AIS Fibre Install - AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL

[davevi]

Wow, I never thought anyone could surpass the complete ineptitude of 3BB's fibre installation debacle at my location, but AIS has surpassed them by miles.

It all started a 1 1/2 months ago when I saw the ad for AIS Fibre. I checked the website. All looked good. I called to confirm they had service to my house. They did. Checked their website for the same information. Check, service to my door. I then filled out the online application and was given an installation date two days later on Monday. Well, Monday came and went and no one called or showed up. I began to call the AIS Fibre help line and spent nearly three hours over the next week trying to find out when the installation would happen. No one could answer the question -- it was always the same -- I'll send an email to the installation team and they'll call you back within 1 hour, or 3 hours. 30% of the time the AIS installation and customer reps were surly, right on the edge of sarcastic, as I tried to find out if they could do the installation and when. I was even blamed for the problem since I didn't correct the service rep when he asked for my passport number to look up my account. Later he said it was my fault for the delay because I should have ignored his question and given him my installation number, or some odd BS. After almost two weeks of calls and near-genuine sounding apologies, I gave up. I moved on.

Almost a month later the AIS team started calling my phone multiple times a day. I called to ask them to stop, to cancel the installation officially since they never came out. I was told "I can't do that, you have to talk to the installation team first". So I said fine, have them call me. The next day I got a call and told them to cancel, she said "why we can come out tomorrow" I asked why the delay and she said "we had no cable in that area, but no worry it is there now". Oh, they were never telling the truth the whole time. Is AIS owned by 3BB? Since she said she could come out the next day I say, if you're sure, yes come out tomorrow. Well, you can see where this is going. No show. No installation. Called the support line to cancel again. Same story. Then a lady called me from the installation team who said she needed me to email some paperwork to her (passport and such) and the installation would happen the next day. Phone call the next day. Delayed one day. Triple checked the new install date and time with two people at AIS. New install day and time came and went. Called the support number to find out what happened. They cannot tell me and she says the installation team will call me in one hour. Two hours later the same lady who asked for the docs called and said "oh, no installation, you never send documents to me, maybe you send again and I will work on them later". A lie. The email she gave me was copy and pasted directly from her SMS to me asking for the docs. The email never bounced back to me either. I had enough. Said a few choice words that I do not regret about their company and her work, and said never call me again. I then blocked all their phone numbers since they don't seem to follow any request.

So, now it's likely back to trying SiNet. I see one of their boxes 100 yards from my house, but one year ago I had a bad experience with one of their managers and gave up on them.

So, that's my AIS Fibre story.

I will say that of all the companies I've dealt with AIS has trained their customer service reps to sound the most "honest" when apologizing, but then it never amounts to anything and nothing is ever fixed or corrected.

Please no negative comments towards me please. I'm sharing this story so that others can be aware of what - might - happen if they try to use AIS Fibre. Your mileage may vary.

[Lite Beer]

Our village was blitzed with AIS Fibre leaflets about a month ago spamming their service.

We signed up and the installers actually turned up a couple of days later.

"You cannot have fibre"

"Why not"

"Village no have cable"

When will village have cable?

"Don't know"

They spent the whole day going round telling the other sign ups the same thing.

Pathetic.

[flare]

Every experience is different- you're down on 3BB, and I couldn't be happier with the service I received from them.

[canopus1969]

Have AIS fibre installed and all I can say is good-good-good ! Far better then the 3BB fibre which I will now cancel.

Found them efficient booking the service and 4 (yes 4) competent engineers ran new cabling through the roof and down inside a wall duct without trouble, configured the router and my 2 access points. Have the 30mb but whenever tested it is over - 32/33mb

Sorry for your experience but certainly not mine.

[circusman]

I wonder why such fast service is necessary anyway. 5 is fast enough for me.

[Chicog]

It's not uniquely a Thai thing; I've had a running battle trying to get fibre here in the sandpit, they've done it bit by bit since March and the conduit is installed on my outside wall with a cable in it.

They've been pissing me about for two months postponing installation and finally called me on Thursday to come and do it.... while I was sat in the lounge at the airport leaving on a business trip.

I 'rescheduled' for today, but I'll be amazed if that happens.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Chicog

[scorecard]

Our village was blitzed with AIS Fibre leaflets about a month ago spamming their service.

We signed up and the installers actually turned up a couple of days later.

"You cannot have fibre"

"Why not"

"Village no have cable"

When will village have cable?

"Don't know"

They spent the whole day going round telling the other sign ups the same thing.

Pathetic.

