.
Yeah I'm not sure "China does it so it's okay" is a good line of reasoning
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Old Aug 7, 2020, 12:58 am
  #266  
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When they go low, we go lower
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Old Aug 7, 2020, 3:06 am
  #267  
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Originally Posted by username
This came through on my Youtube. What are the implications? While I don't trust having WeChat on my phone and don't really use it, this can be really inconvenient for a lot of people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKfJHLloI1c
Yes and no. WeChat is not a secured platform anyways.
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Old Aug 7, 2020, 3:11 am
  #268  
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Originally Posted by Smiley90
Yeah I'm not sure "China does it so it's okay" is a good line of reasoning
There's nothing illegal or immoral with what I'm proposing.
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Old Aug 7, 2020, 3:12 am
  #269  
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Originally Posted by username
When they go low, we go lower
That doesn't even make any sense. How are we going lower if we ban WeChat? That's ridiculous.
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Old Aug 7, 2020, 6:27 am
  #270  
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Originally Posted by lsquare
That doesn't even make any sense. How are we going lower if we ban WeChat? That's ridiculous.
Tencent made a half hearted attempt to enter the US market about 8 years ago. They gave up and focused on South America. If the US blocks them, we won't lose any sleep, and trump will look good.

TT is a different beast. I don't fully understand it yet, but it has serious momentum.

Basically, during the course of the past 20 years, we went from actually calling each other to SMS, msn, and finally wx. Tik tok is the new frontier.

Last edited by moondog; Aug 7, 2020 at 6:36 am
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