Strange Business Practice At Tot

[tartempion]

We got a telephone line working with ADSL early february and we are 45kms away from the nearest TOT office.

We received our first invoive 25/04/51, issue date 12/04/51, due date 17/03/51, amount 30.72 Baht.

Since I was in Europe lately, Gf went to 7/11: can not pay, too late, see due date. She went to the local post office, same reply, thus went to Udon Thani TOT office to pay.

Next invoice issue date 26/04/51, due date 17/04/51 : same problem, can only pay at TOT office

A few days later receives latest invoice, issue date 28/04/51 (two days after previous invoice), due date 17/05/51.

Gf takes bus to TOT Udon to pay both invoices where an extra 100 Baht plus 7% VAT is added "to re-open the telephone line closed due to late payment "

I understand their computer system was catching up on invoices for some unknown (human?) reason, but making life difficult because the customer did not pay on time before he possibly could pay on time is way out of line. When she protested at TOT office she was told " regardless of invoice you need to pay before the 17th each month" Pay what? a minimum of 100B? and drive to Udon for that?

I doubt anyone will speak or understand English at TOT Udon, well I will try in my best Thai, off to TOT Udon in a few moments

BTW, I have sent emails to TOT, Toyota, AIS, Nok Air, DTACT, Thai Airways and others, never got a reply.

Seems they are unable/unwilling to reply to any request for information coming from a farang.

The only replies I ever get are from farang companies, not surprisingly...

[grantbkk]

Last Wednesday morning my Bangkok house phone and ADSL was dead. I called TOT they told me my service would be restored soon. I kept calling and TOT told me they would have my line working in 9 days. Obviously some mistake. More phone calls to the 'big office' in Bangkok because the call center did not want to deal with me or my wife. They said maybe they can get me going in 7 days. Another day of calls and my service was mysteriously restored on Thursday afternoon. There is no customer service at this company. The unfortunate people I talked with have no control and are just paid a small wage to put us off. I guess we are lucky just to have electricity in Thailand.

[jeffer]

I feel your pain having gone through this before. You get an account for 22 baht for a fax you sent and if you don't pay it on time, even a day late places like 7/11 who are always good to deal with tell you they can't accept payment. You make some enquiries that cost a lot more than 22 baht in time and effort and you find that the only way you can pay this account and have your phone line restored is to go to the head office and pay in person. Simply unbelievable, and all the cajoling and pleading in the world will not get TOT to restore your line unless the 22 baht is paid to their office. So you go to the TOT Head Office, over an hours drive in a very congested part of Bangkok. When you get there you think you will be so clever and before paying the account ask if there are any more recent ammounts owing so you can pay them as well. They check, tell you no so you pay the bill and resolve not to use a fax from home but to use the one at the local shop next time. A week later you get another account for 18 baht...

At the time this was happening I needed to have a reliable overseas line so I took the next account to 7/11 or somewhere and wanted to pay an additional 500 baht to avoid future problems for a while. Sorry, can only pay the amount of the account, cannot accept any amount other than what is on the account. Of course a few months later forgot to pay an account of 80 baht so here we go again. Get a local moto driver to go to the TOT office for me this time. When he gets there he has instructions to check if there are any additional charges after the last bill because I want to pay 500 baht on top of what is owed to stop having to worry about this account for a while. He checks, rings me from the TOT office and says no more charges. Hmmm I think, that overseas call I made last week, did I use my mobile or the house phone? So I ask him to check again while I wait on the line. No, they say for sure no more charges. Okay, he pays the account plus 500 baht. Two days later an account for 460 baht arrives from TOT...

[JetsetBkk]

BTW, I have sent emails to TOT, Toyota, AIS, Nok Air, DTACT, Thai Airways and others, never got a reply.

Seems they are unable/unwilling to reply to any request for information coming from a farang...

TrueVisions always reply to my emails. And they are extremely polite - almost too polite, as if they are taking the p1ss. But they are usually of exactly the same format, so I guess they just copy what someone wrote many years ago and change a few bits as appropriate.

Regards other bills... same problem here, some companies give you one week to pay and the bill arrives just on the due date or just after. And 7-11's won't let you pay if after the due date, so it's down to the office.

Water and electric are OK because the meter reader prints the bill and shoves it in the plastic holder nailed to the gate. My only objection to these guys is that they upset the family of jin-joks that have set up home in there.

