Tot Adsl - Service Down All Day

[StickKettleOn]

Hello one and all

I just wondered if any TOT ADSL users have experienced problems today? My service has been down all day - I have a connection, but cant open internet. Under the diagnostics page my internet connection shows 'not connected' - on hitting 'connect', it dosent work. On test settings, all boxes are ticked apart from 'PPP' which has a nasty cross next to it. Not even sure what PPP is.

I live up country and my GF called local TOT office today. They told her there is a problem with server in BKK and they are currently fixing it. No indication of how long and when asked if would be back up tommorow, they said maybe/maybe not. TIT. Frankly, i dont believe them anyway.

Looking through the forum, no one has posted on this so i figure yoy guys are all ok?

Is there a main TOT ADSL number to call? The local office cant speak English, and my Thai is not very good.

Aside form that - any suggestions? Not sure what i expect you to suggest, but thsi forum usualy comes up with answers I did not expect so if you can guide me, would be appreciated.

Many thanks

[backflip]

Why do you smell a rat? They say ther're working on it, and you don't believe them. Would you feel happier is they said they weren't working on it? Your Thai isn't good, but how about your GF's? Do you think you'd get a "better" answer if your Thai was good, or their English was better?

[sabajja]

Shaky dsl connections is something you better get used to living in here.

Yesterday mine was done for a couple of hours to.

Not sure about rats chewing the cable though

[Phil Conners]

StickKettleOn is right, I doubt anyone in TOT know their a$$ from their elbow.

I have a TTT/Maxnet ADSL connection, it has worked fine for the last two years with a few glitches, maybe 3 or 4 times each with 2-5 hours downtime.

To increase my availability I got a TOT/Goldcyber line as well. It was ordered early January. On Jan 11 it worked for 2 hours, then stopped working for 5-6 days, started working again for 5-6 days, and now for the last 3-4 days hasn't worked. By "not working" I mean the link is down - no ADSL light on to put it simple. The telephone line works ok, no noise, and while the line worked, the S/N figures were well within acceptable margins.

I've of course been in contact with TOT almost daily. Their last suggestion was that the problem was my line from the street to the modem. Since the same line carries the TTT signal on the second wire-pair, I find that hard to believe. I offered them to swap the line so they could use the wirepair now used by the TTT connection, but they said they'd go to the switch and have a look. That's 3 days ago.

In the meantime, I'm paying 1,000 baht/month for this less-than-50%-working line, and this being Thailand they look at me like I was green when I suggest they should give a pro-rata refund of the cost.

[DragonQuest]

i have tot, and i dont have a problem, but i live in bangkok.

[tom yum goong]

StickKettleOn, have u tried setting different DNS servers? i use TOT in Phuket and there has been a problem with their DNS for the last 2 days.

right now i'm using OpenDNS with no problems: 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220

how to change your DNS settings

Edited January 27, 2007 by tom yum goong

[zzz9]

In one sentence : GET USED TO IT.

yesterday I also had a problem with them for few hours (I think 2).

-They have crap service.

-They ALWAYS ALWAYS fix the server (Yes..in thai language and in english..)

-They not willing to compremise for their downs by disscount for costumers.

THATS IT. END OF STORY.

[StickKettleOn]

Lol, it seems im not the only one who has little faith.

For me, if the line goes down then oh well, grit me teeth and go to the internet cafe. No major drama, and TiT.

Its the bullshite that winds me up. Regardless of language barriers, its the usual case of telling me anything when they dont realy know the answer. Last week it went down and i called them up. To cut a long story short, they told me my modem was faulty. I asked them why they think this, but they just repeated the same answer over and over. Engineer comes out with new modem, and tells me old modem is fine.

