Thai mobile phone provider wants too much money

[OneMoreFarang]

With the laws in this country, I am not sure if I am allowed to mention the name of the provider.

I use a big mobile phone provider in Thailand since many years. I pay my bills at the end of the month depending on the usage.

 

I used their 599B promotion since many years.

Now they sent me a message that that promotion doesn't exist anymore, and they recommend the 669B promotion.

So, I check in my app from that company to look at available packages. The cheapest they offer on their app cost 649B.

Then I looked on their website. The cheapest there is 399B.

So, I called them and asked to which package I can change. The friendly saleswoman told me the cheapest is 449B. I asked her how about that 399B offer from the web? Her answer: I don't see that, I will ask someone else to call you back. 

About 10min later someone called me back and I asked about the 399B package. Yes, I can have that. Then I asked if they have anything cheaper. Yes, 349B. Which conditions? And he told me about the free call time, internet usage, etc. Even the cheapest package was more than twice of what I normally use. So now I changed to that one.

 

Summary: Now I pay about half of the price of their recommended package.

The phone provider obviously knows how much I call and how much internet I use. They could have easily recognized that even the cheapest package includes more minutes of phone calls and more GB than I used in the last 3 months together. But no, they want to charge more.

 

I write this here because others might have the same problem, they want to pay no more than necessary, but the phone company makes it extraordinary difficult to choose a cheap promotion which they offer. Annoying!

 

 

[BritManToo]

Don't understand why you aren't on the yearly SIM packages, I'm paying 1600bht/year. 

[ChaiyaTH]

You are living in the clouds if you think providers “know exactly what you use” in thailand and match that for your subscription. 
 

Basically what you say is: i checked a bit longer than normal to save 100 baht a month to get my internet pack, aka normal daily consumer and marketing stuff.

The difference in cheapest packages also depend on: fixed speed ABC, unlimited speed, 4-5G, duration, limits. 

 

I wonder what is it that you try to tell us? 

[ChaiyaTH]

8 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Don't understand why you aren't on the yearly SIM packages, I'm paying 1600bht/year. 

Thats some garbage package for people who want to reach internet when not having wifi while it takes ages to load.

 

So your understanding lacks a lot then, why do people want fast internet? 

[AndyAndyAndy]

2 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

Thats some garbage package for people who want to reach internet when not having wifi while it takes ages to load.

 

So your understanding lacks a lot then, why do people want fast internet? 

 

I have 2000Baht / 1 year SIM card with unlimited internet. I have no idea what speed it is, but 3GB movie takes about 10 minutes to download. 

[Chivas]

So many providers have plans that are sometimes promotional that carry on for years yet are nowhere to be seen on official websites that are via shortcodes

 

The plan I currently use is 300 Baht inclusive taxes per month but nearest to it on website is 699 Baht on True plus taxes

[SingAPorn]

With all the absurd rules just to scam foreigners, better of using Line or any wifi supported connections.

[charleskerins]

28 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Don't understand why you aren't on the yearly SIM packages, I'm paying 1600bht/year. 

1600 baht a year includes what?

[The Fugitive]

10 minutes ago, SingAPorn said:

With all the absurd rules just to scam foreigners, better of using Line or any wifi supported connections.

How to receive OTP's from your Thai bank?

[OneMoreFarang]

13 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

I wonder what is it that you try to tell us? 

Ok, let me try again.

 

There was a time when I used phone and SMS a lot. I had a promotion for 300min per month phone calls, x number of SMS, etc.

Now I use most of the time WhatsApp to chat with people and call them, and that most of the time when I am connected to a WIFI network.

I use the mobile phone provider data to check news and my email, I don't watch long movies in high resolution somewhere outside.

 

I want a mobile phone provider which is reliable. And I don't want to pay more than necessary.

I checked the invoices from the last couple of months. I never used more than 100min phone calls per month. And I never used all the GB from my internet package. 

 

I expected that I see on the website and on the app of the mobile phone provider all packages which I can change to, from the cheapest to the most expensive. 

And I would hope for honesty. I can see in my invoice how much I called and how many GB I used. That information is from them. They could easily tell me that for me the cheapest package is just fine, because I don't use anything more than that.

 

But they make it difficult to change to something cheaper - even if that is in their range of products.

Change in app: No

Change with a phone call to their support: No

Only after asking a couple of times do they offer what they have.

Annoying.

 

I save now about 3000B per year. That is not much. But what's the point of spending that money if it has absolutely no advantage?

My gf also changed to the cheaper promotion. Another 3000B per year.

A little here, a little there, it adds up. 