Same in our village just recently, AIS came in and set up an open 'tent thing' without any permission. They also tried to put up permanent AIS signs but the village committee quickly told them to stop and to take down what they had put up.

Interesting, to me, that the AIS team clearly didn't understand questions about 'permission to enter our village etc.'

My adult Thai son spoke to them, the staff of 4 had no idea what they were talking about, they just played with their mobile phones paying no attention to listen to questions or give focused answers.

After 5 minutes son started to leave but was instantly confronted with 'please sign here'.

We will stay with standard 3BB which in our area of CM is pretty good.

Edited August 16, 2015 by scorecard

[nivram4491]

The firm contracted by AIS rolled out fibre optic cable in my moo bahn a little over two weeks ago. I have been trying to get fibre optic for over a year so was quite excited by the prospect of getting fibre and so I went to register at the AIS shop in Central Festival.

I was very impressed with the shop as they have a special number category for non-Thai speakers and many of the staff speak English quite well. After my registration I received an impressive email that said I would be contacted within 48 hours. That never happened so I called 1186, the call center. I was promised a call within 24 hours but no call eventuated. This cycle was repeated several times.

After a week of this I decided to return to the AIS shop. I was promised (and guaranteed 100%) that I would be contacted by a technician that afternoon. No technician contacted me. About 4 pm that day I got a call from the AIS shop that "your area is not support". I found that very strange given that there is an AIS fiber optic cable 100 meters from my house with a splitter already installed.

That night I decided to call 1185 again. I got a return call several hours later and the man on the line spent more than 30 minutes trying to help me. He told me that my original registration had been cancelled. That made me somewhat angry since no one told me that they had cancelled my registration. He told me to register online but I could not so he registered online for me as I gave him my personal details. The only problem was that the AIS data entry system would not accept the name of my moo bahn. This seems to be why the AIS shop says my area is not supported, even though the cable is sitting there 100 meters from my house. waiting to be connected.

I got an SMS to go back to the AIS office (3rd visit). Before going I wrote up 5 pages of documentation with photographs showing technicians working on the line, the AIS advertising and the splitter box 100 meters from my home. I was told I would be able to get the AIS Fibre but not for 2 weeks. I have since been told it would be next week. Last Friday I got a call to say the technician was coming the next day. Saturday. at 3pm. The technician did not turn up and I have had no contact with anyone from AIS since then.

I'll probably start again tomorrow to find out what happened to the appointment.

If it is this difficult to get connected to AIS Fibre the actual service is probably fantastic because there are so few people able to use it

Edited August 16, 2015 by nivram4491

[beau thai]

Similar experience. 3 visits to the helpful guys at AIS Central Festival over a 3 week period with promises of calls that didnt happen.

After my final visit I got a call to confirm that they would talk with my condo management and install fibre optic. A week later I called 1185 and was told my installation had been cancelled! Advised to apply on line.

Helpful confirmatory emails/sms followed and now scheduled for this coming Tuesday. Maybe.

I suggest part of the problem is that the local installation team can 'hide' as they will never give their contact numbers but route you to the call centre.

Their people seem very courteous but pretty ineffective. At this point I would settle for the opposite!

[beau thai]

Similar experience. 3 visits to the helpful guys at AIS Central Festival over a 3 week period with promises of calls that didnt happen.

After my final visit I got a call to confirm that they would talk with my condo management and install fibre optic. A week later I called 1185 and was told my installation had been cancelled! Advised to apply on line.

Helpful confirmatory emails/sms followed and now scheduled for this coming Tuesday. Maybe.

I suggest part of the problem is that the local installation team can 'hide' as they will never give their contact numbers but route you to the call centre.

Their people seem very courteous but pretty ineffective. At this point I would settle for the opposite!

5 phone calls with AIS today- still courteous but ineffective. Final call they told me the JP at my condo will not let them in the building. Not true- they failed to keep appointment last Friday with the JP, didnt phone, and when she tried to call them, their phone was shut off.

Had enough so going with Sinet, hopefully in the next 2 days..... Ais see, to be a waste of space for fibre

[Chiengmaijoe]

I wonder why such fast service is necessary anyway. 5 is fast enough for me.

God bless you and keep wondering, you'll understand one day.

And remember that it's important to keep trying, even if it hurts.

[Naam]

I wonder why such fast service is necessary anyway. 5 is fast enough for me.

not everybody works in a circus

[junglechef]

The morning announcements over my villages speaker system a few weekend ago said AIS Would have a tent at the Tessaban at 9 am and a truck driving around with loudspeaker containing reps to sign up for fiber optic internet service.