When i spoke to them yesterday, they told me that there is a big problem in Bangkok and they are fixing the servers. Most TOT users, they said, dont have internet today. I checked on this forum, did not see one post about it, which is why i smelt a rat. If most Thailand TOT users did not have internet, there would be a post here about it. It turns out, they had cut me off for not paying my bill. It would help of course, if they sent me a bill. I went to the office and told them i wanted my internet back on. They told me there is nothing they can do, as the Bangkok servers are down.. It was then that they realised they hadnt sent me a bill, and had cut me off. I paid immediatley, and then asked them if the Bangkok server problem was still going on...."No, all is fine in Bangkok, no problems today". They said this literaly 3 minutes after telling me bangkok servers are down.

So, the rat i smelt was there all along.

Backflip - i can only assume you have been living in LOS less than 1 week if you figure Thais dont lie if they dont have an answer. Rarely will you here a Thai say "sorry, I have no idea. Let me see if i can find out though, hang on a moment"

[raro]

-They not willing to compremise for their downs by disscount for costumers.

I may correct you here. Everytime adsl is down, I send an e-mail to [email protected] (YES! It is their official e-mail! - they have another one at gmail as well....) and print out a copy.

At the end of the month I deduct the days without service (in October we had ten of them) from their invoice and issue a cheque accordingly.

TOT Pattaya somewhat accepted this, actualy TOT calls ME now about once a week, asking if the service is ok...

I also have by now the direct line of the Vice President ADSL of TOT and direct any complaints directly to him instead of the hotline. PM me, I am more than happy to ditribute this number...

[zzz9]

raro you r a hel_l lucky guy.. I get (or my wife when she calls dont start with the language..farang..thai..) the record on and on and on "sawadi krap..chai chai..server..bla bla bla..we fix the server..sorry..kabkun krap..

And lets just say that u have the direct number of the president of ToT and the email..Is that makes the service any better.. ?? NO.

The only thing u'll get is friendly thai talks and blogs....and bull s#$% .

Luckily I have also TT&T so if 1 company goes wrong I have back up of the other company.

This is te only way to keep the work smooth.

[tigerbeer]

you guys are all posting here using the internet so whats the problem??? if you didn't have internet, you could not post here at all. what a bunch of clowns.

whats was that Vice President of TOT number now?

[nikster]

Lol, it seems im not the only one who has little faith.

For me, if the line goes down then oh well, grit me teeth and go to the internet cafe. No major drama, and TiT.

Its the bullshite that winds me up. .... [snip]

If you think that's specific to Thailand then you have never dealt with SBC in the U.S. The U.S. is known for the best customer service in the world, but telecoms are _the_ exception.

Of course, it didn't go down as much as in Thailand, but it did go down a few times a year when I lived in San Francisco.

Every time the conversation went the same:

SBC: Check your PPPoE settings

I: " I am using a router"

SBC: We don't support routers, please connect your computer directly. Your router is bad! Yeah, that's it!

I: No my router has never been bad etc...

SBC: I am testing your DSL modem right now, I see 100% uptime, it's working fine.

This conversation would lead to me connecting the computer directly, using the crap PPPoE software, finding it still didn't work, and here comes the punch line:

SBC: "Please re-install your operating system and all drivers."

At which point I would laugh loudly and hang up.

I eventually figured out their protocol and the following tactics worked very well:

1 - Pretend to have done all the crap that they ask you to do - that's always good. "Yes, I re-installed my OS, danced around the table, and lit three candles".

2 - Turn off the DSL modem - this was the best. They would say they are checking my modem and it's working perfectly. Then I would turn off the DSL modem and let them try again. It would still have a 100% OK status which meant whatever they were testing was not my line as my DSL modem wasn't even on.

Still, each time I would spend at least 30 minutes on hold, listening to elevator music. I once spent over 2 hours on hold before giving up.

Compared to that, TOT service is excellent They just ask whether the lights are on and which color/flashing, then I tell them I don't have a WAN address and they go fix it.

[nikster]

-They not willing to compremise for their downs by disscount for costumers.

