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）
Sep 19, 2013, 6:22 pm
#76
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 10,224
People Nearby is just a small part of we chat, however. The functionality of we chat is much better than what's app and everyone of my friends in China who was a what's app user a year ago has switched completely to we chat. If Tencent can gain traction with this thing in Southeast Asia, Europe, and Latin America as well as in the States amongst the Chinese population I think we could be looking at the first Chinese App that truly goes global.
Sep 19, 2013, 7:51 pm
#77
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,033
Let's say you're in the vicinity of the GY and they happen to be hosting a meeting of the Shanghai Single Ladies Association, and Lilly sends you some pictures of the event in real time. Would you not stop by? This is just a small part of WX for business. When I return to Shanghai (hopefully very soon), I look forward to showing you some of the things we've done.
Sep 19, 2013, 9:19 pm
#78
Ambassador: China
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Malibu Inferno Ground Zero
Programs: UA AA CO
Posts: 4,836
Sep 19, 2013, 9:30 pm
#79
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,033
Sep 19, 2013, 11:11 pm
#80
Ambassador: China
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Malibu Inferno Ground Zero
Programs: UA AA CO
Posts: 4,836
Sep 22, 2013, 10:17 am
#83
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,033
If any of you want a walk through of our official account, please feel free to either shoot me a PM or add my personal account to your wx: moondogsh. I finally have most of the angles covered.
Sep 22, 2013, 10:05 pm
#85
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,033
Sep 23, 2013, 1:10 am
#87
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,033
Sep 23, 2013, 10:20 am
#88
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: San Francisco
Programs: UA 1K/AS 100K …Bonvoy Titanium..Hertz Presidents Club
Posts: 1,116
Sep 23, 2013, 8:30 pm
#89
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Asia
Programs: Krisflyer, Enrich, Marco Polo, Accor, HHonors, IHG
Posts: 610
Business development?
The Scan QR Code is useful for Japan and maybe Greater China. The Shake feature is uhmm...to find out who's shaking the cell phone at the same time with you, who could be 10,000 miles away. Moments is the FB-ish part of it which is what moondog is on about for the part on building business relationships?
Incidentally, just read that Alibaba is offering a competing product called
Laiwang that can do group chats with as many as 500 people.
Oct 14, 2013, 8:44 am
#90
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,033
Greetings, all.
I've finally wrapped my arms around "official accounts" and have the means to create sites for companies sans Chinese business licenses.
Check out howtochina, which I built entirely on my own. The only thing that's missing from it now is our form submission page. This is very important because, as of now, all form data is captured by a third party. I need one of my Chinese colleagues to devote 4 hours to this task tomorrow morning.
The bottom line is that if you are doing business in China, you must be on Wechat (access to 400 million customers).
Our prices start at Y1,500 and top out at Y6,000.
Off topic, howtochina is free for the next 30 days for 20 users; we are trying to optimize our system before turning up the volume. You will see us in the WSJ before Xmas.
I've finally wrapped my arms around "official accounts" and have the means to create sites for companies sans Chinese business licenses.
Check out howtochina, which I built entirely on my own. The only thing that's missing from it now is our form submission page. This is very important because, as of now, all form data is captured by a third party. I need one of my Chinese colleagues to devote 4 hours to this task tomorrow morning.
The bottom line is that if you are doing business in China, you must be on Wechat (access to 400 million customers).
Our prices start at Y1,500 and top out at Y6,000.
Off topic, howtochina is free for the next 30 days for 20 users; we are trying to optimize our system before turning up the volume. You will see us in the WSJ before Xmas.