Went to Tessaban and no one there. Later in the afternoon three sweet girls showed up at my house saying they've been driving around lost all morning.

After deciding which service, copies, docs etc etc they signed me up and called it in to be told no service in my area.

I was told I was 400 meters from box and must be within 100 meters. They then suggested I get 7 neighbors to also commit and they'd put another box closer. So we asked if they had already spoken to other residents on my street and they said we were the first house they had visited. Sounded like perhaps the last too and it was now my job to do theirs .

As our speed is slow and often interrupted I hope one day we'll get fiber optics, expect it will be more like one year but the trade off of living s quiet country life is worth it even if I have to do most of my posting at 4 a.m. like this one.

Edited August 17, 2015 by junglechef

[jacko45k]

I must admit that when I had True come connect me there was an obvious 'disconnect' between the office and the installation team.

[yankee99]

1GBPS

[monkey4u]

your experience reminds me of some fun I had about 6 years ago

Visited TT&T and paid for connection.

Told it would be in 2 days

After several weeks of calls I was asked for my phone number

Stupid me I gave my cell phone number

NO we want your home phone number

OK I say how do I get home phone number when you not connect for me

We do already but you not home at number 19 so we connect next door

Silly me why I not move next door

Logic of all Thai internet sales staff

[LukKrueng]

I first read about AIS Fiber here on TVF. I contacted AIS for my CM location. Unfortunately they don't have the service in my area, but asked me to register and promised to contact me whenever it arrives here. However, for my BKK place they said they have the service already. I registered (can't remember if by phone or online), sent them the documents they asked for by email, got an installation date for 3 days later at 10am. On the installation date at 10am the installer arrived, installed in 2 units as booked. i wasn't even there. Later it appeared that in 1 of the units they set the wifi not as I have asked my staff to to tell to do. So a quick phone call to the installer (yes, they left their number in case of problems) and they walked my staff through the setting process over the phone. Nice and easy. I am really looking forward for them coming to my area in CM as at the moment i have no high speed internet of any provider here... Using my 3g only.

[JackJD]

So many lovely stories about the care-less attitude of Thais - and from what I have perceived over 11 years here - the basic hatred of "fah-longs." (I really hate that dumb word!)

[mike324]

My story with the TOT Fiber is that the box where your house can connect to is full, so no fibre for you Another tech came and said there is one point let where we can rerun the line to your house, but you have to pay something like 20,000 baht for them to install another box that is close by so there is more space for connection.

I find customer service generally don't know what they are talking about, better to get a tech to come and talk to them direct.

[mercman24]

i was on TRUE before, just gone onto AIS, dont know about fibre, as rented condo, they say faster, better, its rubbish, keeps buffering,more so than TRUE on a vpn server,i could not watch the moto-gp as it was buffering every 20 seconds, never had that with TRUE

[JaseTheBass]

So many lovely stories about the care-less attitude of Thais - and from what I have perceived over 11 years here - the basic hatred of "fah-longs." (I really hate that dumb word!)

I think you'll find they are completely retarded when dealing with Thais too.

[mango66]

My wife work in Cooperation with AIS - but not on fibre cables !

You deal there with many companies !

AIS is Marketing - and sales -

all other is outsorced,

therefore left hand dont know what right one promises;

But I hear DTAC do the same;

They all work hard on G4 -

all pronouncing -

but licenses will maybee sold end of this year !!

You are in Th !!

[elgordo38]

Every experience is different- you're down on 3BB, and I couldn't be happier with the service I received from them.

3BB service is great here in Chiang Mai. Maybe the boonies are different. I lived in the boonies for a year and found TOT reasonably acceptable no bells and whistles though. What is considered a normal way of doing business here is a lot different than what we are used to and raised with. I have run into similar conditions when dealing with Thai companies. I try to limit my exposure to this type of environment. If your company is working for you do not switch around for so called "promotions" I see Sinet promotions in the lobby all the time but take myself to the woodshed so to speak. If its not broken don't fix it. Everything here in Thailand is trial and error.

[elgordo38]

I wonder why such fast service is necessary anyway. 5 is fast enough for me.

We all want the newest gadgets out there and the bragging rights that go along with it. Industry preys on this feature with constant upgrades new features to snare us. The good old pick and shovel days are gone. Welcome to the new world order of IT flat screens self driving cars medical miracles and of course obesity

[HooHaa]

So many lovely stories about the care-less attitude of Thais - and from what I have perceived over 11 years here - the basic hatred of "fah-longs." (I really hate that dumb word!)

time to be on your bike then.

