T.o.t

[choppychugger]

Am down in Phuket and so far this month I have had two lots of 3 days where I've had no internet what so ever - and for the last week it just keeps dropping out when connected - a quick refresh seems to solve this.

Have had countless calls with the English speaking call centre - and am still waiting this so called qualified technician to pay us a visit. I'm at my whits end and just lost my rag a little with the call centre chap, who recommended to me on the phone to find another service provider - <deleted> !! he didnt want to help fix the problem and told me he would put in a report ( the 10th so far ).

Is anyone else having problems with T.O.T ?

Could anyone suggest a different provider that will allow me internet when I want it with basic web surfing and the occasional download.

Choppy

[Mosha]

Am down in Phuket and so far this month I have had two lots of 3 days where I've had no internet what so ever - and for the last week it just keeps dropping out when connected - a quick refresh seems to solve this.

Have had countless calls with the English speaking call centre - and am still waiting this so called qualified technician to pay us a visit. I'm at my whits end and just lost my rag a little with the call centre chap, who recommended to me on the phone to find another service provider - <deleted> !! he didnt want to help fix the problem and told me he would put in a report ( the 10th so far ).

Is anyone else having problems with T.O.T ?

Could anyone suggest a different provider that will allow me internet when I want it with basic web surfing and the occasional download.

Choppy

Choppy, I'm a little north of you, and the connection is <deleted>. I'm currently trying to D/L a 1.98 MB file and it's taken me 40 minutes so far. I've only got 25% of it. I got my wife to call yesterday, and "We are having problems in Hat Yai, it will be fixed in 2 hours." It's running at slower than clockwork.

[choppychugger]

I feel your pain!

It's been average to ok up until the last 2 months and then complete sh1tpants !.

choppy

P.s Use the English option you get through to the call centre direct

[Mosha]

I've e-mailed 'em.

"Why is my connection so bad this month, my connection struggles to get above 20 kbps. This is supposed to be an ADSL connection. Yesterday my wife called the technician in Kraburi C.Ranong. He told her there was a problem in Hat Yai, and would be fixed in 2 hours. Well today it's worse. I have been trying to download a file which should take minutes. It is taking hours. I am paying 590 Baht/month for rubbish. I know I'm not the only one in the South who is having these problems.

Regards, Stephen Croft"

When I eventually got the file it stopped and started that often, it was corrupted.

[Beggar]

Is anyone else having problems with T.O.T ?

Could anyone suggest a different provider that will allow me internet when I want it with basic web surfing and the occasional download.

To contact the TOT call centre is from my experience a waste of time. If you feel better afterwards then just do it. But do not expect to solve your technical problems there. The problem is YOU - you have to get used to the provided service :-)))

Check at your modem if the line is ok. Look for Line Attenuation and SNR Margin and post the values here so that we can look at them. Perhaps you have a bad connection. Normally this shows up at status if you call up your modem ---- http://192.168.1.1/ ----- mostly.

A different provider? No problem. But a better provider - here it get's tricky... And don't forget => your phone line has a provider already. Mostly you have to switch both - ADSL and phone line.

[noahvail]

We've had countless problems with ToT in my little town in Issan. Slower than dial-up speed with a 2Mb/s connection. The technicians came out; yup, 2Mb/s to Bangkok - 0.5Mb/s to New York. The technician said, 'we have old equipment, old technology. You can't expect to get good speeds once you go out of the country." What utter BS.

We lost phone and internet on Saturday a.m. My wife called the call center, they said they'd have the central switching guys fix it in the morning. Of course it wasn't. So, called several times, no answer, just a recording. Now my wife got ticked off. We have been to the ToT office many times to complain. One of those times, my wife got the internet manager's cell phone number. So she called him, he'd get right on it. And she called every hour. The guys arrived at 4 p.m., did a thorough job of checking the line, the modem, every line in the house...and said the local switching station shows there's no connection, so it must be in their lines; but it would have to wait till Tuesday morning because - they didn't have a ladder, so they'd send the other team out. I just smiled - and my wife lost it a bit, even though they were nice blokes. They left, one driving, the other walking the lines. 10 minutes later, the guys returned, one absolutely filthy. The found the problem, a connector had come apart, and the guy actually free climbed the pole to fix it.

So they do try at the personal level. As far as internet goes, though, it seems hopeless.

[nikster]

Buying TOT internet is a bit like buying good weather. If you are lucky - it works. If you are unlucky - it doesn't.

How much you pay TOT, or how often you call the call center is irrelevant.

