SmarTone Voicemail in English??

[LOJITT]

Just arrived in HK and bought a SmarTone PAYG sim card yesterday. I've set the voicemail up but when I call voicemail the instructions are in Cantonese. Is there anyway of switching the instructions to English or do you just have to memorise the number commands?

TIA

[MovingIn07]

I have smartone and no problem getting instructions in English. Cannot recall what I did though - I suspect I selected a language option early on. Looking at the smartone website, you can change your language options by logging into your account on the website. Try that - it might help.

[gita]

You need to go to any of the Smartone shops to make the change of language. This is what I had to do to activate the change. Or try calling them if you are a Priority Plus customer.

[LOJITT]

sorted it- thanks for all your replies

[Malcolm99]

For what it's worth they're still having the same issues. I just signed up 2 phones with Smarttone, and stressed to the salesman that I wanted everything in English.

Of course everything from the welcome texts, to the phone hotline, to the voicemail system is in Cantonese - and there is no way to change it for yourself. You need either to visit a shop, or call the hotline from a phone that is *not* your registered mobile, and try to get to a human.

I got a Cantonese friend to call the Chinese hotline and get someone to call me back, which they did within 3 hours. They changed my setting so that the 3 (useless) options on the hotline are in English, but all the voicemail is still Chinese, and I can't get the option to change to English (3, 2, 2,) to stick.

I'm sure once it's set up the system will be fine - but for now I'm almost ready to tell them to stuff it, demand a refund and go back to three.....

[pin]

Can you not just call cust services up to get them to change it?

[Malcolm99]

Can you not just call cust services up to get them to change it?

Unfortunately not. Their whole system is geared up so that when your account is set up a language flag is set for your account and you have no way to change it.

Calling the help line (2880 2688) from your mobile gets you told to call *111
Calling *111 gets you into the Cantonese phone maze.
Calling the helpline from any other phone gets you into the phone maze with no option to talk to a person. Even the usual trick of pressing zero at the various prompts didn't work.
Calling the sales line left me on hold for 15 minutes+. Twice.

My first call with them did get someone to change some setting, and I started getting "welcome" texts and the (useles) *111 helpline prompts in English but still no way to get to a human.

And the voicemail system was all still in Cantonese, as was the default outgoing message. I did find an online page describing how to change the voicemail prompts to english but it fails to mention "press # to save" .

Voice mail - User guide

In the end I left a message through their website contact page and got a call from them, again with a couple of hours. The guy was efficient, explained it was a glitch at their end and got it fixed promptly.

Overall my impression is that I was unlucky with my sales person and their phone "helpline" is there to
- up-sell,
- guide you to their shops and
- keep you away from the tech staff.

The two support people I spoke to were prompt to call, fluent in English, and good at what they do.

[huja]

Walk into a Smartone store. Ask an employee to switch the preferred language of your account (just give him/her your mobile number) to English. A couple of key strokes later all voice mail instructions, SMS messages, etc for your account will be in English.

[Malcolm99]

Walk into a Smartone store. Ask an employee to switch the preferred language of your account (just give him/her your mobile number) to English. A couple of key strokes later all voice mail instructions, SMS messages, etc for your account will be in English.

Not so easy when you live on the outlying islands, work mainly from home, and avoid Central as much as is feasible. I expect to be able to contact a telecoms company remotely.

I made three visits to their stores (IFC, and another in central) when I wanted to transfer my phones to them - the first two times the queueing system was busy and I'd have had to hang around for at least 20 minutes. Why go through that again for something that was their oversight, and should take 30 seconds to fix?

[huja]

Why go through that again for something that was their oversight, and should take 30 seconds to fix?

The short answer is (and I'm not trying to be cheeky), "Because it appears you have to", given that Smartone has yet resolve the problem. In my very short time in HK, I've come to realize that estimating the time/effort it should take to accomplish a task relative to how things are done "back home" only serves to promote frustration, anger, disappointment and gray hairs.

I had a contractor come by on a Wednesday to give an estimate for installing four shelves - as in four pieces of wood held up by pins in a cabinet. It's not as if I' had commissioned a couple of Faberge Eggs.

Me: "Can I get the shelves installed by the end of the week?"
Contractor: "Sure, beginning of next week at the latest."
Me: *Signed the contract* (and feeling like Dr. Faustus)

*Day turns into night. Night turns into day. Days turn into weeks - three to be exact.*

Me: "Hey, about my shelves . . . "

Contractor: "I'll be there there tomorrow to measure."

*Contractor arrives; takes measurements; scribbles notes; leaves*

*Next day, contractor arrives with the four shelves. Three are cut too short*

Contractor: "So sorry."

Me: "When can you cut new shelves and install them?"

Contractor: "Tomorrow"

*He comes back the next day. Two of the three shelves fit perfectly. The third requires encouragement from a hammer to fit. I pay contractor. He goes away happy; smiling like I'm only the latest in a long line of satisfied customers.*