 

 

[bkk6060]

It can be confusing mostly because they lack knowledge and are confused.  If you go to 5 different True shops, they will quote numerous options some not seem to be offered by other shops.  And the websites for these carriers,  good luck.

[spidermike007]

While it may be annoying to you, the reality is that Thailand is still very inexpensive compared to many other countries in the world for cell phone coverage. In the US I have a comparable plan to what I have here but it's 1/5th the speed for 5G, and it cost me $85 a month. Here I pay about $17 a month and it's five times faster. 

[GammaGlobulin]

59 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

The cheapest there is 399B.

 

I use this package for minimum phone calls plus internet bandwidth, which is enough for me.

I rarely use the internet on the phone.

Rarely call anyone.

 

I use my 3BB package which gives me plenty of fast internet, plus a SIM card for my second phone, at a very reasonable price.  Therefore, I could probably do without the other company, and the Bt.399 that I pay per month.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

10 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

While it may be annoying to you, the reality is that Thailand is still very inexpensive compared to many other countries in the world for cell phone coverage. In the US I have a comparable plan to what I have here but it's 1/5th the speed for 5G, and it cost me $85 a month. Here I pay about $17 a month and it's five times faster. 

 

Yes, I know that in general the service is not expensive in Thailand.

What annoys me is that they clearly spent a lot of money on advertisement and marketing and this and that.

But they are not willing to show the same information on their WWW and App and not when I call them.

They could have that info in an Excel file, and it would cost them basically nothing. But no, they don't do that. Annoying! 

[scubascuba3]

54 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Don't understand why you aren't on the yearly SIM packages, I'm paying 1600bht/year. 

The data allowances now are poor, the good old days of unlimited year sims seems over on Lazada and Shopee anyway.

 

i still have AIS unlimited 10mbps 150 baht a month + just kicked off 3BB fibre at home

[OneMoreFarang]

16 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

It can be confusing mostly because they lack knowledge and are confused.  If you go to 5 different True shops, they will quote numerous options some not seem to be offered by other shops.  And the websites for these carriers,  good luck.

I remember a couple of years ago I visited a DTAC shop to ask them about some prices. I think they had 3 people "working" there. I was the only customer. And what did they do when I asked them? They called their service line on one of their phones and handed me the phone. Ask them!

That was not the service which I expected. 

[BritManToo]

30 minutes ago, charleskerins said:

1600 baht a year includes what?

15mbs, 100gb/month, free phone calls all networks limited to 30mins/call.

[ExpatOilWorker]

I am getting 30 GB @ 5g speed for 399 with AIS.

Pretty reasonable. 

[charleskerins]

6 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

The data allowances now are poor, the good old days of unlimited year sims seems over on Lazada and Shopee anyway.

 

i still have AIS unlimited 10mbps 150 baht a month + just kicked off 3BB fibre at home

I pay about 1000 a month which includes some international calling     i use the personal hotspot for my internet    AIS     I consider it fairly inexpensive

[charleskerins]

5 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

15mbs, 100gb/month, free phone calls all networks limited to 30mins/call.

WTH 

[scubascuba3]

15 minutes ago, charleskerins said:

I pay about 1000 a month which includes some international calling     i use the personal hotspot for my internet    AIS     I consider it fairly inexpensive

ok but you are paying way more than you should, people like you subsidise everyone else, well done

[NONG CHOK]

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

With the laws in this country, I am not sure if I am allowed to mention the name of the provider.

I use a big mobile phone provider in Thailand since many years. I pay my bills at the end of the month depending on the usage.

 

I used their 599B promotion since many years.

Now they sent me a message that that promotion doesn't exist anymore, and they recommend the 669B promotion.

So, I check in my app from that company to look at available packages. The cheapest they offer on their app cost 649B.

Then I looked on their website. The cheapest there is 399B.

So, I called them and asked to which package I can change. The friendly saleswoman told me the cheapest is 449B. I asked her how about that 399B offer from the web? Her answer: I don't see that, I will ask someone else to call you back. 

About 10min later someone called me back and I asked about the 399B package. Yes, I can have that. Then I asked if they have anything cheaper. Yes, 349B. Which conditions? And he told me about the free call time, internet usage, etc. Even the cheapest package was more than twice of what I normally use. So now I changed to that one.

 

Summary: Now I pay about half of the price of their recommended package.

The phone provider obviously knows how much I call and how much internet I use. They could have easily recognized that even the cheapest package includes more minutes of phone calls and more GB than I used in the last 3 months together. But no, they want to charge more.

