Tot The Continuing Saga

[Ssnorbitz]

Friday 7^th October 2011

Managing Director

TOT Head Office

89/2 Moo 3

Chaeng Wattana Road

Thung Song-hong

Laksi,

Bangkok

P.S. It will surprise me if this letter is fully read by your staff as you probably get thousands or if it actually reaches you the Managing Director that is why I will make sure it is published on the internet on all ex-pat sites, as the collapse of a company usually starts at the top and his lethargy eventually reaches its lowest echelons.

Dear Sir,

I am an Englishman who has reached the end of his tether as one of your company’s customers. That to your staff appears to be a joke as your company is supposed to be supplying a service and your staff have to date been totally incompetent in my country we have a saying for your service, “It sucks” and on the internet it encapsulates your company with one word CRAP see the Thaivisa Forum site, I know I wish I had before I contacted your company for my connection. After recently changing my internet provider who was you I might add I made the mistake of keeping your telephone connection and the so called service you are supposed to provide.

Since we have had you now for nearly five years my phone has more downtime than a blind tailor. When it had been possible to contact your so called help desk I have been fobbed off with some comical excuse which usually means your staffs have messed up once again or you antiquated equipment had become unserviceable. On principle I do not answer your telephone enquires on how your service has been as I feel sorry for the member of your staff asking the questions.

My most recent saga has cost me nearly a week of outage and to date 500 baht in expenses as I had to hire a competent engineer to check my internal connections and who found your incoming connection to be unserviceable. That is contrary to what your engineers had informed me, then on their second visit they actually did something so unprofessional no British engineer would do what they did to a fellow engineer that of accusing him of leaving a broken connection in my ceiling which I know is not true as I deliberately check all connections that they had checked and remade at my say so. For interest I have worked on telephone system, computers and electrics through my life, in my countries Royal Navy and for Siemens and have all the necessary test equipment to prove most faults at my disposal but as I am retired I would rather spend my time doing other things so I get engineers to do the job on the items that require repair.

It is time now for you to get a grip of your staff as your company must be loosing customer hand over fist but I doubt that with the Thai attitude to life of oh! Well but I do know not many foreigners use your service ad all my friend have change to True who at least apologise and have the English speaking staff capable of doing so.

I personally thought it only fair that you personally should know as from little acorn’s come oak trees and I will not be recommending your company to anyone and as soon as I find the time I will be changing my service to TRUE. Surprisingly my phone was working ten minutes ago after your staff’s appearance after all the bull they tried to feed me to hide their incompetence via my Thai wife surprisingly NOT so much as one man could speak English and my bills have a English name on them.

Yours disgustedly,

[Kananga]

Well, to be brutally honest I'm English and I had trouble following your letter so I doubt K Manager is going to give it much of a second thought. From the atrocious grammar and punctuation to the strange references and obscure similies it really doesn't read too well. I am assuming you garnished your inspiration from humorous complaint letters that have done the rounds by email such as the Virgin Atlantic food complaint letter (which was very funny)?

If you were indeed serious with your complaint may I suggest you have your wife write it in Thai so that K Manager could understand it. Failing that, try using a more basic form of English in line with your abilities.

Edited October 7, 2011 by Kananga

[dave111223]

Yours disgustedly

I would have signed it "Boom ksis POW in your Arse bamb!" if I was you.

[Eff1n2ret]

Well, to be brutally honest I'm English and I had trouble following your letter so I doubt K Manager is going to give it much of a second thought. From the atrocious grammar and punctuation to the strange references and obscure similies it really doesn't read too well. I am assuming you garnished your inspiration from humorous complaint letters that have done the rounds by email such as the Virgin Atlantic food complaint letter (which was very funny)?

If you were indeed serious with your complaint may I suggest you have your wife write it in Thai so that K Manager could understand it. Failing that, try using a more basic form of English in line with your abilities.

I'm sorry to say that I agree with this. As a rational letter of complaint, to use the OP's expression, "it sucks". If it worked for the OP as a means of letting off steam, good luck to him.

[spud1]

I've a feeling the OP will be sending a letter of complaint to the MD of True, in the not so distant future.Out of the frying pan and into the fire..