[chiangmaibruce]

ah, two of my pet hates, rubbish ADSL service and bad customer service. I could really get going on this one

you suggest that they only reply to Thais. I suspect they reply to no-one. I have had this discussion with my (Thai) wife and she can't understand why farang get so worked up about nil reply to emails. She says a Thai person wouldn't even bother sending one knowing they were unlikely to get a response. She says Thais recognise the email address (on a Thai company ad, etc) for what it is - an "aren't we groovy and modern" fashion statement. She says that probably often no-one would even know how to check the email account if they wanted to ! (ie. that guy resigned a long time ago!)

She can understand now (after living in a western country a while) why we get annoyed about the overall customer service issue though. It really is terrible here, and they must address this issue to the extent that they want to attract and retain farang customers within Thailand, or be competitive outside Thailand. The attitude here (in majority cases) is simply go somewhere else if you don't like the way we do business.

So it's not racism, just from the farang perspective, an appalling lack of professionalism

- CB

[noise]

We got a telephone line working with ADSL early february and we are 45kms away from the nearest TOT office.

We received our first invoive 25/04/51, issue date 12/04/51, due date 17/03/51, amount 30.72 Baht.

Since I was in Europe lately, Gf went to 7/11: can not pay, too late, see due date. She went to the local post office, same reply, thus went to Udon Thani TOT office to pay.

I doubt anyone will speak or understand English at TOT Udon, well I will try in my best Thai, off to TOT Udon in a few moments

BTW, I have sent emails to TOT, Toyota, AIS, Nok Air, DTACT, Thai Airways and others, never got a reply.

I have TOT telephone and ADSL in Chiangmai and received good, detailed responses when I go to the office in person or call the ADSL help desk. I speak Thai, which helps. But I have the impression their willingness to help and explain, their willingness to research for details, is only limited by their ability to communicate with the customer. If you speak little Thai, and they speak little English, they probably are never sure they understand what your problem is. So, if they don't really understand what you want from them, it is understandable if they don't give you the answer you want.

Or, maybe, I am just lucky to get to work with an office with customer oriented professionals.

RE BILL PAY: When we first started service, we had the same problem as the billing system and the mails got synchronized. But we quickly set up a separate bank account for paying all utilities and now TOT deals directly with the bank and all payments are made upon demand. No more service interruptions for any reason. We use a separate account to insure we do not draw below the utilities' bill amounts each month (electricity, water, TOT phone line, TOT ADSL line).

[geriatrickid]

BANGKOK: -- Finance and Deputy Prime Minister Surapong Suebwonglee on Wednesday pledged to promote Thailand as the health service centre...............Dr. Surapong said Thailand's health service had an advantage in terms ......of excellent service.....

When you have senior government officals pronounce on what constitutes "excellent service", how can there be any hope for simple basic stuff within general industry?

[MrIrrisistable]

My adsl was cutting out several times a day a couple of weeks ago.

We called tot and they sent staff around within 30 minutes and fixed it.

But, there seems to be a much bigger problem.....I am consistantly getting 80/100kb ps from my internet connection...surely something is wrong !!!!!!

As an example, it took 10 seconds to download a 3mg file today, yesterday I dowloanded a pile of music in a few minutes.

[icequeen]

TOT are a joke!

They tell me I cannot get ADSL because I live too far away from the exchange yet my next door neighbour has it!

The woman behind the desk even pulls her face now when I walk in the office to complain that yet again they haven't called me when they said they would, I find them totally unhelpful and unorganised. Normally I find thai customer service second to none but not TOT.

[AjRet]

OP - Why not register to pay your TOT account online? https://www.toteservice.com/eng/login.aspx

[Alonso's Army]

I don't think customer service exists in the public sector here in Thailand. This is a bad trait they have picked up from developed countries.

Edited May 30, 2008 by Alonso's Army

[toptuan]

OP - Why not register to pay your TOT account online? https://www.toteservice.com/eng/login.aspx

Good suggestion. I also had a string of TOT bills that arrived after the due date, requiring me to travel 40km roundtrip by motorcycle to pay at their head office. Finally went with online payment and all is well.

On another vein, I was without ADSL service for 10 days (some glitch in TOT office). Since I was without service for 1/3 month, I asked for a small discount on my bill (less than 30%). They just looked at me like I had landed from another planet, then shook their heads "no." (More like "no way!").

Yeah, customer service is nonexistent.

[a2396]

I have had similar "run arounds" and delays with TT&T. I always have my Thai darling deal with them. As for trying to speak English, as in most businesses here, they care next to nothing about speaking English. Stores such as Tesco and Big C, who have a fair number of foreign customers, have little or no English speaking staff. Quite surprising considering they are supposed to be teaching English from grade one in the public schools.

[astral]

You are expected to be psychic.............

You can pay these bills through your ATM account.

