Krungsri Online Is Offline

[laocowboy2]

I am a regular non-resident user of the Bank of Ayudhya internet banking service. Essentially I periodically transfer money from abroad into my BAY account, and then on a monthly basis pay my Thai dependents, bills etc by internet transfer to other accounts at BAY. I was therefore dismayed to discover on August 27th (having just transferred in THB250k) that (a) this no longer works, ( that their server is down for "improvement to service" and © that the service will not be restored until October (no date specified) at the earliest. There was no advance notification of the service suspension (the website is still heavily advertising the service!). Telephone calls to first my branch and then the BAY HQ further revealed that (a) they have no plan B ho help customers and ( they will not accept mail instructions - transfers must be either in person at the baranch or from a BAY ATM in Thailand. Not of much help to me in Europe. Fortunately I have sufficient liquidity to send further cash via a friend's account at another bank but if I did not, the funds at BAY are effectively frozen until I next visit Thailand.

The point of all this is not to recount my woes but rather to warn anyone else that might be in the same position, or about to get into a similar position. If you send money to a BAY account over the next couple of months it will essentially be blocked unless you come to Thailand in person to access the money.

[andy1308]

I had an email this morning, sent yesterday, stating the following:

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Dear KrungsriOnline Customer,

Subject The halt of third party fund transfer for System Enhancement

In order to improve our service on fund transfer to third party, please be informed that this service will be temporarily suspended including scheduled third party fund transfer. The service will be resumed in October 2007. If you wish to make a third party fund transfer, Bank of Ayudhya’s ATM is an alternative channel available to serve you.

For more details, please contact the Electronic Banking Operations Department at Tel. (+66) 02-296-3333 (during banking hours 8.30 a.m.- 5.30 p.m.) or contact Krungsri Call Center 1572 (Outside Thailand, call 662-296-2000 and press 1572) or email: '[email protected]'.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks for your support and trust in our Internet Banking services.

Yours sincerely,

Bank of Ayudhya PCL.

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I do not use the service personally but I know it will be a pain for those who do. To suspend the service so quickly and without prior warning is not good. Perhaps they've found something happening that should be?

[Oswulf]

If there weren't Thailand, I'd be shocked.

Standard practice for systems upgrades is to develop and test the upgrade on separate hardware, and then upgrade the "live" system overnight, or over a weekend.

Either the bank is not telling the truth about the reason for the lack of service, or it's too cheapskate to purchase test hardware so that its customers can continue to be serviced without significant disruption.

[andy1308]

I had an email this morning, sent yesterday, stating the following:

-----

Dear KrungsriOnline Customer,

Subject The halt of third party fund transfer for System Enhancement

In order to improve our service on fund transfer to third party, please be informed that this service will be temporarily suspended including scheduled third party fund transfer. The service will be resumed in October 2007. If you wish to make a third party fund transfer, Bank of Ayudhya’s ATM is an alternative channel available to serve you.

For more details, please contact the Electronic Banking Operations Department at Tel. (+66) 02-296-3333 (during banking hours 8.30 a.m.- 5.30 p.m.) or contact Krungsri Call Center 1572 (Outside Thailand, call 662-296-2000 and press 1572) or email: '[email protected]'.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks for your support and trust in our Internet Banking services.

Yours sincerely,

Bank of Ayudhya PCL.

-----

I do not use the service personally but I know it will be a pain for those who do. To suspend the service so quickly and without prior warning is not good. Perhaps they've found something happening that should be?

Of course that should say .... Perhaps they've found something happening that SHOULDN'T be ?

[dave111223]

Sounds like they probably found some security bugs in the system and just took the whole thing down immediately. Probably decided to play it off as a standard upgrade so that people don't start freaking out about hacks running wild with their bank accounts.

As previously stated there is no way a standard upgrade should take over a month! If it was a standard upgrade they would have already developed it on a test server and then just transfered it onto the live server overnight.

They probably just set the date as October because they have no idea how long it will take to fix the mess.

[laocowboy2]

I rather think that you (and I and hopefully everyone else) got this because I played merry hel_l with BAY at the EVP level just before the original post.

This announcement should have (a) gone out at least two weeks before shutdown to every user and ( been repeated twice just before shutdown.

Points made in other posts about back-up/parallel running etc very valid. Ditto one about possibly hiding a security breach. However I feel it is probably simply a TIT (This is Thailand) cock-up using the logic: -

1. Not many people use the service anyway
   
2. For those that do, they can always make the transfer using an ATM
   
3. Or at their branch
   
4. What!! We have non-resident customers!?! No one told me that before I agreed to shut the oldsystem down and buy the new one from my cousin!
   

At least they have also (as I suggested) at last flagged the service withdrawal on the Krungsri Online log-in page.

Stable doors etc!

I had an email this morning, sent yesterday, stating the following:

-----

Dear KrungsriOnline Customer,

Subject The halt of third party fund transfer for System Enhancement

In order to improve our service on fund transfer to third party, please be informed that this service will be temporarily suspended including scheduled third party fund transfer. The service will be resumed in October 2007. If you wish to make a third party fund transfer, Bank of Ayudhya's ATM is an alternative channel available to serve you.

For more details, please contact the Electronic Banking Operations Department at Tel. (+66) 02-296-3333 (during banking hours 8.30 a.m.- 5.30 p.m.) or contact Krungsri Call Center 1572 (Outside Thailand, call 662-296-2000 and press 1572) or email: '[email protected]'.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this. We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere thanks for your support and trust in our Internet Banking services.

Yours sincerely,

Bank of Ayudhya PCL.

-----

I do not use the service personally but I know it will be a pain for those who do. To suspend the service so quickly and without prior warning is not good. Perhaps they've found something happening that should be?

[steveromagnino]

'Points made in other posts about back-up/parallel running etc very valid. Ditto one about possibly hiding a security breach. However I feel it is probably simply a TIT (This is Thailand) cock-up using the logic:

I deal with their major shareholder GE Capital, and it would not seem to just be BAY that have 'issues' GE Capital at least out here are total morons and completely ignorant of the concept of customer service.

But other than that, they are a good bank/credit card