Because my wife was working in Tianjin a few years ago, I naively thought it would be a convenient place to sign up for phone service.
因?yàn)槲移拮訋啄昵霸谔旖蚬ぷ?，我天真地以為在這里注冊手機(jī)號碼很方便。

What I didn't realize was that my colleagues in Beijing would ignore my calls because they thought a scammer was targeting them from another city.
讓我沒想到的是，我在北京的同事會拒接我電話，因?yàn)樗麄円詾楸涣硪粋€城市的詐騙分子盯上了。

In the end, however, this wasn't the biggest problem. That honor goes to canceling the number at the end of the contract.
不過最后，這還不是最大的問題，最大的問題是合同終止時取消號碼。

I'll say here that my provider, China Unicom, delivered terrific monthly service.
我想說的是，我的手機(jī)運(yùn)營商中國聯(lián)通，他們每個月為我提供了非常棒的服務(wù)。

I could acquire a cell signal from just about anywhere, the internet service was fast, the price was low.
我在任何地方手機(jī)都有信號，網(wǎng)速很快，價格也很便宜。

I was in no hurry to drop the number. After all, it appeared on my business cards.
我并不急于放棄這個號碼。畢竟，它出現(xiàn)在我的名片上。

But my wife kept finding better deals. She has an uncanny ability to spot a bargain. On Taobao she's like a heat-seeking missile, and I'd swear I've seen her iPad smoking after she's done with it.
但我妻子一直在尋找更劃算的交易。在發(fā)現(xiàn)便宜貨這方面，我的妻子有一種不可思議的能力。她在淘寶上就像一枚裝有熱跟蹤裝置的導(dǎo)彈，我發(fā)誓我曾看到她的ipad被她用得冒煙了。

It was no surprise, then, that one day she found a great phone deal here in Beijing — and with China Unicom, no less, which I already liked.
因此，某天她發(fā)現(xiàn)北京有一個很劃算的手機(jī)套餐，而且還是我喜歡的中國聯(lián)通時，我并不覺得驚訝。

So my first order of business was to cancel the old number. Easy, I thought.
所以我的第一個任務(wù)就是取消原來的號碼。我本來以為這應(yīng)該很容易。

Guess again. I was shocked to learn that to accomplish this I would have to travel to Tianjin and appear IN PERSON at the company's office with my photo ID.
你們猜怎么了，讓我吃驚的是，要想注銷號碼，我必須帶上身份證明親自前往天津的聯(lián)通營業(yè)廳辦理。

It seems in a developing country that you cannot make such arrangements by telephone or internet.
在一個發(fā)展中國家，似乎無法通過電話或互聯(lián)網(wǎng)注銷手機(jī)號碼。

Worse, if you have a refund coming, there's more pain in store for your posterior.
更糟糕的是，如果你需要退款，麻煩會更多。

To collect your money, you must make a second trip to the office to appear IN PERSON after the contract expires.
為了拿到退款，你必須在合同到期后再親自去一趟營業(yè)廳。

That you simply want a different number from the same company matters not.
你只想要一個來自同一家公司的不同號碼并不重要。

China Unicom in Beijing is a separate division from China Unicom in Tianjin, and they're not integrated. Accounts are not fungible.
北京的中國聯(lián)通與天津的中國聯(lián)通是相互獨(dú)立的兩個部門，他們不是一個整體，號碼也不能通用。

Look, I understand about developing countries. Business systems may not be as polished as they are where I come from.
看吧，我理解發(fā)展中國家。它們的業(yè)務(wù)系統(tǒng)可能沒有我們國家那么完善。

In the United States, for example, I would simply call my phone provider, identify myself with the last four digits of the credit card I used when I signed up, and that's it. Ta-da! Voila! Bingo! No more phone number. Alternatively, I could do the deed online.
例如，在美國，我會打電話給我的手機(jī)運(yùn)營商，用我注冊時使用的信用卡的最后四位數(shù)來證明自己的身份，瞧，這樣就搞定了。電話號碼就沒了。或者，我也可以在網(wǎng)上注銷。

Not here.
這里卻不行。

And so, for the better part of a day last weekend, I trekked glumly to Tianjin and back via train and taxi for a transaction that should have been easy to fulfill without leaving home: "Please cancel."
因此，在上個周末一天中的大部分時間，我乘火車和出租車，悶悶不樂地跋涉到天津后返回北京，完成了一項(xiàng)本來應(yīng)該不需要出門就可輕松搞定的交易——“請注銷號碼?！?/p>

Getting a new number from China Unicom in Beijing was a snap.
在北京注冊中國聯(lián)通新號碼是件輕而易舉的事。

The office is located near home, so showing up in person was no problem.
營業(yè)廳離家很近，所以親自過去是沒有問題的。

But I was curious about the cancellation policy. Surprise! The same rules apply. If you ever want to cancel, you must show up in person again, even if you live in sub-Saharan Africa.
但我對手機(jī)號碼注銷規(guī)定很好奇。令我意外的是，北京的手機(jī)號碼注銷規(guī)則與天津是一樣的。如果你想取消，即使你住在撒哈拉以南的非洲，你也必須再親自跑一趟。

The final step in getting the Beijing number was the most interesting. I was asked to gaze into a camera, like you do at the bank.
拿到北京的手機(jī)號碼的最后一步是最有趣的。他們要求我盯著攝像機(jī)，就像你在銀行辦理業(yè)務(wù)那樣。

But the agent didn't just snap a picture: He asked me to bob my head up and down a few times. And then again. And again.
但營業(yè)廳工作人員人并不只是簡單地拍一張照片，他還讓我上下擺頭幾下，然后再重復(fù)兩遍。

That's weird, I thought. Suddenly it dawned on me: He's capturing facial recognition information for a database.
我感覺很奇怪。后來，我突然明白了：他正在為數(shù)據(jù)庫獲取面部識別信息。

You'd think a telecommunications giant capable of handling technology like that ought to be able to do a little thing like change a customer's phone number without forcing him to travel in person to Timbuktu — or Tianjin. Maybe customer service is just one of those things that's developing.
你可能以為，一個這樣的電信巨頭應(yīng)該能夠解決一些小事，比如更改客戶的電話號碼，而不必強(qiáng)迫他親自前往廷巴克圖或天津。也許客戶服務(wù)只是正在發(fā)展的事物之一。

本文僅代表作者本人觀點(diǎn)，與本網(wǎng)立場無關(guān)。

英文來源：“CHINA DAILY”微信公眾號
翻譯：楊秀葉（實(shí)習(xí)生）
編審：丹妮 董靜
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About the author & broadcaster

Randy Wright joined China Daily as an editor in 2013. His career spans 36 years and 10 newspapers in the United States in senior management, editorial writing and reporting roles. He served as adjunct faculty at the University of Arizona and has consulted for many publications, including the California Bar Journal for lawyers and judges. He is a licensed pilot in the US.