[Rykbanlor]

I have found, and I generalise a little, but still...........From tour agents, to cell phone companies, to internet providers, to hotel web agents (which I use for business) Thai customer service often seem to just tell you what they think will placate you or get you out of their faces as soon as possible.

No Thai-basher, but just referencing multiple experiences. My Thai friends often complain about the self same thing. Problem solvers are few and far between.

[Shiver]

Thanks for the heads up. I've been seriously considering Fibre optic this last couple of days, but think I'll wait a while as my copper cable connection is not too bad most of the time.

I was thinking that because it doesn't have the boost/attenuate or propagation issue there might be less hops to destination, and also less need for multiplexing and was curious. Maybe I'll look again in 6 months or so.

[beau thai]

Similar experience. 3 visits to the helpful guys at AIS Central Festival over a 3 week period with promises of calls that didnt happen.

After my final visit I got a call to confirm that they would talk with my condo management and install fibre optic. A week later I called 1185 and was told my installation had been cancelled! Advised to apply on line.

Helpful confirmatory emails/sms followed and now scheduled for this coming Tuesday. Maybe.

I suggest part of the problem is that the local installation team can 'hide' as they will never give their contact numbers but route you to the call centre.

Their people seem very courteous but pretty ineffective. At this point I would settle for the opposite!

5 phone calls with AIS today- still courteous but ineffective. Final call they told me the JP at my condo will not let them in the building. Not true- they failed to keep appointment last Friday with the JP, didnt phone, and when she tried to call them, their phone was shut off.

Had enough so going with Sinet, hopefully in the next 2 days..... Ais see, to be a waste of space for fibre

Update- seems that unlike AIS, Sinet do what they say they will.

Turned up today as agreed with all the paperwork and agreed installation for tomorrow at 10am. They already have over 100 installations in my condo building as compared to AIS who, I believe have zero. I wonder why AIS find it so difficult.......

[nivram4491]

IMG_20150812_100202 (Small).jpgIMG_20150811_162625 (Small).jpgThe firm contracted by AIS rolled out fibre optic cable in my moo bahn a little over two weeks ago. I have been trying to get fibre optic for over a year so was quite excited by the prospect of getting fibre and so I went to register at the AIS shop in Central Festival.

I was very impressed with the shop as they have a special number category for non-Thai speakers and many of the staff speak English quite well. After my registration I received an impressive email that said I would be contacted within 48 hours. That never happened so I called 1186, the call center. I was promised a call within 24 hours but no call eventuated. This cycle was repeated several times.

After a week of this I decided to return to the AIS shop. I was promised (and guaranteed 100%) that I would be contacted by a technician that afternoon. No technician contacted me. About 4 pm that day I got a call from the AIS shop that "your area is not support". I found that very strange given that there is an AIS fiber optic cable 100 meters from my house with a splitter already installed.

That night I decided to call 1185 again. I got a return call several hours later and the man on the line spent more than 30 minutes trying to help me. He told me that my original registration had been cancelled. That made me somewhat angry since no one told me that they had cancelled my registration. He told me to register online but I could not so he registered online for me as I gave him my personal details. The only problem was that the AIS data entry system would not accept the name of my moo bahn. This seems to be why the AIS shop says my area is not supported, even though the cable is sitting there 100 meters from my house. waiting to be connected.

I got an SMS to go back to the AIS office (3rd visit). Before going I wrote up 5 pages of documentation with photographs showing technicians working on the line, the AIS advertising and the splitter box 100 meters from my home. I was told I would be able to get the AIS Fibre but not for 2 weeks. I have since been told it would be next week. Last Friday I got a call to say the technician was coming the next day. Saturday. at 3pm. The technician did not turn up and I have had no contact with anyone from AIS since then.

I'll probably start again tomorrow to find out what happened to the appointment.

If it is this difficult to get connected to AIS Fibre the actual service is probably fantastic because there are so few people able to use it

Every time I call the AIS call center I get an assurance that a technician will call me within 24 hours. This is usually followed by a call 2 days later that AIS Fibre is not available in my area. I left the photographic proof that AIS Fibre is available in my moo bahn but there seems to no communication between the AIS Shop, the technical staff and the AIS Call Center.

Has anybody in Koolpuntville 9 been connected to AIS Fibre?

[CMKiwi]

In Mae Rim we recently changed to 3BB fibre optic. Very quick installation and great service. Internet is quick but I have no idea to actual speeds obtained.