Only cards with the UnionPay logo are accepted. When I tested, only debit card could be used for mobile phone repayment, but UnionPay credit card was accepted for mobile top-up and TaoBao payments. What’s more, non-Mainland issued UnionPay cards (in my case, from Hong Kong) do work – whereas they aren’t accepted by most online platforms. So far so good.

Taobao Payment
Taobao payments are easy. At the payment method selection screen, choose the Lakala logo under the ‘cash or swipe’ tab (现金或刷卡). If you do not see this option, check that you are logged into Alipay first.

(The Taobao/Alipay plugin does work, but sometimes doesn’t load properly in certain login scenarios. If you have problems, open a new window to alipay.com and login separately. Your cookie should carry over to the original window).

On the next page the transaction ID will be clearly displayed along with a confirmation of amount. You will need to enter these numbers into the card swipe machine. If you don’t have a pen handy you may request this be sent to your phone via SMS by clicking 点此发送至手机.

Now, on the swipe machine, navigate to: “3. 淘宝支付宝充值付款” then “1. 为支付宝交易号付款”. Some Chinese proficiency is recommended. At the following screen (“输入支付宝交易号即可刷卡付款”) – just press the 确认 key to continue.

You will now need to enter the transaction ID, followed by price, and finally your mobile number. (The Lakala machine uses your mobile number as a user identifier).

A few more screens later, you will be asked to swipe your UnionPay card, followed by a PIN prompt. Finally, you are given the transaction response: if you see this, your payment has been accepted. Back at your browser, it is not necessary to take any action as the payment result would have gone through automatically. Easy.

Note: Lakala takes 1% of your transaction price for Taobao purchases, with a ¥2 minimum and a ¥50 maximum.

The Lakala machine can be purchased for ¥399 direct from Lakala. After activation and first use, you must register the device using the form and envelope provided; a photo copy of your ID / passport will be required.

This experience (left) serves another example. I search for “Queen’s Road Central”, but am returned result for “Queen’s Road East”. Below that: Did you mean “Queen’s Road Central”?. Argh!! That’s what I bloody typed in the first place.

Ever dialed the wrong number because some shop or restaurant listed is total and utter crap? Those poor guys at home who keep getting phone calls from strangers wanting to book a table.

Surely, one of the most powerful web companies in the world can do better?

Me:
  “I don’t need this service, thank you”.
Telemarketer in a clingy (嗲) voice:
  “I understand, but I just need to meet my quota, only a tiny bit away.”
Me:
  “Perhaps, but i’m not going to buy something I don’t want just to meet your quota. I have to WANT the thing.”
By this point extremely annoying telemarketer:
  “I understand, but perhaps you can help me? Just buy it anyways.”
Me:
  “If you understand then why are you asking me to buy? I told you I don’t need it.”
Excruciatingly annoying telemarketer:
  “We can be friends. Here’s my number [#], all you need is just pay $xx…”

- I tried to be nice; at that point I hung up. This lady was trying to sell me prepaid IDD calling card services. I told her I have cheaper suppliers, and I don’t like prepaid. She tried to pull a clingy girlie voice on me, assuming guys would fall for that. Even though I don’t need what she’s selling.

Is this how people sell in Hong Kong now? More disturbingly, is this how companies are training their salespeople?

Since late 2007 the unsolicited electronic messages ordinance (CAP 593) came into effect. Unfortunately this OFTA ordinance governs electronic communication only – that being SMS, fax, or recorded voice messages. It does not prevent telemarketers from cold-calling. What’s more one has to opt-in to the Do-not-call register by calling 1835000 from that number.

It’s a starter, but much more needs to be done. I don’t agree with then director-general Marion Lai Chan Chi-kuen who suggested that barring personal interactive calling “could hurt small and medium-sized businesses“. How about hurting privacy, adding to illegitimate phone charges (overseas roaming – I won’t even go there), and wasting people’s time? Welcome to Hong Kong: where the pro-business government cares little about individuals.

There has been little debate since. The government run Anti Spam Website gives advice on cutting down unsolicited contact, whilst a voluntary code of practice has been put into place by many institutions, including the HKDMA (Hong Kong Direct Marketing Association). But voluntary self-regulation is not enough – and surely i’m not the only one fed up of sales calls by now.

When will this practice finally be banned? Or, at the very least, extend the DNC register to cover personal marketing calls too. It’s about time.

Calling the Chinese hotline numbers (10086 and 10010 for China Mobile and China Unicom respectively) may not work through IDD. Local access numbers will be sent to you by SMS upon arrival, which do work. If you forget to make a note of these, there’s a final option.

- China Mobile: +86 13800100186
- China Unicom: +86 18618610010

These will work through Skype / IDD.

Best of course, don’t lose your phone.

Further to my previous post on Apple Mac alipay / taobao support, it turns out there is now a way to make online purchases in China using a Macintosh computer. Using China Merchants Bank and a WAP enabled mobile phone, it’s possible to action a payment without the need for browser restrictions or installing pointless plugins.

Prerequisites:

1. You will need an account with China Merchants Bank and have activated online banking. Unfortunately there is currently no English version. Furthermore you must have a mobile phone number registered, activated online payments, and raised your payment limit beyond zero.
2. GPRS / WAP activated mobile phone. Through the payment process, you will be sent an SMS containing a link. Click through to confirm your purchase with your PIN code on the resulting webpage opened on your phone.

