So I used WeChat when I traveled to Thailand last year. Pretty much everyone uses it (I think mostly because there are so many Chinese visitors or something).
Now I’m going back, and I tried using my WeChat account to communicate with my next AirBnB landlord for my trip. Initially it worked when I booked the room a couple-three weeks ago. Now WeChat has decided I’m a ‘suspicious’ account (perhaps because I was dormant for 11 months), and is requiring me to get another WeChat user to vouch for me to unlock the account. I have to provide their phone number (we don’t need to be WeChat ‘friends’) and I’m not sure what happens next: presumably WeChat sends them a code or something, they give it to me, I give it to WeChat, and my account is unlocked.
The problem: the only WeChat users I know are overseas. I used my phone in Thailand to create my account, but my phone thought it was in the US. And only a WeChat user who:
Has been a WeChat member for more than six months and
Has a phone number in the same country code as the one I used to register (US +1) can ‘vouch’ for me.
I know nobody that matches both boxes. Everyone I know on WeChat is in Asia. I’m in California.
So: is there anybody in the US, who has been a WeChat user for more than 6 months and initially registered WeChat using a US +1 phone, who can ‘vouch’ for me? I really need this to contact some of the folks I will see when I’m traveling, including the person who can let me into my AirBnB that I’ve already paid for (the Thai housekeeper; the landlord is in China). Please PM me if you can help. Thanks in advance!!!
I can contact the owner through AirBnB. I need to contact the housekeeper who can let me in. Yes, I can be a pain in the ass to the owner, and will! but I’m trying to do it his way as a start.
I think I can use Link with the maid. I need to find out more. I’m trying to solve the first problem before I go on to the next (never used Link and I have housekeeper’s WeChat contact now, not Link).
I’m going next Thursday (1/17), Bangkok then Pattaya. Have fun on your trip, Manson, Thailand is amazing. And weird. And amazingly weird
Also it pisses me off that this stuff breaks so easily. My airBnb account also thinks I’m a hacker and won’t let me use my cell number because someone else used it with some other email address. WTF, I’ve had two email addresses in 6 years, and neither of them is the one AirBNB thinks is the original linked to my cell. I had to use my son’s phone to register for my AirBnb!
Ah, Pattaya. Disneyland for adults. It’s not my cup of tea, having lived there on and off four six months as part of my Chinese assignment, but, you have to experience Walking Street after dark. Learn to use the baht busses. Drink in a beer bar. And, yes, even go into a go-go bar on Walking Street. If you’re there long enough, go out to Ko Lan and enjoy the beaches. They should be great this time of year.
squeegee, I would have helped, but saw your post after someone else helped you. If you want to friend me, send me an IM. It might make recovery easier next time.
If you are going to go-go bars on Walking Street, make a personal rule to only have 2 drinks and then just leave, no matter what happens. Or you will be trapped there
Koh Larn is nice, easy speed boat ride.
Also, for the love of God, do not rent any jet skis on the beach!!
I always hear that they’ve cracked down on this scam, but still good advice. In short, they’ll nail you for damage you didn’t do, and they’ll have police there to enforce it.