Edited October 7, 2011 by spud1

[bungalowbob]

And you honestly believe that

A The director will read it or even reads English ?

B Has the faintest idea of what Thai Visa or any other Farang forum is ?

C You think they understand " it sucks " which is an Americanism any way ? or any of the other slang words you have used ?

To be honest even if you were writing to an English company after reading the first few lines it would simply get binned. I struggled to follow it and I'm English.

If you really wanted to complain then get a Thai to write in Thai. Even then it isn't going to make the least bit of difference to the director of TOT who couldn't give a monkeys if you never have internet ever again.

Just hope it made you feel better after having your rant ?

[Dave9000]

Rarely will I comment upon someone's inability to effectively communicate; but in this instance I feel it is justified. I have worked in large service organisations which by their very nature will, from time to time, upset a percentage of their customers. In my experience letters of complaint will be vetted by a junior who will discard those which are insulting, contain agressive or bad language, threats, or which make irrelevent criticisms. Your missive, unfortunately, hits every one of those bases.

People who are promoted to senior management in such companies are very seldom fools. They are clever and astute and are dedicated to their business. This means they will always try to provide the customer with a better experience and better value where possible. This business attitude translates to increased profits. The most valid criticism one can make of these people is that they are often insulated from the customer's experience. Consequently they appreciate constructive criticism.

If you send another letter stressing the company's good points (there will be many), followed by an analytical, ordered, courteous and dispassionate list of your grievances, I guarantee it will reach senior management whereupon it will have at least a chance of making a difference.

Contrary to popular belief, 'big bosses' are ordinary people who have worked incredibly hard to get where they are and who truly appreciate hearing the truth. But, like you and me, they do not respond well to desk thumping, loudmouths whose reason deserts them during bouts of anger.

If you write again, and I hope you do, please consider the above and when you have concluded your message, take it to someone who is used to composing formal, written communication and who can correct your errors. Translation services are not expensive and it would show respect and courtesy to address a Thai person, in a Thai business, selling a Thai product to a largely Thai community, in Thailand.... in his own language. To do otherwise helps to perpetuate the negative myths some Thais have of Falangs. As a westerner and native English speaker, I therefore feel you could have represented yourself in a more appropriate manner.

[Semper]

OP.

You are in Thailand, and apparently for several years. You have seen their ads about "super fast" internet connection and fell for it. No point in complaining. BTW have you seen the ads about whitening creams? Hint, they don't work.

[Mosha]

I agree about the help desk though. Only time I've talked to them is when they called me. Then they close with any problem call Help Desk.

[Soutpeel]

Rarely will I comment upon someone's inability to effectively communicate; but in this instance I feel it is justified. I have worked in large service organisations which by their very nature will, from time to time, upset a percentage of their customers. In my experience letters of complaint will be vetted by a junior who will discard those which are insulting, contain agressive or bad language, threats, or which make irrelevent criticisms. Your missive, unfortunately, hits every one of those bases.

People who are promoted to senior management in such companies are very seldom fools. They are clever and astute and are dedicated to their business. This means they will always try to provide the customer with a better experience and better value where possible. This business attitude translates to increased profits. The most valid criticism one can make of these people is that they are often insulated from the customer's experience. Consequently they appreciate constructive criticism.

If you send another letter stressing the company's good points (there will be many), followed by an analytical, ordered, courteous and dispassionate list of your grievances, I guarantee it will reach senior management whereupon it will have at least a chance of making a difference.

Contrary to popular belief, 'big bosses' are ordinary people who have worked incredibly hard to get where they are and who truly appreciate hearing the truth. But, like you and me, they do not respond well to desk thumping, loudmouths whose reason deserts them during bouts of anger.

If you write again, and I hope you do, please consider the above and when you have concluded your message, take it to someone who is used to composing formal, written communication and who can correct your errors. Translation services are not expensive and it would show respect and courtesy to address a Thai person, in a Thai business, selling a Thai product to a largely Thai community, in Thailand.... in his own language. To do otherwise helps to perpetuate the negative myths some Thais have of Falangs. As a westerner and native English speaker, I therefore feel you could have represented yourself in a more appropriate manner.