I may correct you here. Everytime adsl is down, I send an e-mail to [email protected] (YES! It is their official e-mail! - they have another one at gmail as well....) and print out a copy.

At the end of the month I deduct the days without service (in October we had ten of them) from their invoice and issue a cheque accordingly.

TOT Pattaya somewhat accepted this, actualy TOT calls ME now about once a week, asking if the service is ok...

I also have by now the direct line of the Vice President ADSL of TOT and direct any complaints directly to him instead of the hotline. PM me, I am more than happy to ditribute this number...

This is excellent - takes some discipline but I will try to do that as well. How do you calculate downtime? Subtract a day if there's over N hours a day downtime?

I was actually thinking about writing a little program that issues a ping to google.com every 30 minutes or so even when I am not there and writes the results in a log. That way I would know exactly how much it was down each month, I could make a nice Excel spreadsheet even. Then pay accordingly

[zzz9]

nikster .to say that Tot service is excellent is just about the same as to say Iran love america.

Few times a year its not 8-12 times a year .

Bullshit costumers with unskilled costumer service which just to hear them talking make me laugh..

Enough said.

ToT crap end of story.

[sabajja]

Yesterday I took a paper and pen and wrote down each time my TOT line went down.

One stroke for each "line drop".

After 4 hours usage = 27 strokes.

That's how good my line is.

I've been contacting TOT on and off for over 2 months now about this problem.

They've been to my home twice. "shaking the cables and trying to look professional"

Haven't helped squat.

Usually if a serviceman does a good job, he usually checks afterwards if the repair was successfull.

Not this people.

It's more like this:

SQREATCHHH (TOT service vehicle halting in front of my house).

Latter up to the phone pole.

Guy runs up the latter (and does something), then runs back down.

Comes to my door and says "everything ok now", and TJOFF !!! he's away !

Twice i've received this treatment now.

And offcourse afterwards, everything non working same as before.

Am I angry, no.

I stopped caring about it long ago.

If I had to spend time bothering myself with all the crap that doesn't work around here, i'd be better of moving back to Europe.

It's the same with the following services where I live:

1. Water (Naam papa)

2. Electricity

3. Internet

4. Road repair

It's all done with a "majj pen rai" attitude wether it works or not.

As I see it you have 4 choices:

1. See a doctor and have him prescribe Prozac and Valium.

2. Move back to your home country.

3. Become a monk (Then you can sit in front of a candle and meditate your

problems away)

4. Smile and say "Majj pen rai" to everything, Yes, it can be done, but it takes some time to master, and actually believing it yourself everytime you say it.

Edited January 28, 2007 by sabajja

[nikster]

Yesterday I took a paper and pen and wrote down each time my TOT line went down.

One stroke for each "line drop".

After 4 hours usage = 27 strokes.

That's how good my line is.

I've been contacting TOT on and off for over 2 months now about this problem.

They've been to my home twice. "shaking the cables and trying to look professional"

Haven't helped squat.

You could do some error checking on your own - most DSL routers allow you to check the line quality. I don't remember the details but there was a thread in this forum not so long ago that explains all about DSL line quality. Most likely, that's the cause of the crap connection you have.

A friend of mine is in a similar situation. His telephone line has a lot of static when picking up the receiver, and his DSL goes down all the time. TOT was so far unwilling to fix it - they come by his house, tell him everything is OK, and leave.

I am pretty sure you can escalate the issue with people inside TOT though, or switch to another provider.

[Phil Conners]

you guys are all posting here using the internet so whats the problem??? if you didn't have internet, you could not post here at all. what a bunch of clowns.

whats was that Vice President of TOT number now?

I don't know about the others, perhaps they post from one of the many Internet cafe's available - but I have two ADSL lines: TT&T and TOT. The former generally works, the latter generally don't.

Clown!

[tutsiwarrior]

I tried to post a reply on this thread yesterday an' when I hit the 'add reply' button a ToT message came up to say that the internet was not available