Only exception is if your local line is bad - you need to get the S/N ratio for that. Because if your local line is bad (symptom: speeds are bad even to BKK, not just international), then TOT can fix it. If they want that is. I had a bad line for nearly 2 years. Then they put a new DSLAM in, the line got switched to that, and problem solved. But in the meantime, the bad line simply remained bad, the local techs weren't interested in getting that fixed, and they obviously also had no idea how to do that. They just said - and possibly believed themselves - that it's too far from the exchange. But if that was the case how come it worked just fine for a year before they started messing around with the local cables.... and it was just 3.5 kms.. but oh well. TIT.

[geomag]

What's the best alternative to TOT then?

[Mosha]

In my case there isn't. There's is the only line into the area. Yesterday I was getting anything between 9 and 50 kbps on ADSL. This morning it's between 100 to 250 kbps.

[choppychugger]

Mosha,

How do i check that? ^

Fingers crossed i will have a technician round later today,,,,,,, Not holding my breath tho'

[Mosha]

Mosha,

How do i check that? ^

Fingers crossed i will have a technician round later today,,,,,,, Not holding my breath tho'

I use this

http://www.ascentive.com/run/click/@126108...ryfileinstaller

Back down to 25 kbps now

[choppychugger]

Thanks for that ^

Just tested mine and got 517 kbps - it seems to be working ok so far today

choppy

[rohitsuk]

Am down in Phuket and so far this month I have had two lots of 3 days where I've had no internet what so ever - and for the last week it just keeps dropping out when connected - a quick refresh seems to solve this.

Have had countless calls with the English speaking call centre - and am still waiting this so called qualified technician to pay us a visit. I'm at my whits end and just lost my rag a little with the call centre chap, who recommended to me on the phone to find another service provider - <deleted> !! he didnt want to help fix the problem and told me he would put in a report ( the 10th so far ).

Is anyone else having problems with T.O.T ?

Could anyone suggest a different provider that will allow me internet when I want it with basic web surfing and the occasional download.

Choppy

It's nationwide and ALL ISPs better or worse day to day here and there but basically the net in Thailand is efffed all ends to the middle. Take a look at this from the CM forum:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Tot-Internet...ed-t297080.html

[Mosha]

I had a response to my e-mail, and they should be calling me later. I'll let you know. May be a mass e-mailing to them might ring a few bells. A friend nearer town got them out last month, and all he got was "You share line!"

[Mosha]

I've just been up to see fa Thai friend, and he is on the same system as I am. He just said it's dead, can not do anything. Maybe we need to get our Thai friends complaining?

[khunjake]

It's nationwide and ALL ISPs better or worse day to day here and there but basically the net in Thailand is efffed all ends to the middle.

Exactly... Instead of ripping one's hair out and getting stressed out, you just have to accept that broadband internet here is antiquated and will likely be the case for quite a while longer. The best thing to do is to get a CDMA or GPRS/EDGE modem as a backup to the DSL line. I use DTAC EDGE when TOT is slow or goes down and works fine for me. Don't stress out so much since there's really nothing that can be done.. Accept it and move on..

[frodo]

Going through the same problems in Rangsit. I can get to some websites, but others are not loading. Luckily I can get to TV, although I see server error messages everywhere. Can't access GMail, Yahoo, or MSN.

I came across this on another forum and thought I'd do a reposting of it.

I've been lucky enough to get hold of the step-by-step guide that TOT call center staff use when a foreigner phones them about a poor internet connection. These are the actual steps written on the piece of paper that they keep by the phone.

Dear valued call center staff member,

During your daily shift, you are sure to recieve a number of calls from foreigners concerning poor or slow internet connections. These calls needn't cause you undue stress if you follow the basic steps below.

1) Introduce yourself but make sure to say your name quickly so it's impossible to catch. This prevents the customer calling back later in the day and asking to speak to you again.

2) Always ask the customer's name. It's far more difficult for the client to throw a wobbly when you put 'Khun Micheal' at the end of every sentence.

3) Ask the caller to go through several connectivity speedtests on-line. This has absolutely no bearing on the problem, but always looks impressive.

4) Ask the caller which version of web browser they are using and also which router. Oh, and ask how many ports the router has. Again, it has nothing to do with the problem but not only does it sound impressive, it makes you sound like you know what you're doing.

5) The next step is crucial. Ask the caller if they've installed the latest updates for their firewall and anti-virus software. This immediately gets rid of the technophobes, who will probably apologize for bothering you and collapse in a blubbering heap on the other end of the phone.

6) If the caller isn't a technophobe, then by now you're probably holding the receiver six inches from your ear and listening to a torrent of abuse. Fear not - it's time to play your trump card. Yes - it's the 'broken cable at the bottom of the sea just off the coast of Taiwan' gambit. Tell the caller that tropical storms and typhoons have lashed (and 'lashed' is a good word) the coast of Taiwan and the undersea internet cable has been damaged. Ignore such comments as "what a load of <deleted>" and tell the caller that right now - right at that very minute - teams of TOT underwater divers are down deep in Davy Jones' locker fixing the problem. And of course - normal service will be resumed as soon as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience caused. Wow! what about that? two bullshit throwaway corporate lines for the price of one.