You forgot to sign it..."Yours Sincerly TOT Managing Director"........

He can compose "acceptable" prose and make it all PC...it will still end up in the bin, as most "large service organisations" do with their letter's of complaint, as they are not interested about the peasants using their services, and being a Farang peasent in this case will put it in the bin even quicker...

[Dave9000]

I have no connection to any Thai business. I am a retired Aussie only. Your cynicism is normal and understandable. I said "..in my experience..." , not 'I imagine this to be the case' and in this instance, this cynicism is not entirely justified. Rational letters of complaint will always be read and if they are part of a bigger movement, they will draw a reaction.

Rarely will I comment upon someone's inability to effectively communicate; but in this instance I feel it is justified. I have worked in large service organisations which by their very nature will, from time to time, upset a percentage of their customers. In my experience letters of complaint will be vetted by a junior who will discard those which are insulting, contain agressive or bad language, threats, or which make irrelevent criticisms. Your missive, unfortunately, hits every one of those bases.

People who are promoted to senior management in such companies are very seldom fools. They are clever and astute and are dedicated to their business. This means they will always try to provide the customer with a better experience and better value where possible. This business attitude translates to increased profits. The most valid criticism one can make of these people is that they are often insulated from the customer's experience. Consequently they appreciate constructive criticism.

If you send another letter stressing the company's good points (there will be many), followed by an analytical, ordered, courteous and dispassionate list of your grievances, I guarantee it will reach senior management whereupon it will have at least a chance of making a difference.

Contrary to popular belief, 'big bosses' are ordinary people who have worked incredibly hard to get where they are and who truly appreciate hearing the truth. But, like you and me, they do not respond well to desk thumping, loudmouths whose reason deserts them during bouts of anger.

If you write again, and I hope you do, please consider the above and when you have concluded your message, take it to someone who is used to composing formal, written communication and who can correct your errors. Translation services are not expensive and it would show respect and courtesy to address a Thai person, in a Thai business, selling a Thai product to a largely Thai community, in Thailand.... in his own language. To do otherwise helps to perpetuate the negative myths some Thais have of Falangs. As a westerner and native English speaker, I therefore feel you could have represented yourself in a more appropriate manner.

You forgot to sign it..."Yours Sincerly TOT Managing Director"........

He can compose "acceptable" prose and make it all PC...it will still end up in the bin, as most "large service organisations" do with their letter's of complaint, as they are not interested about the peasants using their services, and being a Farang peasent in this case will put it in the bin even quicker...

[TS79]

I have no connection to any Thai business. I am a retired Aussie only. Your cynicism is normal and understandable. I said "..in my experience..." , not 'I imagine this to be the case' and in this instance, this cynicism is not entirely justified. Rational letters of complaint will always be read and if they are part of a bigger movement, they will draw a reaction.

Rarely will I comment upon someone's inability to effectively communicate; but in this instance I feel it is justified. I have worked in large service organisations which by their very nature will, from time to time, upset a percentage of their customers. In my experience letters of complaint will be vetted by a junior who will discard those which are insulting, contain agressive or bad language, threats, or which make irrelevent criticisms. Your missive, unfortunately, hits every one of those bases.

People who are promoted to senior management in such companies are very seldom fools. They are clever and astute and are dedicated to their business. This means they will always try to provide the customer with a better experience and better value where possible. This business attitude translates to increased profits. The most valid criticism one can make of these people is that they are often insulated from the customer's experience. Consequently they appreciate constructive criticism.

If you send another letter stressing the company's good points (there will be many), followed by an analytical, ordered, courteous and dispassionate list of your grievances, I guarantee it will reach senior management whereupon it will have at least a chance of making a difference.

Contrary to popular belief, 'big bosses' are ordinary people who have worked incredibly hard to get where they are and who truly appreciate hearing the truth. But, like you and me, they do not respond well to desk thumping, loudmouths whose reason deserts them during bouts of anger.