[noise]

You are expected to be psychic.............

You can pay these bills through your ATM account.

If you mean have your ADSL (and telephone and electricity and water) bill your bank account monthly, good idea. You do not have to worry about on time payments and you get a receipt. This should be very attractive to those that live outside/far from a big city.

If you mean physically go pay at the ATM monthly, seems like too much work and too much guess work if you do not have a bill yet.

[Jingjok]

I feel your pain having gone through this before. You get an account for 22 baht for a fax you sent and if you don't pay it on time, even a day late places like 7/11 who are always good to deal with tell you they can't accept payment. You make some enquiries that cost a lot more than 22 baht in time and effort and you find that the only way you can pay this account and have your phone line restored is to go to the head office and pay in person. Simply unbelievable, and all the cajoling and pleading in the world will not get TOT to restore your line unless the 22 baht is paid to their office. So you go to the TOT Head Office, over an hours drive in a very congested part of Bangkok. When you get there you think you will be so clever and before paying the account ask if there are any more recent ammounts owing so you can pay them as well. They check, tell you no so you pay the bill and resolve not to use a fax from home but to use the one at the local shop next time. A week later you get another account for 18 baht...

At the time this was happening I needed to have a reliable overseas line so I took the next account to 7/11 or somewhere and wanted to pay an additional 500 baht to avoid future problems for a while. Sorry, can only pay the amount of the account, cannot accept any amount other than what is on the account. Of course a few months later forgot to pay an account of 80 baht so here we go again. Get a local moto driver to go to the TOT office for me this time. When he gets there he has instructions to check if there are any additional charges after the last bill because I want to pay 500 baht on top of what is owed to stop having to worry about this account for a while. He checks, rings me from the TOT office and says no more charges. Hmmm I think, that overseas call I made last week, did I use my mobile or the house phone? So I ask him to check again while I wait on the line. No, they say for sure no more charges. Okay, he pays the account plus 500 baht. Two days later an account for 460 baht arrives from TOT...

Exactly! I hate TOT and their insane attitude to bill payments.

They cannot get it in their heads that not everyone stays at home in Thailand all the time, can therefore open paper bills, and has the time or desire to line up in a shop pay 50 Baht or whatever.

I’d be happy to pay the b@stards 10,000 Baht to cover five years bills, but as you say, they won’t accept one satang more than that currently owing.

I signed up for direct debit with SCB bank but in a year of trying and reminders, this still does not work. It works with electricity and AIS, but not with TOT.

E-service is the best bet. You can pay on-line from a (Thai) card or bank account. But again you may not over-pay to create a credit. Why not?

You must to remember to check the site if you are away. There is an e-mail billing option, but although both my numbers show this option enabled, I have yet to receive a single e-mail reminder. Does this work for anyone else?

A mickey mouse outfit I think.

[Sakeopete]

TOT, TT&T, True UBC etc. all have monopolies in certain areas of the country so they will do as they please and you will never get good service from them. Many companies in Thailand only survive because of the concessions given to them so they can remain monopolies. Thailand desperately needs to end the concessions so they can learn to compete and become efficient including customer service, the cell phone network operators are a good example.

[rken]

TOT is a joke when it comes to customer service. My DSL was down for 1 1/2 months. Techs out 3 times. They tried at first to tell me it was on my end. Tech said no, problem was there modem. Well to make a long story short. They finally got it working and i have not gotten a bill for the DSL in about 7 mths. I get my phone bill 100bt. Shhh. As long as I dont have a problem with DSL this could go on for years. Yeah

[Jingthing]

A few times in Pattaya I was able to leave TOT a cash advance on future bills. One time after I was told it is not possible I just went up to the cashier and asked to do it, and she did. Now I use an auto bank debit which is great but it was no fun setting up.

Edited August 6, 2008 by Jingthing

[sunray69]

But, there seems to be a much bigger problem.....I am consistantly getting 80/100kb ps from my internet connection...surely something is wrong !!!!!!

As an example, it took 10 seconds to download a 3mg file today, yesterday I dowloanded a pile of music in a few minutes.

No this is totally normal, Internet ADSL here is more Localnet ADSL (inside Thailand), they dont care about whats going on outside Thailand and thats why they dont have international bandtwith...

What is funny as well is that if you are OUTSIDE Thailand and wanna see a website hosted in Thailand, this is horrible...

[intumult]

Sounds like I am going to have fun when I go down tomorrow to talk to TOT. They have sent me a bill for telephone calls made over the last 3 months.

Only one slight problem - I do not have a telephone in the house, so do not yet see how I could have made any calls LOL