TOT pain

[Johnnie F.]

Getting an internet connection in the bushes of Isaan is a real problem. After years of involuntary abstinence I had finally managed to get connected via GPRS by AIS (One-2-call) over a mobile phone, then advancing to EDGE, then improving by moving to DTAC, further moving on to CDMA by CAT, until finally two months ago we got ADSL by TOT in this village. Though there's nothing to notice of the promised 4 - 6 Mbits/sec still 2.5 Mbits/sec do come in in the nighttime and morning. So I can download movies from TV and at times listen to live radio broadcast.

Last Friday technicians of TOT were seen working on the cables in the neighboring village my line leads through. Whether they set up a new connection for somebody or fixed a defect doesn't matter. Fact is that my line doesn't work anymore since then. The phone is dead and the internet cannot connect, shows "ADSL error". So I called their customer support line 1100 over our second TOT phone line, which isn't connected to internet. Upon pressing 9 you get forwarded to a lady speaking fair English. I explained her the problem, and she confirmed having understood. She promised to forward my complaint to the technicians. But when those would get to fix it again she couldn't say.

When this morning still nothing did work I called again. This time the lady told me there were no problem with my line, meaning the line I called her over. So I slowly repeated the number I was referring to in thai and let her repeat it. I heard her typing something into a keyboard. then she told me there had no complaint been filed about that yet. But she would forward my complaint to the technicians now.

When nothing had happened until lunch my wife's nephew tried his luck to explain them the problem. No response to the complaint of the dead phone line, but they asked him which modem had been connected, as if it did matter which modem did not get any juice from the line.

I wonder, whether I'll be able to manage this problem without having to storm into their supervisor's office?

[dirtydog]

Unusual for them to blame it on your modem, normally they will just tell you its your computer Probably have too many households with more than one pc these days even in deepest darkest Korat

[dirtydog]

Actually my best modem blew up yesterday, had it for years, does 4 computers and cost like 5,000baht, didn't have wireless in them days in Pattaya, anyway a big transformer blew in the soi and took it out luckily I have a few ordinary single port modems, what I did notice is the connection is a lot better with the new modems, I did start to think it maybe new technology or something, odds are its just the lan connections are a nice shiny bright copper color.

[Johnnie F.]

Unusual for them to blame it on your modem, normally they will just tell you its your computer Probably have too many households with more than one pc these days even in deepest darkest Korat

Problem is the line itself; the technicians must have damaged my cable by accident. but that is exactly the problem. If it were something that could have gone wrong in my house or by my doing, they'd be the heroes to help and fix it. But fixing again what they had broken, even if it was by accident only, is another thing. That would mean admitting that they broke it in the first place. Loss of face, the most terrible thing that can happen to anybody in Thailand!

[Johnnie F.]

A couple of phone calls later I got at least to the point to have them acknowledge having received a complaint already, even remembering my name, telling they had forwarded the complaint to the technicians already. When I asked how long it might take for the technicians to do something about it, one day, one month, one year, two years, I was stopped after two years and assured it wouldn't take that long. Let's hope they do it a lot earlier.

[Mitraparp Monkey]

I've heard of that more than once before as a scam: When the technician comes he'll tell you that both your phone and modem are not ok. He offers to get new working ones for you, but you gotta pay cash in advance. and after he connected them they'll miraculously work to your surprise. And then the biggest surprise to you (and him, if you make him stay for that) will be that your old ones will work as well again or still, if you take the new ones he got for you off again and reconnect the old ones. But of course he just cannot take back the new ones he bought for your cash, or maybe at a reduced price like 50% only.

[Johnnie F.]

About an hour after I had called their Contact Center at 1100 again this morning for the daily nagging, and they'd told me again that they still have to tell the technician to check, actually two guys came. The younger had a look from afar at my six-weeks-old modem and declared it broken. I asked him to write his diagnosis on a sheet of paper and sign with his and his company's name (Thepthani in Choho) because I still have warranty on that modem and the company I bought it from (Ratsima IT) wanted to know who said it were broken. His face turning unhappy he declined. Now he started looking at the plug into the modem, then at the wall socket. He asked how the cable was laid in the wall etc., walking around making a helpless face.

Now I got my camera and took pictures of them while they "tried to approach the problem". The younger guy about every 10 minutes went far away from the house to make a call on his mobile phone, I suppose he didn't want me to listen to, since the signals for AIS and DTAC are both excellent in or near the house. Next he tried to tell me it could only be the cable to my house that is laid in a 60 m long underground double PVC pipe buried 1 m deep under the garden. It appeared to me like he was playing for time. Finally the older guy moved in, also checked the signal in the house, making a very serious face like it could never be repaired again. That's when I began to lose patience telling them frankly to just check the cable in front of my house before telling me to tear down my house or dig up my garden. If it were a big problem to fix this I could only cancel the contract and move to one of the wireless alternatives. Another phone call and they actually went to the street in front of my house, handling with the cables or at least acting like. One more phone call and three minutes later it all worked again. They told my wife then the contact there had been oxidized. Like that couldn't have been where to look first, establishing, whether the problem was in my cable system or theirs. Still, a perfectly working line doesn't go dead from one moment to the next when cables oxidize...