High Cell Phone Bill - You need to know the reason why

[wolfmanjack]

I just got my phone bill of over 1600 baht. I could not figure out why my phone bill is so high since I had not been calling anyone and my kids all have their own phones.

Soooo I looked at the online call details on the AIS website.

My bill only showed 37 baht worth of phone calls with no charge shown because they were covered by my 200 baht monthly package. Then I looked at the 2 previous months and they had charges of around 1,000 baht each month with call usage of only around 50 baht.

Then I called customer service and was informed that I get charged for sms advertising that other companies send me but none of those charges show up on the usage details.

I told them that it is crazy that I get charged for advertisers to send me an sms. They then said they would stop all advertising to my phone and refund the charges for the last 3 months. I have no idea how long they have been charging me for these but I have been getting them for a long time. I can't even imagine how much money AIS has gotten out of me over the years

Any way i thought since I was not aware of this until now that there may be others that are not aware this is happening so if you get an advertising sms make sure you have the company stop them.

[Thongkorn]

AIS is one big con , They charge me for not using my phone. work that one out, How the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

[CharlieH]

MOVED to Telecoms

[wolfmanjack]

AIS is one big con , They charge me for not using my phone. work that one out, How the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

I don't mind paying the 200 baht a month even though I don't use the phone that much any more but charging me for advertisers to send me an sms was a little too much especially when I did not ask them to send me the advertisements.

[Gumballl]

In the US I spend 3600+ Baht per month for two phone lines, each with unlimited talk, text and data. Surely you could find a balance between paying a mere 200 Baht per month and be hassled with unwanted SMS charges.

Even if someone (non-advertiser) were to send you an SMS, you would still be charged under your existing plan. People do sometimes dial (or text to) the wrong number.

The bottom line... you get what you pay for... and in your case, billing surprises. If you are comfortable with that, then please ignore my post.

[Sandman77]

Can someone explain me, how this international operating SMS cheating company operates?

When you call a hotline , the not give you any information how such service is possible to open but criminals can do!

Biggest risk are porn sites one wrong click and you subscribe something with out knowing the biggest problem in thailand you only can block receiving of spam advertising SMS

But not like in the eu a general block of all kind of this service when you click a dangerous link in thailand is not possible

[trainman34014]

My Mrs was with AIS and had nothing but trouble. As an example she loaded her pay and go with 300 Baht, didn't use the phone but the next day all her credit had been used up on one call to a strange Bangkok number. Upon calling AIS they said 'not our fault' and the number you gave us is disconnected. They flatly refused to give her any credit back. Result...they lose a customer.

[TheCruncher]

Can someone explain me, how this international operating SMS cheating company operates?

When you call a hotline , the not give you any information how such service is possible to open but criminals can do!

Biggest risk are porn sites one wrong click and you subscribe something with out knowing the biggest problem in thailand you only can block receiving of spam advertising SMS

But not like in the eu a general block of all kind of this service when you click a dangerous link in thailand is not possible

Normally those spam advertising sms are blocked by default with AIS, at least that was what I was told when I couldn't receive a one time password from my bank in Europe.

[Argus Tuft]

AIS sim card 101 - when you register your new sim card, call them or go to an AIS office and tell them you want to stop SMS adverts.

You said you have been getting them for a long time - why did you not look in to it earlier?

Having said that, have never heard of such a story of bizarre high charges. Are you sure there were no other recurring monthly package fees?

I have used AIS for years, never ever had this problem with them, even before I knew to contact them to stop sms advertising.

I find them to be one of the better mobile telcos I have used, here or abroad

[xen]

AIS has been doing this for at least 6-7 years - i had the same problem back that long ago on pre-paid . Buy a top up and it was gone in a few hours without making or receiving a call.. Went to the AIS office and the airhead told me not their problem , i should contact all the companies myself to stop them from sending me advertising SMSs and lucky lottery numbers. Solved the problem by going to DTAC where the coverage wasn't so good as they did not have people in very high places looking after them as much as AIS did , but had very few problems with DTAC. I have heard other people have had problems with DTAC so it is the luck of the draw i guess.

[StefanBBK]

I am with true h. Pay 599 a month with 3 GB data and more included call time than I ever would use. No problem with sms etc.

Funny enough my only issue is that I am never charged when roaming. .... used the phone in US and EU sparsely, even data roaming, but never been charged....

Anybody similar experience?

Edited May 10, 2015 by StefanBBK

[MJKT2014]

>I told them that it is crazy that I get charged for advertisers to send me an sms. They then said they would stop all advertising to my phone and refund the charges for the last 3 months. I have no idea how long they have been charging me for these but I have been getting them for a long time.