If you write again, and I hope you do, please consider the above and when you have concluded your message, take it to someone who is used to composing formal, written communication and who can correct your errors. Translation services are not expensive and it would show respect and courtesy to address a Thai person, in a Thai business, selling a Thai product to a largely Thai community, in Thailand.... in his own language. To do otherwise helps to perpetuate the negative myths some Thais have of Falangs. As a westerner and native English speaker, I therefore feel you could have represented yourself in a more appropriate manner.

You forgot to sign it..."Yours Sincerly TOT Managing Director"........

He can compose "acceptable" prose and make it all PC...it will still end up in the bin, as most "large service organisations" do with their letter's of complaint, as they are not interested about the peasants using their services, and being a Farang peasent in this case will put it in the bin even quicker...

I do agree but unfortunately this wasn't a rational letter of complaint though. Very difficult for a native english speaker to understand so a local will have no chance, no facts or figures in it, just mumble jumble.

[dick turpin]

Don't forget this guy is already 500 baht out of pocket in expenses,

no wonder he is so aggrieved.

[nocturn]

its an illterate rant.

you couldn't have less credibility if you had cut the words out individually from magazines.

and PS means Post Script.

Post means after, not before the letter body.

[travelmann]

Please note you can get even better crap service with PIPEX UK now owned BY TALK TALK, the stunts they pull are usually this ( slow internet should be 1.5mb actually 100kbps), reset everything on your computer, hmmm no chnage, remove router and re connect , hmm no change, turn router off overnight, hm no change, ok turn off all other devies connected to phone sockets, hmmm no change, ok well send you a new router,, hmmmmno change, ok well get technical to call you back, hm no call ever, ok well we as a company take your comliant very seriously and as such well connect you to India where the nice man/woman cannot be understood and can repaeat the above procedure several times, oh ha ng on well call you back in an hour.... hm no call ok Ill e mial you using your online systen, e mail sent comes back please do not use this e mail start a support request, involves complex system of webpages to lose and confuse but eventually log a complaint, well reply in 2 days, hmmm no reply,,,, call again start similar routine above tell them escalate to manager, manager is Indian is as bad a ssatff and hell call u back??? still wiaitng,, ok website says can escalate any problem to CEOS office so call pipex and say want to escalate to CEOS office,,, good morning sir welcome to PIPEX heavy inidan accent difficult to understand lines painfully quiet. I want to report to CEO,,,, hm sorry sir cant do that, Hmmmm really website says u can?? blah blah SO conclusion SAMW THE WORLD Over NOT JUST tHAILAND MATEY.

[daiwill60]

Well, to be brutally honest I'm English and I had trouble following your letter so I doubt K Manager is going to give it much of a second thought. From the atrocious grammar and punctuation to the strange references and obscure similies it really doesn't read too well. I am assuming you garnished your inspiration from humorous complaint letters that have done the rounds by email such as the Virgin Atlantic food complaint letter (which was very funny)?

If you were indeed serious with your complaint may I suggest you have your wife write it in Thai so that K Manager could understand it. Failing that, try using a more basic form of English in line with your abilities.

Hear Hear.

I am using TOT and so far the only problems I have encountered are not being able to get on some sites ( facebook and you tube ) during busy periods i guess.

Other than an outage one day, that affected all near me, due to a line problem which was quickly rectified within 24 hours, I have had few problems.

The guy who did the installation did convince my missus to let him lower our package to 6 mb instead of the 9 mb i asked for, with the explanation it was easier to move up a package 6 mb - 9mb if i didnt think it was good at 6mb, rather than down from 9mb to 6mb if i didnt need it, so thats where we are at. Unless, it was his way of fobbing us off if they could't actually provide 9mb where we are ( possible I guess).

But the letter from such a well educated enginneer, who served Her Majesty in the UK was quite appalling I thought. GO BACK TO SCHOOL , I have Thai students who can do better, and that is saying something. His Thai missus could probably have done a better job of writing it in English for him too, I guess.

[Satcommlee]

This is the funniest thread I have read in a long time :-)

I am sure this letter will find its way directly to the MD's office BIN.

Why not go down there and protest outside with a placard!

[Somtamnication]

Dear TOT angry customer.

I would like to thank you for your letter. We understand your frustration with the company´s overselling of internet bandwidth and the uncaring attitude of our customer service staff.