Beware - If the caller has a decent memory, he or she may remember the broken cable story from before. In which case, tell the caller that the expert team of TOT underwater divers managed to fix it but the cable was knocked out of whack by a myopic blue whale.

7) If it's beginning to look like you're not going to shake off this customer easily, it's time for the 'package upgrade' line. "Khun Michael sir, I notice that you have the cheapo TOT internet package. We only really recommend this package for surfing Thailand-based sites". Wait until the next torrent of abuse has passed and then recommend to Khun Michael sir that he upgrades to something better. With this upgraded package, the caller can download torrent files until there's smoke coming out of the CPU. And he'll even be able to get international websites from time to time.

[choppychugger]

Going through the same problems in Rangsit. I can get to some websites, but others are not loading. Luckily I can get to TV, although I see server error messages everywhere. Can't access GMail, Yahoo, or MSN.

I came across this on another forum and thought I'd do a reposting of it.

I've been lucky enough to get hold of the step-by-step guide that TOT call center staff use when a foreigner phones them about a poor internet connection. These are the actual steps written on the piece of paper that they keep by the phone.

Dear valued call center staff member,

During your daily shift, you are sure to recieve a number of calls from foreigners concerning poor or slow internet connections. These calls needn't cause you undue stress if you follow the basic steps below.

1) Introduce yourself but make sure to say your name quickly so it's impossible to catch. This prevents the customer calling back later in the day and asking to speak to you again.

2) Always ask the customer's name. It's far more difficult for the client to throw a wobbly when you put 'Khun Micheal' at the end of every sentence.

3) Ask the caller to go through several connectivity speedtests on-line. This has absolutely no bearing on the problem, but always looks impressive.

4) Ask the caller which version of web browser they are using and also which router. Oh, and ask how many ports the router has. Again, it has nothing to do with the problem but not only does it sound impressive, it makes you sound like you know what you're doing.

5) The next step is crucial. Ask the caller if they've installed the latest updates for their firewall and anti-virus software. This immediately gets rid of the technophobes, who will probably apologize for bothering you and collapse in a blubbering heap on the other end of the phone.

6) If the caller isn't a technophobe, then by now you're probably holding the receiver six inches from your ear and listening to a torrent of abuse. Fear not - it's time to play your trump card. Yes - it's the 'broken cable at the bottom of the sea just off the coast of Taiwan' gambit. Tell the caller that tropical storms and typhoons have lashed (and 'lashed' is a good word) the coast of Taiwan and the undersea internet cable has been damaged. Ignore such comments as "what a load of <deleted>" and tell the caller that right now - right at that very minute - teams of TOT underwater divers are down deep in Davy Jones' locker fixing the problem. And of course - normal service will be resumed as soon as possible and we apologize for any inconvenience caused. Wow! what about that? two bullshit throwaway corporate lines for the price of one.

Beware - If the caller has a decent memory, he or she may remember the broken cable story from before. In which case, tell the caller that the expert team of TOT underwater divers managed to fix it but the cable was knocked out of whack by a myopic blue whale.

7) If it's beginning to look like you're not going to shake off this customer easily, it's time for the 'package upgrade' line. "Khun Michael sir, I notice that you have the cheapo TOT internet package. We only really recommend this package for surfing Thailand-based sites". Wait until the next torrent of abuse has passed and then recommend to Khun Michael sir that he upgrades to something better. With this upgraded package, the caller can download torrent files until there's smoke coming out of the CPU. And he'll even be able to get international websites from time to time.

LOL, thats good, and taken straight out of the trainees handbook am sure!

Like someone mentioned before, it's not worth getting angry, tryed that and it didnt get me anywhere. Will try Moshas method of repetitive emails

choppy

[Mosha]

Lost my connection 2x this afternoon both times for 1 hour. Still no call from them.

[SNGLIFE]

SOLUTION (probably):

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Tot-s-Dns-Se...ed-t301129.html

Cheers!

[choppychugger]

SOLUTION (probably):

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Tot-s-Dns-Se...ed-t301129.html

Cheers!

Thanks for that will give it a try.

Literally just had a customer service manager call me, worried that I am going to change companies. He said that the slow speeds were for websites out of Thailand and that they were onto it. Okey Dokey

Chopy

[Mosha]

Looks to be ok now, they sent me an e-mail saying they had rectified the problem for me. I can't believe they did it just for me