 

I write this here because others might have the same problem, they want to pay no more than necessary, but the phone company makes it extraordinary difficult to choose a cheap promotion which they offer. Annoying!

 

 

I was a wake up to their games years ago. Since then I've used DTAC around 1,800 baht per year for unlimited WIFI and 100 baht of free phone calls every month. The prices some companies show online are only a bluff, when you put it to them the price comes down. Most short term farangs just pay and don't queery the price because it's still much cheaper than the countries they came from. If anyone decides to follow my advice buy your SIM card online from Lazada etc don't buy it from the provider. You will save 400 baht plus.

[Everyman]

22 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

ok but you are paying way more than you should, people like you subsidise everyone else, well done

 

Any idea how to still get the 1600 per year package? I had it and lost it. Now I can only find the 2200 baht per year package. 

[scubascuba3]

6 minutes ago, Everyman said:

 

Any idea how to still get the 1600 per year package? I had it and lost it. Now I can only find the 2200 baht per year package. 

I haven't seen those unlimited sim deals on Lazada or Shopee for a while, someone further up said he got one by going direct, have a look much further up, might of been a link there.

 

You can pay 1600 a year if you are ok with limited gb allowance, see Lazada

[Everyman]

6 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

I haven't seen those sim deals on Lazada or Shopee for a while, someone further up said he got one by going direct, have a look much further up, might of been a link there

 

Sorry, what do you mean by “farther up?” Also I mean to refer to the internet package for an existing SIM, not a new SIM. It’s that I let my package expire since I was going be out of Thailand due several months. Thanks. 

 

Never mind, I understand. Hehe 

[scubascuba3]

7 minutes ago, Everyman said:

 

Sorry, what do you mean by “farther up?” Also I mean to refer to the internet package for an existing SIM, not a new SIM. It’s that I let my package expire since I was going be out of Thailand due several months. Thanks. 

 

Never mind, I understand. Hehe 

For an existing sim, best you call your network, see what they can offer, if you say you're considering switching to another company sometimes they give a good deal like mine did

[ChaiyaTH]

On 4/26/2024 at 5:40 PM, OneMoreFarang said:

I save now about 3000B per year. That is not much. But what's the point of spending that money if it has absolutely no advantage?

My gf also changed to the cheaper promotion. Another 3000B per year.

A little here, a little there, it adds up. 

So you simply overpaid since the beginning of days and only fixed that now, that means you didn't save any money, you just stopped losing it for no reason.

[OneMoreFarang]

8 minutes ago, ChaiyaTH said:

So you simply overpaid since the beginning of days and only fixed that now, that means you didn't save any money, you just stopped losing it for no reason.

In part, you are right.

But when I selected my previous package, many years ago, I made lots of ordinary phone calls, sent SMS, etc..

I looked at that time what suits my usage and I selected that.

I should/could have switched earlier to something cheaper...

 

The funny thing that I remember is when I selected my last package, maybe 10 years ago, there were many cheaper options available.

Now, the opposite seems to be true. Many new packages are way more expensive than what I had. And on my DTAC app nothing cheaper was shown. Only after some "investigation" I found out that cheaper packages do exist.

 

I find it sad that many people will pay a lot more than they should for all these "recommended" and "special for you" packages.

 

[Korat Kiwi]

Yep, marketing to the fore.  Once you get past all the collateral noise and do a bit of digging there are some reasonable packages out there. 

 

Everyone has different requirements and unfortunately the big players throw lots of info in your face in the hope you will buy a package that gives them more profit (Even if you don't need it) 

 

It pays to shop around. 

[Gottfrid]

40 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

In part, you are right.

But when I selected my previous package, many years ago, I made lots of ordinary phone calls, sent SMS, etc..

I looked at that time what suits my usage and I selected that.

I should/could have switched earlier to something cheaper...

 

The funny thing that I remember is when I selected my last package, maybe 10 years ago, there were many cheaper options available.

Now, the opposite seems to be true. Many new packages are way more expensive than what I had. And on my DTAC app nothing cheaper was shown. Only after some "investigation" I found out that cheaper packages do exist.

 

I find it sad that many people will pay a lot more than they should for all these "recommended" and "special for you" packages.

 

I don´t get this prolonged discussion. The thing here is, that you, and only you, are solely responsible for your choices. You need to know how much you need, and what package that suits you.

Wherever you go in to a shop and talk to a sales person, disregarding country, they will always try and promote their products and sell your a product for as high price as possible.

Just stop in your tries to make the provider, shop or sales person wrong. It´s your choice and your responsibility to know what you need and make the right choices in life. The sales person work for the company, and is not there to hold your hand.