Procedure:

1. At checkout, you will have a selection of banks to choose from. In some cases, you may need to first select payment gateway. Pictured is Alipay’s (支付宝) bank selection page. If shopping outside of Taobao, selection of payment gateway will usually result in a new window redirected to the payment gateway. Of course, you must select Merchant’s Bank here followed by, in this case, the big yellow button below.
2. Typically a second page by the payment gateway will simply confirm your bank choice. If no problems, click to proceed.
3. You should then be redirected to China Merchants Bank payment screen. Note the third tab on the right (手机支付) – this does not require any plugins, and therefore works on the Mac. If you are already registered for this service, choose between Credit (信用卡) or Debit card (一卡通), enter your registered cellphone number (手机号码), the last four digits of your card (卡号后四位) and finally the code displayed on that page. 确定 to submit.
4. You will receive an SMS with a URL. Click through to access payment screen on your mobile – this should work both with a smartphone browser, and WAP. You will need to enter your online payment PIN (支付密码) and captcha shown (验证码). Upon confirming, payment will be completed if there are no problems. Look for the words 支付成功.

Realistically, this is still too complicated if you don’t read any Chinese. However, for existing online banking users who wish to pay using a Mac: once setup, this should be a breeze.

To adjust your online payment limit, login to Merchants Bank Online Banking (on a Windows PC, unfortunately) then find “网上支付” -> “一卡通支付额度管理”. Here you can enter a new limit.

Your mobile number record can be found at “网上支付” -> “一卡通支付联系信息修改”

If you have not yet registered for Merchants Bank Online Banking, you must do so at any bank branch.

在中国大陆的苹果用户现在终于有途径进行网上购物啦！所有招行用户如开通了一卡通手机支付功能可通过手机验证确认支付。流程简单：只需先选用招行支付，然后在招行弹出的窗口内点击手机支付。最后把您注册的手机号输入，加上招卡后四位和显示的验证码输入提交就可进行手机支付，苹果电脑无需要安装任何插件。当你手机收到招行短信后点击短信内的连接，再通过手机输入注册的支付密码确认支付。

虽然此方式不能全算是苹果电脑支持，但起码大陆苹果用户终于有途径支付了。

注意：使用手机支付必需提前开通网上支付功能并调好足够的支付额度。招行专业版支付额度和一卡通额度是分开的，你可通过招行网银“网上支付”目录找出“一卡通支付额度管理”调整额度。

如需修改注册手机号可点击 “网上支付” -> “一卡通支付联系信息修改” 调整

详细流程可参考本博客英文文章。

This is alongside updated pricing plans (linked tariff for non-iPhone users), promising greater data quota’s than previous packages and China Mobile’s current offerings. The higher the service plan used, the cheaper the iPhone is sold for. This offer requires a 24 month service commitment.

Details of 3G and 3GS pricing and service plans available on China Unicom Online Store (or in English via Google Translate). There are slight differences over the standard packages, notably increased data quota and free SMS bundles.

Note: Chinese iPhones have WiFi disabled, but are not carrier locked. For a full featured unlocked phone, consider purchasing from Apple Store Hong Kong. Or wait for a WAPI/WiFi release in China.

Update 2010-11-12:
iPhone 4 has superseded the 3G/3Gs for a while now, and therefore the above is no longer relevant. Chinese iPhone 4 now includes WiFi, and is sold with updated pricing plans. Contract period remains 24 months, with upfront payment of RMB5,880. This is rebated in airtime, depending on your chosen package, with the RMB 286+ packages giving 100% rebate on phone cost, and RMB 96 plan rebating only RMB 1981.

Whilst I still don’t know why the above is true, I found the following:

1) Use China Mobile settings (APN: CMNET) for GPRS / 3G Data with no proxy works fine. MMS should be received using WAP profile (APN: CMWAP , MMSC: http://mmsc.monternet.com , Gateway or Proxy: 10.0.0.172. Port 80 for HTTP, port 9201 for WAP)

I don’t know if this is just compatibility, or a problem with China Mobile’s network.

2) The settings Unicom customer service now provide will only work through a proxy.
GPRS APN: 3gwap
WAP APN: 3gnet
- for both must set proxy through 10.0.0.172 . These settings provide support for web (HTTP) traffic only.

3) Older data suggests to use:
GPRS APN: uninet
WAP APN: uniwap
MMSC: mmsc.myuni.com.cn
- I use this and it works. No proxy needed for GPRS ; but use 10.0.0.172 (as above) for MMS. Works across all protocols (MSN, FTP etc…) unlike 3G settings.

Therefore if you have a China Unicom 3G card and have been given the new settings, don’t bother. It’s just more complicated, and using 3gwap non-HTTP based services will not work.

Note: I’ve subsequently discovered this site claiming that for certain applications like Mobile Television you must use the 3G settings. I haven’t tested.

Update: iPhone users will find that they can no longer change APN settings for China Unicom. Carrier settings are now auto detected upon insertion of SIM card and cannot be modified. Data therefore should just work.