[Vivo Nex Questions & Answers] Guy1731:
I will tell you what happened to me, and I'm afraid it will not please you. Certainly not help you. At least it will tell you where you are and what is your only option left. Creating an account by adding a (Chinese) tel number, sends a verification code to that number. With the verification number you can confirm the account/password that you created, and starting that moment it is your account, and the one you need to confirm from time to time (by inserting the password) to change specific settings in your phone. It happened my phone also asked me for the password while installing some apps. Not on a really regular base, but simple and straightforward. So I got my new NEX, and I discovered very quickly like everyone else that it needed a VIVO account to set things up as needed. Based on reviews, I contacted the shop in China where I ordered my NEX, and confronted them with this vivo account fact. They said they were aware of the need of a VIVO account, but this only needed a Chinese tel number for people living in China. I was confident. So when my NEX arrived, it was an unpleasant surprise to find out it needed indeed a Chinese tel number to create a VIVO account. When I contacted the seller, I was hoping they would show me the way to register an account without living in China, like they had answered me before. They admitted they had been wrong about that Chinese number, so they offered me to use their tel number for registering my VIVO account. I was a little upset by the fact I had been mislead by my seller, so I didn't immediately grab their offer for creating an account based on their number. In the meantime, I had read about the public account spread by the VIVO support team, and based on this I registered the account on my NEX. After a few days, I began to feel uncomfortable about this 'public' account, as I really wanted my phone to be mine, without any restrictions whatsoever, as we are told to 'not try to change the account information and don't save any personal information in this account'. It's my phone after all! So I started thinking: if my seller allows me to use her phone number, then i shall have my own account and I will be able to use my phone however I like. So I contacted my seller again, and created a VIVO account with their tel number. That was easy: register a new account, and wait for PM from my seller to get the verification code. Peace of cake. I had my own account. Well... Not really. Was this a good way to do this? Is this safe? After all, it is not MY tel number, but from some 'anonymous' seller in a shop in China... I started to doubt. I thought, no worries, I can always go back to the public account when needed. And how do we change account? Looks so easy, I tried to do it, just in case. For changing the VIVO account, you need to log out from your actual account. And to log out from your account, you need the... password. When I introduced the password, I got the 'incorrect password' message. Several attempts later, I was thrown out of the 'next try' options, and asked if I wanted to retrieve my password. Hell no! My password not being accepted any more proved that it had been a bad idea to trust this 'anonymous' Chinese tel number to base my account upon. So I decided to throw everything of my phone again, hard reset, start from scratch, and resign myself by accepting the public account registration with its restrictions. To my surprise, my NEX didn't allow me to do that: after starting up from scratch, it showed the message: 'this phone is locked, and registered to this <Chinese tel number> account, please insert the password... I was stuck! When contacting VIVO support, explaining the situation, they said they couldn't help me, as it was not their account, and I had to contact the account number owner. Well, thank you for the support. Ok, I suppose this is a security matter, and they have their rules. Meaning I really needed to contact my seller again to retrieve my password, by requesting a verification code to be send to them. I had no choice, so I did it. I waited for a reply. And waited... No reply. No reply for a day... I slightly started to panic. Jeezz... are these people really that bad? Did they change the account password on purpose? Are they going to ask for a ransom to unlock the account? Ransomware? Will I have to buy a new device? (It will sure be a NEX again, despite the account troubles - which are my own fault - it is a wonderful device, that I discovered in the mean time)... I was really desperate. Untill the next day my seller simply messaged me that I could do a new verification code request to retrieve the password. So I did, and a few minutes later I got the code, retrieved my password, removed the account, and registered the public account. After that... enlightenment! Setting up a new phone is one of those things I love so much. It took me a few hours to get everything installed and set up so it felt again like 'my' phone, and I haven't stopped to get amazed about its performances and possibilities since that day.

Meaning, in the end, that you should be aware that whatever (Chinese) tel number you use to register your VIVO account, you always should be sure that the owner of this number is a real person, that you trust, and that you always can rely on should account troubles occur.I presume my seller didn't have any bad intentions when letting me use their number, but having no experience with this VIVO account they also allowed other people to use it for registering their account, without mentioning 'not try to change the account information', and someone did...

That's why I want to excuse myself toward any Chinese shop about reflecting here any doubt about their honesty. On the contrary, we live in another part of the world, in another time zone, and we sometimes forget shops in China have holidays too. In the end, they were very helpful, not really expert on the new NEX device (who is?) and they stay in my contacts/friends group. The shop is named HongKong Telling Communication Store

China (Guangdong) (Pp) (link: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/gr...765.html?spm=2114.12010608.0.0.31151860rkjiWg). They are friendly, they are simply good people and correct. I forgot to tell you they added some presents with my phone: screen protectors, a silicon case, and 'Lord of the rings' gadget which I don't really know what it is used for.

Thanks for reading.