Let me say that we are working hard at fixing the wrinkles in the system and we hope you will stay with us while we do current upgrades to the system so that we can further oversell the already saturated fiber optics.

In our TQM meetings (Total Quality Management), the staff have the power to instruct managers on how to better serve important customers like you. We hope that in the future, these TQM meetings will include non management staff, but not right now. Our underlings have no clue on how manage their tech support software, and we have no time to teach them, as all they ever say is "krap" and "ka".

Your very important letter has been given to one of our managers in the complaints department. They have requested that you call them directly, as they feel yours is one of extreme importance and we can learn from it. Please call K. Toleh, at 1800-EATSHIT. That is 1800-328-748. If you do not speak English, the phone number in Thai is neung patloi kin kee.

Thanks again and hope to hear from you soon.

TOT Management

[nikster]

FYI Rule #1 to get an executive to read your letters is to keep them short.

If I am not going to read this whole rant, neither is an exec at TOT.

[daiwill60]

Please note you can get even better crap service with PIPEX UK now owned BY TALK TALK, the stunts they pull are usually this ( slow internet should be 1.5mb actually 100kbps), reset everything on your computer, hmmm no chnage, remove router and re connect , hmm no change, turn router off overnight, hm no change, ok turn off all other devies connected to phone sockets, hmmm no change, ok well send you a new router,, hmmmmno change, ok well get technical to call you back, hm no call ever, ok well we as a company take your comliant very seriously and as such well connect you to India where the nice man/woman cannot be understood and can repaeat the above procedure several times, oh ha ng on well call you back in an hour.... hm no call ok Ill e mial you using your online systen, e mail sent comes back please do not use this e mail start a support request, involves complex system of webpages to lose and confuse but eventually log a complaint, well reply in 2 days, hmmm no reply,,,, call again start similar routine above tell them escalate to manager, manager is Indian is as bad a ssatff and hell call u back??? still wiaitng,, ok website says can escalate any problem to CEOS office so call pipex and say want to escalate to CEOS office,,, good morning sir welcome to PIPEX heavy inidan accent difficult to understand lines painfully quiet. I want to report to CEO,,,, hm sorry sir cant do that, Hmmmm really website says u can?? blah blah SO conclusion SAMW THE WORLD Over NOT JUST tHAILAND MATEY.

Yes i used to be with tiscali in the UK also taken over by Talk Talk, basically tiscali was great until Talk Talk took over.

[bangkockney]

I do enjoy it when people criticise English skills yet demonstrate a poor standard of English themselves.

Please note you can get even better crap service with PIPEX UK now owned BY TALK TALK, the stunts they pull are usually this ( slow internet should be 1.5mb actually 100kbps), reset everything on your computer, hmmm no chnage, remove router and re connect , hmm no change, turn router off overnight, hm no change, ok turn off all other devies connected to phone sockets, hmmm no change, ok well send you a new router,, hmmmmno change, ok well get technical to call you back, hm no call ever, ok well we as a company take your comliant very seriously and as such well connect you to India where the nice man/woman cannot be understood and can repaeat the above procedure several times, oh ha ng on well call you back in an hour.... hm no call ok Ill e mial you using your online systen, e mail sent comes back please do not use this e mail start a support request, involves complex system of webpages to lose and confuse but eventually log a complaint, well reply in 2 days, hmmm no reply,,,, call again start similar routine above tell them escalate to manager, manager is Indian is as bad a ssatff and hell call u back??? still wiaitng,, ok website says can escalate any problem to CEOS office so call pipex and say want to escalate to CEOS office,,, good morning sir welcome to PIPEX heavy inidan accent difficult to understand lines painfully quiet. I want to report to CEO,,,, hm sorry sir cant do that, Hmmmm really website says u can?? blah blah SO conclusion SAMW THE WORLD Over NOT JUST tHAILAND MATEY.

[apetley]

On my last visit to the TOT office in Kanchanaburi to enquire about getting adsl installed I was struck by the honesty and technical knowledge the staff had. They told me that the phone lines in my area were so bad there was no point in going ahead.