Jul 13, 2022, 8:15 am
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
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
wechat（微信）
Aug 14, 2020 | 7:41 pm
#301
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Aug 14, 2020 | 9:38 pm
#302
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Haining (1 hr from Shanghai) China
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FaceTime and iMessage work fine in China without VPN. For my customers in Europe and USA who have trouble with WeChat, iMessage and FaceTime are our fallback app.
WeChat, on the other hand, does not like non-Chinese IPs, speeds slow down. If I am using my VPN and someone calls (or worse yet, video calls) me on WeChat, I often have to turn off my VPN to get better internet speeds.
And when I'm in the US or Germany, on wifi, sending big files or videos by WeChat takes a long time. Still usable, just slow.
WeChat, on the other hand, does not like non-Chinese IPs, speeds slow down. If I am using my VPN and someone calls (or worse yet, video calls) me on WeChat, I often have to turn off my VPN to get better internet speeds.
And when I'm in the US or Germany, on wifi, sending big files or videos by WeChat takes a long time. Still usable, just slow.
Aug 14, 2020 | 9:45 pm
#303
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Aug 14, 2020 | 11:18 pm
#304
Join Date: Jan 2005
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Posts: 3,889
That happens to me quite a bit after iphone updates. I close the app on my phone and PC, open the phone app and then the laptop and it works fine. For whatever reason, this can even occur after iphone updates which are not for wechat.
Aug 15, 2020 | 1:10 am
#305
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Aug 15, 2020 | 1:51 am
#306
Original Poster
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But, if push comes to shove, I will simply migrate to a different platform instead of attempting to walk mom through the VPN drill. Even if we were to get it set up properly (probably with the assistance of someone local to her), she lacks the patience to deal with customer support when things go bad.
Aug 15, 2020 | 5:35 am
#307
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I'm hopeful that you (and me) won't have to educate our elders on VPN. My gut tells me that this issue is now "yesterday's news".
But, if push comes to shove, I will simply migrate to a different platform instead of attempting to walk mom through the VPN drill. Even if we were to get it set up properly (probably with the assistance of someone local to her), she lacks the patience to deal with customer support when things go bad.
But, if push comes to shove, I will simply migrate to a different platform instead of attempting to walk mom through the VPN drill. Even if we were to get it set up properly (probably with the assistance of someone local to her), she lacks the patience to deal with customer support when things go bad.
Aug 15, 2020 | 5:44 am
#308
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: HKG
Posts: 1,397
TikTok in the US might be a kids thing, but TikTok in China is huge outside of the tier 1 cities. WeChat is getting steamrolled and you know they're worried because they've tried multiple times to duplicate TikTok within WeChat but it's been a failure every single time. WeChat duplicating TikTok is pretty much the same as Microsoft/Google trying to duplicate Facebook, in vain.
Aug 15, 2020 | 5:47 am
#309
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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Posts: 21,004
TikTok in the US might be a kids thing, but TikTok in China is huge outside of the tier 1 cities. WeChat is getting steamrolled and you know they're worried because they've tried multiple times to duplicate TikTok within WeChat but it's been a failure every single time. WeChat duplicating TikTok is pretty much the same as Microsoft/Google trying to duplicate Facebook, in vain.
Aug 16, 2020 | 6:57 pm
#311
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In theory, it could work, but I like your MS example. In light of the fact that Tencent hasn't pulled this off yet, I give long odds to FB during the medium term.
Apr 7, 2021 | 5:12 am
#312
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Posts: 46,306
Hi, all. It appears that Tencent has seriously upped its censorship recently. I still want to keep our group active because it remains an incredibly useful resource for anyone who finds themselves in a jam or simply wants restaurant suggestions (fbm might be similar in terms of functionality, but it isn't widely used here). That having been said, posts that pertain to taboo topics (growing list) will not be seen by others. As such, if we want to talk about things like Vs, it's imperative that we develop a new lingo. This presumably isn't so important for one-to-one conversations, but is for largish groups and moments if you have a lot of friends.
Apr 7, 2021 | 8:38 pm
#313
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 371
Slightly off topic, but I would like to receive visual but not sound notifications from Wechat of new messages. I haven't found any way to do it. When I had sound messages activated. I have OnePlus6 Android phone and a Samsung tablet. I am in the US and when the sound notifications on Wechat were activated I would be getting messages at times such as 2 a.m., which was very annoying.