Thanks for info, but they have agreed to refund 3 months of rip offs for a rip off that has been going on much longer? I'd have switched to another provider.

[Suradit69]

I rarely get sms ads on AIS and they seem to come only from AIS. I don't use the phone much, but only pay for calls made. Anytime I add any top-up the validity is extended for another year ... currently good through April 2016.

[billd766]

For the AIS call centre dial 1175

You will then have to choose a language

Next you will get an options list

To stop SMS messaging press 2

When you get the reply, hang up and the messages will stop within 48 hours.

[Chicog]

My Mrs was with AIS and had nothing but trouble. As an example she loaded her pay and go with 300 Baht, didn't use the phone but the next day all her credit had been used up on one call to a strange Bangkok number. Upon calling AIS they said 'not our fault' and the number you gave us is disconnected. They flatly refused to give her any credit back. Result...they lose a customer.

And she got away with it.

[wolfmanjack]

AIS sim card 101 - when you register your new sim card, call them or go to an AIS office and tell them you want to stop SMS adverts.

You said you have been getting them for a long time - why did you not look in to it earlier?

Having said that, have never heard of such a story of bizarre high charges. Are you sure there were no other recurring monthly package fees?

I have used AIS for years, never ever had this problem with them, even before I knew to contact them to stop sms advertising.

I find them to be one of the better mobile telcos I have used, here or abroad

I have had the same phone number with AIS for over 12 years and never had a problem. I was receiving these messages and just blocked them in my phone thinking if I blocked them they would not get through to my phone. My phone bill was usually around 200 -300 baht. Sometimes when my wife was home it would go up around 1,000 baht. When she disappeared it would go back down to around 300 baht. Then when my 2 kids got into high school they started calling friends a lot which shot my bill up to around 2,000 baht a month so i got them both their own phones. After that my phone bill dropped to 1,000 baht. Then the next month it was 1200 baht. I kept asking the kids if they were using my phone and they said no so when I got the April bill and it was over 1600 baht I went onto the AIS website to see what phone numbers had been dialed to see which of my kids were using my phone. On the site it only allows you to look at the last 3 months but the actual phone calls that were made were less than 50 baht. I could not see any where on the detailed listing where these charges were coming from so I had to call to find out.

So basically I have only had high phone bills for the last couple of years or so even though I had been getting these sms messages for a lot longer than that and i attributed it to increased telephone activity.

[wolfmanjack]

>I told them that it is crazy that I get charged for advertisers to send me an sms. They then said they would stop all advertising to my phone and refund the charges for the last 3 months. I have no idea how long they have been charging me for these but I have been getting them for a long time.

Thanks for info, but they have agreed to refund 3 months of rip offs for a rip off that has been going on much longer? I'd have switched to another provider.

I just found out about it yesterday. I am thinking about switching but I have had this number for over 12 years.

[linguini]

>I told them that it is crazy that I get charged for advertisers to send me an sms. They then said they would stop all advertising to my phone and refund the charges for the last 3 months. I have no idea how long they have been charging me for these but I have been getting them for a long time.

Thanks for info, but they have agreed to refund 3 months of rip offs for a rip off that has been going on much longer? I'd have switched to another provider.

I just found out about it yesterday. I am thinking about switching but I have had this number for over 12 years.

you can still keep the same number when changing from one carrier to the other. It is call MNP (mobile number portability), usually takes 24-48 hours

[Sandman77]

I Use ais only to receive calls

On boats And some islands like similian ais often is the only network you have signal

Also have 599 3 gb with true never have a problem , I think true is best of all 3 operators in thailand to find solution that customer is happy

12 call never refound you something in advertising

The only option you have , make your case public in a newspaper !

One time on prepaid years ago my credit was gone quickly when iphone come to market I told was gone in one day I not do something maybe some app load in background and ais refound me the credit 360 Bhat to my simcard

[wolfmanjack]

On the MPN does it have to be post paid account or can we switch it to a prepaid account ?

[recom273]

My wife told me about a free news service she had been forced to accept on her AIS number, it ran for a number of days and she called / they called after the free period and the company said it couldn't be cancelled.

I called AIS, spoke to one of the best customer service operators I had ever come across, the number was blocked and I informed them I wouldn't be paying for any costs from the service.

She agreed but said I must wait for the next bill to arrive, on the day it arrived the girl sent an sms to the wife and tried to call, when i paid the bill over the web, the requested amount was the amount on the printed bill less the charges made by the sms company.

Top class service By AIS I should say.